Mindfulness can be your solution

Special Mental Health Awareness Month Article

Kap Paull is a final-year PharmD candidate at the Mercer University College of Pharmacy.

If you’re like me, I’ll bet as you’re reading this your shoulders are slouched. Maybe you fixed your posture at that reminder. Don’t worry, I would too.

When life gets busy, it becomes easy to move through the unrelenting exams and deadlines on autopilot. It’s hard to be present in our own bodies. You start treating your body like a vessel that simply transports you from one task to the next.

What if it didn’t have to be like that?

Brief moments of awareness

During my undergraduate years, I minored in dance, and I chose “movement as stress relief” as the focus of my thesis research. I became fascinated with the science of mindfulness and how it applies to the way we move through the world. I found from my research that brief moments of awareness can reduce stress, improve emotional regulation, and impact exam performance.

You often counsel your patients on healthy lifestyle choices. What if you were just as mindful in the way you speak to yourself as you are when you counsel them?

So let me ask you:

• How is your posture?
• How long have you been scrolling?
• Do you have that little divot in your pinky from holding your phone the same way every day?

You know what I’m talking about. When I can, I give myself 15 minutes to check in with my body. Sometimes that looks like stretching. Sometimes it’s walking. Sometimes it’s running. These days I read and write a lot to decompress. In dance, I practice guided meditations called body scans. It’s a great way to check in. You start by placing awareness at your feet, and over a period of 10 minutes, you slowly bring your attention up through your body to the top of your head.

So, who has time for that when the next therapeutics exam is in 2 days? I promise that being intentional about how you hold your body and where you place your attention can change everything.

Make movement a priority

Earlier this year, myself and millions of other people watched the journey of Buddhist monks who traveled from Texas to Washington, DC, on foot. Their message was simple yet profound: Do one task at a time. Prioritize one thing at a time. That resonated with me. When things feel overwhelming, I ask myself what actually needs to be done today? Then I focus on that.

In 2025, I made movement a priority and completed six 5K races. It was a great way to get fresh air, find community, and exercise. My favorite race was in September, when I ran my personal best time, and my mom called just before I ran across the finish line. I’ll cherish that memory forever.

Pharmacy school lasts 4 years, but the body that you live in is yours for a lifetime, so you must take care of it. Even if that means setting aside 15 minutes for yourself each day. Stress is inevitable, but mindfulness can be your solution.

Trust me, I did my thesis on it!