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Even the most relaxed students can find themselves pushed to their limits by university.
You’re away from home for the first time, forced to make an entirely new set of friends and trying to balance what’s supposed to be the best time of your life with getting the best grades possible.
Now more than ever it’s important that students take care of themselves and understand how to react to bouts of stress. There are going to be points in the year where everything gets a little overwhelming, whether it is caused by your course or more personal issues. You don’t have to suffer alone though and you’re certainly not the only person going through this.
Here are some simple stress management self-care tips every student can benefit from.
1. Don’t be afraid to talk
One of the best ways to manage your stress levels is to be open and vocal about your experiences.
Thankfully, discussions around everything concerning mental health from stress to depression are more prominent than ever before, with the majority of people, young and old, feeling comfortable talking about their feelings in a way they never could have even five years ago.
Whatever’s bothering you, whether it’s the pressures of your degree, your part-time job or being away from home, it’s important not to keep your feelings bottled up.
Talk to your family and friends about your experiences, chances are they’ll be feeling or will have felt the same way at some point. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that or think you need more expert advice, consult a medical professional or speak to someone at your university. They will be able to guide you through stress management techniques and provide an understanding space to share your concerns.
Talking is the first step towards finding a self-care solution that works for you
Understanding the causes of something such as anxiety can help you get some perspective on your feelings and make it easier to approach a discussion. However, when doing personal research be careful what information you do turn to and try to have a real world conversation as quickly as possible.
In some cases, discussions with a professional might lead you to decide that medication is the right path for you. However, before turning to any medication to deal with serious stress and anxiety issues, make sure to read expert guides written by professionals and consult your GP for a prescription rather than shopping online from an unverified source.
Consider also reading reviews such as these propranolol reviews before purchasing a product. Propranolol reviews and reviews of other anxiety medications written by other patients can help you identify similarities in your condition and better understand the true life experience of taking them.
Talking is the first step towards finding a self-care solution that works for you and your unique situation. Don’t let fear or apprehension prevent you from taking that step.
2. Fresh air is your friend
It’s easy to spend your student years cooped up in your room, wasting the hours away on video games and only leaving the house once the sun goes down. However, ensuring you regularly get some time out in the sun and enjoy some fresh air is a brilliant step to combating and preventing bouts of stress.
Whether it’s getting into a running routine (there’s a good socially distanced group activity!) or simply going for a walk in the local countryside, it’s important you step out of the city/town centre and switch up your surroundings.
Exercise is a brilliant, guilt-free way to make sure you’re getting essential study breaks
When the walls get all too familiar and you haven’t breathed anything not mixed with exhaust fumes for weeks, it’s no wonder you start to feel a little worse for wear.
Exercise is a brilliant, guilt-free way to make sure you’re getting essential study breaks. It can help clear your mind and give you some time to reflect on your work and where you’re going next. Check out these student routines you can do in the garden or local field for a great, enlightening start to the day.
3. Organise your life
It’s remarkable what a clean, organised workspace can do for someone’s mental wellbeing.
Next time you’re feeling stressed, take a healthy procrastination session and rethink your workspace. Ever cleaned your room because you just couldn’t face writing that essay right now? Well, that can be a good attitude.
Okay, maybe not on deadline night, but decluttering and re-thinking your working environment can have a hugely positive impact on your outlook towards university life. It can make previous impenetrable tasks seem approachable and hard as nails reading like a children’s book.
Tidy your room, switch up your desk layout and get all your module files in order (like you’ve probably been planning to do since induction week…)
Organising yourself is key to succeeding in academic life. If you have all your documents in order, deadlines locked in your calendar and reading material ready, university doesn’t seem quite so stressful. For more advice consult your lecturers and course leaders, they’ll have been there before.
An extra glass [of water] won’t make all your troubles go away, but it might just put you in the frame of mind to solve them
4. Make sure you’re living a healthy lifestyle
You might not realise it, but your lifestyle has a huge impact on your mental wellbeing.
It’s a cliche at this point, but you are what you eat. So, if you’re eating and drinking junk 24/7, then it’s no surprise you feel like junk too.
Now, you’re a student, you can’t be expected to pull together 5-star dishes every night, but your body (and wallet) will appreciate a few nights off the takeaways and ready meals a week. There are tons of brilliant recipe guides and cookbooks just for students out there, so find some you like and spend some relaxing time easing yourself into the joy of cooking.
Taking the time to prepare a meal will also give you the opportunity to ease yourself out of stress, focusing on something new and creative.
Oh, and make sure you’re drinking enough water every day. An extra glass won’t make all your troubles go away, but it might just put you in the frame of mind to solve them. Much more than another beer will at least.
5. Rethink your work schedule
You might have a schedule full of deadlines, more reading than you can keep track on and a busy social life to try and balance, but no student experience should be go, go, go!
Not only will that burn you out, but it’ll have you feeling stressed every time you procrastinate on Twitter for a few minutes.
Much like re-thinking your work space can help the stress drain away, approaching how you work from another angle can make your tasks seem much more manageable.
Take regular short breaks, especially if you’re working in front of a screen. Don’t use this time to just play on your phone either, you’ll get sucked into a social media vortex and spend ever longer looking at penetrating blue light. Take a walk, chat with a flatmate, get some fresh air.
Never feel pressure to work at someone else’s pace. It’s a marathon not a sprint. If you hand your work in a week or an hour before the deadline, it’ll still be marked in the same way. Find a stress-free schedule that keeps you happy and healthy.
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If you’re struggling to manage your stress while studying perhaps the most important thing to realise is that you’re not the only one. A huge number of students struggle with this issue, but they get through it through the self-care methods listed above and being able to spot what’s causing their stress.
This article is brought to you by Seeker Digital
This article has been sponsored by Seeker Digital.
Feature image courtesy of Kinga Cichewicz via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes made to this image.
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