Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimised by stress
and anxiety? For some odd reason people feel the need to hide the fact
they feel stressed or worried or anxious maybe not to worry other people about
it or maybe they just don’t want to burden anyone with their feelings?
And that’s cool, I totally understand that.
But for some reason, people feeling like they can’t express their
emotions; it can end up with people feel like they can’t cope and then they
explode. I know I have been there several times!
It’s been three weeks since I started my last year in University and
let’s just say it’s been torture. I’m already exhausted and I can feel my
concentration levels already going down. Each reading task is difficult, the
work load feels extreme and all I want to do is be cooped up in my bedroom
watching Dexter on Netflix and eating Ben & Jerrys.
I’ve recently felt that at the moment I’m wearing this feeble mask which
is slowly peeling off. I’m getting irritable on the most irrelevant shit
possible. I get overly panicked over the tiniest thing (the other day I got
panicked over the idea I lost my textbook which turned out it was in my
bedroom). My housemates and my University friends are probably feeling fed
up with me because my moods are so up and down.
But do you know what’s great? Is that knowing I’m not the only
person feeling like this. Even though my friends won’t vocalise it simple
phrases such as ‘I couldn’t sleep last night’ or ‘I couldn’t concentrate
on that reading…’ or ‘I’m done with uni already’. Has
strangely reassured me. (I am normal and not alone.)
It’s really difficult to make yourself feel motivated, it’s a struggle
to get out of bed especially when it’s getting so cold!
But do you know what keep me going? In 5 years this won’t
matter.
That piece of coursework you are worrying about? Yeah You will probably
stress and stress over it and you will absolutely nail it.
Everything will fall in to place and sorry to say that staying in bed
doesn’t just make it happen but acknowledging that you are feeling stressed and
worried and coming up with some sort of strategy for it can help.
I’m sure whatever year you’re in, whether you are doing GCSE, A-Levels
, 1st /2nd Year of uni you want to do well. But
sometimes it’s difficult to prioritise your work and then everything else such
your social life just seems almost impossible to fit in?
Well I’m going to hopefully give you a few hints on how to manage your
work load and stress management.
H I N T O N E : P R I O R I T I S I N G Y O U R T I M
E
I can’t remember the name of this table, but since I learnt that I found
it extremely useful to see what I need to get done and what things were silly
that I was stressing about. The idea is to get A done straight away and drop D
ASAP but it frees your mind.
H I N T T W O: S L E E P
This sounds like such an obvious one doesn’t it? And if you’re like me
who struggles to get in to a good sleeping pattern and cannot fall asleep for
ages. My suggestion is to go to bed at the same time every night, even if you
don’t necessarily fall asleep straight away. Put something on, turn away from
your laptop because the light bright will keep you up and move your alarm far away
from your bed so when it goes off you will get up on time, slowly you will fall
asleep earlier!
H I N T T H R E E: C R Y
Yup, you’ve got that right! Cry. Crying is a natural stress reliever and
sometimes we need to just let it out. Whether it’s for an hour or for 10
minutes. It’s totally okay to cry! Just don’t let it consume you and bring down
everyone around you when they could be feeling low too.
H I N T F O U R: B E P R O D U C T I V E
It is okay to throw yourself a pity party once in a while, heck
once/twice a week if you need it! But don’t let yourself fall in the trap where
you don’t physically do anything all day. At least go for a walk for 10
minutes. Staying in bed doing nothing doesn’t help anyone, especially yourself.
I find going for a walk clears my head. But if you give yourself small
realistic goals of what you want to do in that week, when you complete it you
feel like you’ve achieved something.
H I N T F I V E: L E T I T G O
Ok don’t get me wrong, you aren’t exactly cured but sometimes
writing things down which are stressing you out like your jackass of your
boyfriend (I mean how dare he like her picture?) or just coursework or
someone in work or just life in general. Sometimes writing it down and letting
it all out on a piece of paper and then ripping it up is strangely
satisfying. However, sometimes simply going to the gym or colouring can make
you feel relieved temporarily.
I hope that helps anyone who is struggling right now, please comment any
of your tips to handle stress xo
