Stress

So, it has come to this. Finals have begun for many of us in the world of education and I couldn't be more sad/perturbed/anxious about it. I have always been a person who worries an awful lot about essentially everything. Relationships with friends and family, commitments, and I'm such a hypochondriac it's not even funny [flu season, am I right? :( ] But, probably more than anything [except the hypochondriac thing], I worry about school and my grades. I know that my family is paying an awful lot for my education and so I stress out about making the most of my education and making sure that I do well. This can, and does, create some problems when it comes to actually doing the work that I'm required to do, however. The thing is, when I begin to stress about all the work I have to do, I kind of shut down and can't really accomplish anything because I'm spiraling in a whirlpool of my own stress and anxiety. This was a very big problem for me in high school, and has calmed down somewhat in my college years so far [thank goodness!]. Because I have dealt with it for so many years, I thought I would share a couple tips that have been effective for me when it comes to dealing with stress.

1) Take deep breaths and count to 10 when you start to feel yourself panicking. This almost always helps me calm down and gives me time to concentrate on my counting instead of freaking out about all of the work I have to do. Ironically, I learned this from an ex-boyfriend of mine that ended up causing me incredible amounts of stress...moving on.

2) Make lists. I love organization so much and I feel like such a weirdo about it sometimes. Being organized makes me feel so much better and so much less stressed about my life in general. Although it may be a bit daunting to see all of the things you have to do written out in black and white in front of your face, it will feel so nice to check the things off of your list in the long run. Also, writing to-do lists generally help me remember things that I otherwise probably wouldn't have.

3) Give yourself breaks and time to sleep. I have never pulled an all-nighter in my life. I don't feel like it will give me any more productive time to get my work done. I mean, I'll probably just end up perusing YouTube anyway. Breaks and sleeping give your brain time to recharge and process what you've just crammed into it. Don't bully your brain by constantly pummeling it with information for hours on end. It will not be a happy brain in the long run.

4) If you let yourself start to really panic, walk away from the project/stress maker for a while. This one sort of goes with the one above, but I decided to make it it's own tip. When I was in high school, I would have legit panic attacks about Honors Chemistry. I couldn't wrap my brain around it and to my mind, which wouldn't accept a B grade at all, the C's I was getting in that class were devastating to me haha. When I started to panic, I had to walk away from the homework I was doing and go relax for a while. If I tried to keep going, I would only exasperate myself more and more until I reached a really unpleasant breaking point. Don't let that happen to you!

These are four tips that have helped me throughout my time in education, and I'm sure will continue to help me in the coming years. I seriously cannot stress organization enough; it will diminish so much extra, unneeded stress. And be kind to yourself over finals week and the weeks leading up to it. You have a lot of work that needs to get done, but you're also still a human that needs to be kind to yourself to remain happy and healthy. Best of luck on finals to everyone and Happy December! :)