How To Remain Yourself In The Face of Stress

Hiiii,

Welcome to another episode of me giving some tips on how to deceive the outside world that you are doing somewhat ok.  As always, I'm not qualified to give out any advice but in the last few months I've really tried to work on myself and it seems to be paying off so I thought there'd be no harm in sharing.

After the recent exam and deadline season I found myself experiencing my usual post-exam loss of self so I thought it might be a good time to write the second part of some tips to keep yourself sane and feeling like a real life human through some good ol' self-care. I understand that everyone is back at uni and A-Levels and GCSE's are beginning to loom so thought that I'd get this post out. In times of stress it's really hard to balance yourself mentally as your thoughts are muddled by anxiety, pressure and the amount of information you are processing daily and it's a really important time to look after yourself to make sure you don't create a bigger problem than academically underperforming.

I always go into stressful times thinking I will look after myself and not end up hating my entire being whilst living off peanut butter and the 38p pasta and sauce packs from Aldi but old habits die hard so this post is to also serve as a reminder to myself to keep it (sort of) together in my final semester at uni (!!).

So without further ado here is some tips and reminders for fellow stress-heads like me and if this helps one person then it's done it's job :) 

1. YOUR INSECURITIES ARE HEIGHTENED BECAUSE YOU ARE STRESSED. REMIND YOURSELF.

I always find that when I am stressed out I start to stress about myself too. I put this first as it's the one I struggle most with during exam seasons,the one that causes me the most issues after the period has ended and the one that links to a few of the others on here too. When I have so much to do work-wise, the general upkeep of my appearance disintegrates; if I don't show up to an exam with one lone acrylic on from before Christmas then something isn't right. This lack of self maintenance however, has a massive impact on the way I view myself (especially after scrolling through Instagram). However, these insecurities are not only skin deep. In high-pressure situations self doubt comes into play allowing deep-rooted insecurities and doubts to come to the forefront of your mind. I always find myself thinking about light-hearted and fun things like how I will amount to nothing and how all my friends are doing better than me :)). BUT what I finally got to grips with (only recently) is that these thoughts are only coming into my mind because of the pressure I am feeling. For some reason it took me years to realise this and not beat myself up further for thinking that I was taking steps back mentally. What I tend to do now is whenever I have an insecurity or negative though pop into my head, I try and remind myself that all these thoughts are heightened and that I shouldn't feel bad about having them- they are not how you are truly viewing yourself  or feeling, they are cultivated from stress so remind yaselves!!!

2.STAY OFF INSTAGRAM... AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE ANYWAY

Continuing on from the last point about self-doubt being heightened, seeing people post photos to their stories of their revision every 10 mins saying they feel good about exams while you're sat having not showered in 2 days really doesn't help and might make you cry. I'll leave it at that. 

3.EAT WELL, TRY AND FIND A ROUTINE AND EXERCISE

Although obvious, this is one that I am still working on. It's really easy to be sucked into making studying your only priority which results in eating whatever can be made in under 5 mins, staying up until 4am reading and wasting a couple of months of your gym membership. It is really hard to stay on top of stuff like this when you are under pressure but it really does impact your overall productivity and helps with the issues from point number one too! In the exam season just passed I found that I got through so much more quality work if I went to bed, and got up at, a decent time, ate three meals and exercised a little (even if it meant going for a walk) rather than if I was up until 4:30am on the couch eating chocolate fingers.

4.MAKE TIME FOR YOUR FRIENDS EVEN IF IT IS TO WORK TOGETHER

I still desperately need to work on not cutting out all of my friends when I am stressed out. When I get into a funk I live in my room and ignore all invites. I don't know why I do because I usually end up doing no work anyway, but it's easy to trick yourself into thinking you can't possibly leave your laptop for a few hours. The way I sometimes try and get around this is by asking people to come to the library with me for a few hours or come to my house to work, that way you are getting the benefits of socialising without the dreaded work-guilt.

5. IT'S OK TO DO OTHER THINGS OTHER THAN STUDY

Relating to the point made above, it's ok to do things you actually enjoy even if you have a seemingly endless list of things to do. Try to take even a couple of hours every few days to do whatever you enjoy. During my last exam period I was simultaneously sorting out the planning for my last post on here. This benefitted me soo much as I was able to realise that there's so more to me than my academic profile, something that I've struggled with a lot for my whole life.

As you can see, each of these points are interconnected in a way, with one relating to another so if you work on each on then it'll eventually snowball and you'll be (hopefully) in a much healthier and balanced mindset.

Thank you for reading!! 

Rach x