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My Midterm De-stress Methods

Wow… these past 4 weeks have flown by so quickly. Weeks 3 and 4 are the beginning of the midterm season. Stress starts to kick in as we start having late-night study sessions and have increased homework loads. To be honest, I have started feeling the build-up of stress just like the fall quarter. In this blog, I will talk about some of the ways I relieve my stress and some new things I would want to try in the future.

My first instinct for de-stressing is to listen to music. Depending on the type of music I listen to, it helps me relax and forget about all the stress I dealt with in the day. My go-to playlist includes many r&b and soul songs. This genre of music helps me calm down because of its chill beats and lyrics. Some artists that I have been listening to are Mac Ayres, Jeerena Montemayor, Pink Sweat$, and Jeff Bernat. Another thing I do after studying is talk to my friends. All of us have been working very hard in our rooms all day; it’s always great to end the day by eating dinner and catching up with friends. Sometimes, we end up watching something in the common room. We recently watched the new movie “Encanto” on Disney+ after a long day of studying. It was such a great de-stresser as I was able to laugh and enjoy the movie with friends.

My de-stressing methods do work well now, but I do want to try some other techniques. Last quarter, I occasionally went to the ARC or Pippin to work out. I really want to try and continue working out. I noticed that exercising makes me feel better and less stressed. Another way I’ve been de-stressing in the past is by joining some extracurriculars. In high school, softball and the dance team were extracurriculars I joined to take a break from school. This quarter, I decided to join Kababayan’s Philipino-American Cultural Night (PACN). Every week, I will be attending practices learning choreography.

The midterm season is very stressful, it’s very important to find ways to handle that stress! Good luck to everyone with midterms, and don’t forget to take a break every once in a while.

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Tension and Relaxation go hand in hand

The time passed much faster than I thought! The winter semester has just started, and the mid-term exam is coming soon. Is everyone busy preparing for the mid-term exam? My class had a later midterm than my friends, but that meant there was more material on the exam! In addition, I have to prepare for the career fair, and the time for mid-term review becomes very tight. Thus, in this busy period of time, how to effectively relax has become a very important thing. I’m going to share with you what I do to relax.

I like to listen to something on the way to the library or study room because it takes up so much time with assignments, revision tasks, and daily activities. Sometimes I listen to some music, but more often I listen to books. If you have any favorite songs can recommend to me, I can enrich my playlist. What I would like to introduce to you here is listening to books. I have listened to crosstalk and pingshu (storytelling), which are ancient traditional Chinese oral performance art forms. Crosstalk mainly tells funny jokes and recent news, while pingshu tells stories about ancient Chinese novels and books. Since I always use my mobile phone and computer a lot, listening to something can also relax my eyes, which is killing two birds with one stone. In addition, I also like to chat with my friends to relax. Although the epidemic can be scary at times, technology is now so advanced that people can communicate without leaving their homes. It is also a good way to share with your friends the recent daily events or difficulties you have encountered. Having a call or Facetime with a friend is a great way to relieve stress and stay social while not being affected by the pandemic.

I hope you will not be discouraged when you are under too much pressure and relax by doing what you enjoy. Combining work and rest will get twice the result with half the effort. For the upcoming midterm exam, I hope all students can be fully prepared and achieve excellent results.