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.