At some point, stress will get to you. At some point in college, you will feel overwhelmed. Even if you never really had too much stress in high school, college is different. So how to counterattack stress? It’s called self-care. Throughout college, I heard may students and adults how they never focused on self-care, and how it negatively impacted their life in general. So trust me, focus on self-care as much as you can in college and start early like me.
So even if you heed my advice, what is self-care? Self-care is more than just showering or brushing your teeth. It’s taking care of yourself mentally. How? Each person has their own ways to deal with stress, but here are some things I do:
If it’s something small or minor, I generally push through it and move on. Delaying it too much would not only grow my anxiety but waste my precious time. But then there are day to day things, and to deal with those, I listen to music a lot, and I generally play video games. The game I currently play right now is Fortnite, (add me if you wanna play together). Sometimes I have those days where I feel overwhelmed with many things to do with little time. And to avoid going into my panic mode, I distract myself by watching youtube videos or talking to my friends. One of the best time to talk to my friends is via Fortnite because we can talk and play at the same time. Fortnite is more fun to play with your friends. Other times, I eat, because I generally am moodier on an empty stomach. So make sure you fill your belly. Another self-care I practice is working on my assignments late night (assuming it wasn’t done at midnight or requires logical thinking). For example, for my writing assignments, I work on them around 11 to 2 am, simply because I am too tired to fuss about the little details and my creative juices flow then. Just because of that doesn’t me you don’t sleep at all, because you should. There were times where I stayed up till 6 in the morning (on weekends) and it messed up my sleeping schedule (or circadian rhythm system). Regarding sleep, what matters is not getting that 8 hours, but it’s more about getting the consistent hours of sleep. Every now and then I sleep at 2 am and wake up at 7 and still function as if I got 10 hours of sleep. In fact, getting more hours of sleep makes me less efficient. But keep your hours consistent, that’s what’s important. Going out for a walk and working out is another great way. Making a list of things that need to be done is another good way because it helps to keep track of your priorities.
In college, at some point, you will feel overwhelmed, or stressed, or some issue you physically cannot solve, and it’s okay. It’s normal, but what is important is you take care of yourself, self-care. You may not realize the importance now, but when you have a job, responsibilities, and other activities, the self-care you practiced since the first year of college will pay off.