Give yourself a break!

The last couple weeks have taught me how important it is to give yourself a break every now and then – both physically and mentally.  I am currently on a train home to spend the second half of my reading week with my family and give myself a well-deserved rest and I honestly could not be any more excited! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Leicester and the student life, but it can become a bit too much to handle at times and in order to stay happy, I need to take a step away.  The reason I am writing this blog is to share a few simple things which can be done to keep calm when pressures become too much and also to make people aware that it is okay to sometimes not be okay – something I in particular have struggled to come to terms with!

There are so many things which may cause a student to become stressed, the obvious being looming deadlines and wanting to succeed to the highest standard.  But, there are of course things that can catch you more off-guard, things which may make you internally stressed yet unaware until a lot of them build up on top of each other.  These may be something as simple as not leaving yourself enough time to wind down and do something you enjoy like watching tv or cooking, putting too much pressure on yourself and withdrawing from social events, or even just not getting enough sleep!  I am a culprit of doing all of these things, and whilst they appear small and as though there won’t be any long-term effect, eventually there might be.

I have realised how important it is for me to do the little things I enjoy in life like keeping up with the new series of Celebs Go Dating, going to the gym or for a swim, or even making sure I get to bed early enough so that I can wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and not having to run out the door in my pj’s!  Scheduling in these little things have led me to feel greater satisfaction in the bigger things, such as submitting assignments and doing paid-work.

Another element of life that is super important to me is my family.  During term-time, I don’t get to see my family very much due to how far Devon is from Leicester.  It’s often quite easy to forget how important family really is when at uni (even though I speak to them almost every day!) just because you’re so independent in everything you do.  So, another thing to do in order to keep happy and healthy is making sure you keep time free to spend with loved ones, and if you get the occasional opportunity to head home, maybe during a reading week or even just for the weekend, it may be a good way to wind-down and refresh!

I hope sharing this might help some of you! I soon plan to make a follow-up blog which shows you how to make an effective weekly/monthly planner to help balance time between work and social lives!

CLC