You might find it hard to balance between your social life, your studies, your extracurriculars, and your mental health (we know we do), and it’s probably causing you a lot of stress and anxiety that just seem to keep making things worse. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s crucial to be speedy and efficient, which often comes at the expense of our mental wellbeing and causes us immense stress. For the sake of our physical and mental wellbeing, it’s crucial to understand how we can manage this stress and mitigate it’s adverse effects on our life, and here are our top 5 tips to do just that!
Tackle the Stress with Quality Sleep
We know you’ve heard this before, but it really is the key stepping stone on the road of better wellbeing and stress management. Getting an adequate amount of sleep every night will help your body get the proper rest and recovery it needs to function well in almost every aspect such as maintaining a strong immunity, regulated nervous system, fast metabolism, and increased concentration.
You also definitely don’t need us to tell you how cranky and drained you feel when you don’t sleep enough, so you know that extra 10 minutes you spend on TikTok before you sleep (let’s be honest its more like an hour) highly affects your ability to create, think, and be productive.
Watch What You Eat
Like they say, you are what you eat! Maintaining a balanced diet rich in proteins, fibers, and healthy fats such as Omega-3 is key to optimizing your physical and cognitive abilities. Eating nutritious meals (and not having a coffee on an empty stomach and calling it a day) can boost your concentration, energy, and reduce your cortisol levels, aka your body’s stress hormone.
Get Back to Your Roots
When we’re stressed we often neglect to nurture our hobbies and the things that bring us joy, which only makes us more miserable and keeps us stuck in this stress-filled loop. Engaging in our favorite hobbies and activities can help us unwind and take a much needed break, as well as boost our mood and energy as well as our overall health and wellbeing. So go for a quick walk in nature, do a quick workout, meditate, read a few pages of a book, draw something, paint, play some tunes on your guitar, or call up your friends for a quick padel game!
Unlock Your Inner Monica Geller
Who doesn’t like to tick things off a list? While putting things in a pretty to-do list might not magically get them done (we wish!), it will however make it so much easier for you to organize and therefore prioritize everything you need to get done. This will make it easier to break down tasks and eliminate the anxiety of having so much work to do yet nowhere to start, making you more likely to actually complete tasks and be more productive. Scheduling tasks also gives you space to take much needed breaks to unwind and give your brain a chance to breath, which is extremely important to be able to sustain focus and motivation while you get things done.
Get Back to Your Circle
Lastly, we tend to neglect our connections with our loved ones when we get too stressed and overwhelmed with work, so we’re here to remind you to do the exact opposite! Spending time nurturing your connections with your loved ones will not only make you feel almost immediately better, but it will also alleviate your stress and remind you that you have a loving and supportive network that will help you get through whatever might be stressing you out at the moment.
So, grab a cup of coffee with a friend, watch a movie with your mom, help your little sister build her Lego castle, there is more to life than work and studying, and nothing is more important than your wellbeing.
