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College Taking its Toll? Try these Self-Care Tips

Published Date
Author McGraw Hill Higher Education

College can be some of the best and hardest years of our lives. Between class times, studying, internships, working, and maintaining a social life — it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself. Who can blame us?

With everything happening at once, it’s hard for us to balance priorities with self-care. What we sometimes forget, though, is self-care is a priority.

Here are key tips to find balance in your professional and personal priorities.

Some of the best ways to manage stress are common-sense practices we tend to forget. Let these serve as a reminder on how to make your life easier, and in some cases, productive.

Indulge in physical activity

Exercise is scientifically proven to destroy excessive stress hormones. Physical activity engagement releases endorphins — the "happy" hormone" Regularly finding time to exercise is linked to a better quality of sleep too. Not only are you practicing physical heartiness, but you are counteracting the psycho-hormonal effects of stress. Discover an in-depth explanation on the effects of exercise, click here.

Plan your days ahead of time, preferably with a planner

If you’re anything like me, you have stacks of planners from previous academic terms that are front-heavy: lots of written to-dos, but when you get to midterms, you’ll find a lot of blank pages. This is also the time of the term when some of my grades tend to fall. I find writing everything down the minute I know about it instead of trying to keep track of due dates and time-specific obligations mentally, I am better prepared to conquer tasks at hand. Knowing what your day consists of beforehand also helps develop time management skills.

Learn to say "NO"

As passionate students, we’re overachievers who want to take part in everything. A huge contribution to stress is having too much to do with not enough time to do it. Sometimes, we’re blessed and cursed with too many opportunities to count. As a result, we often put more on our plate than we can handle. The best solution, learn to say "no." The biggest fears that come with saying "no" is, one, missed opportunities, or two, fear of conflict. Uncover nice ways of saying "no," here. Remember, barriers that stand between you saying "no" are all self-created.