Taking Time to De-Stressify your Life

Hello All,

It's the middle of October and that means exactly 3 things:
1) Pumpkin-Spice flavored EVERYTHING
2) Cooler temperatures (well, maybe someday in Texas)
and 3) Midterms are upon us!

While it is extremely important to study hard and do well on your exams, you're not going to do as well if you're totally stressed out, so today I'm going to talk about ways to De-Stressify your Life.

Generally, there are three main ways to de-stress:
1) Quiet Reflection or Meditation
2) Physical Activity
3) Doing something creative

Start by brainstorming a list of things that you really enjoy; activities that make you happy. This is your starting point whenever you need to take a break from studying. However, it is good to have more than one go-to for de-stressing. For example, I have many friends that bake when they're stressed, and if they follow that up with stress eating, you can see that this will lead down a dark path. Here are some additional suggestions if you need more ideas about how to de-stress:

1. Take a long hot shower or bubble bath
2. Try some breathing exercises
3. Have a 1 minute dance break
4. Get a massage; if you're with friends, get a massage circle going.
5. Watch a Movie (I don't recommend watching TV as it can easily turn into binge watching. Movies have a set time limit, so unless you're having a movie marathon, you'll most likely only be taking a 1.5-2 hour study break)
6. Clean (trust me, this works as evidenced by my near spotless apartment during midterms. You'll de-stress and have a clean living space)
7. Be social
8. Read something for fun
9. Go outside. Go for a walk/bike ride and enjoy the change of scenery and fresh air
10. Draw or Paint - really this just boils down to doing something creative be it knitting, cooking, or crafting.
11. Go shopping - nothing like a little retail therapy!
12. Make some music! - If you don't play an instrument, sing or get a beat going by tapping your pencil.


I hope you found this post interesting and helpful!

P.S. If you have any topic in particular that you'd like me to talk about in a post, please leave me a comment.