As we near Thanksgiving Break, the general consensus on campus is one thing: we’re all stressed, and we’re all ready to be done with classes. Midterms seem like a lifetime of tests, with a new one appearing every week, and with the weather changing, the sickness of the seasons takes over. Here are some things I’ve done to maintain some sort of normal human function during high-stress season.<\/p>\n
Firstly, I treat myself.\u00a0Granted, I’ve probably hit my quota by now. Over the past few weeks, I’ve let myself spend a few extra dollars on things that can keep me going throughout the day. I’ve gotten coffee a bit more often, got a new shirt that I’ve been eyeballing for a while, or just splurged on new things like highlighters or pens. Each time I do that, the sense of doom goes away, and the need to study or focus before break comes back stronger, because you know you’ve got it.<\/p>\n
Secondly, I tell myself that it’s okay. I think when you get into the spiral of negativity, everything looks worse than it is. I caught myself doing that this semester, and noticed I wasn’t focusing on the happy parts of my day (even if it was small), and the good parts were being swallowed by negativity. I know it’s harder said than done, but if you frame your mindset into positivity, and always go into something with a positive mindset, you’ll feel less drained, see better results, and have the ability to keep walking. I always say to my friends, “I know this sucks, but if I keep walking, it’ll go into the horizon soon.”<\/p>\n
Thirdly, I let myself breathe. Sometimes when we’re idle, we feel like we’re being lazy or unproductive, but you NEED to have those feelings in order to be productive later. Sit and breathe for a bit; your entire day doesn’t have to be busy all the time. Your type of relaxing can be different from mine, but I personally love to read a book, or color in a coloring book, or even just watch the sunset and breathe. I never pick up my phone during lazy\/unproductive times. Your brain needs a moment to take in one source of information, and if you doomscroll, then your brain will never shut off from the large input of information being fed.<\/p>\n
This season is scary, stressful, and for a Texan like me, cold. Everything is happening all at once, but I promise the clouds will fade and the sun will come out. Everything happens for a reason, even if we can’t figure out why in the moment. Take the time for yourself; breathe, relax, focus, and enjoy the experience. After all, we’re all living our own lives, and each day is a new one to take on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we near Thanksgiving Break, the general consensus on campus is one thing: we’re all stressed, and we’re all ready to be done with classes. Midterms seem like a lifetime of tests, with a new one appearing every week, and with the weather changing, the sickness of the seasons takes over. Here are some things I’ve done to maintain some sort of normal human function during high-stress season. Firstly, I treat myself.\u00a0Granted, I’ve probably hit …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/harper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}