IT’S A NEW YEAR, WHICH MEANS AFTER A LONG BREAK OF RELAXATION AND FREEDOM YOU’RE PLUNGED BACK INTO WORKING HARD, ALL THAT MAYBE A LITTLE TOO MUCH TO TAKE IN, HERE ARE SOME TECHNIQUES TO HELP EASE THE PAIN.
Written for Glide
By Maria Baker
1. Meditation – It may seem pretty obviously, but sitting down, closing your eyes while deep breathing and clearing your mind does wonders to lifting at least a little off your shoulders and making you think clearer. Doesn’t hurt to try, right?
2. Organisation – Being a little more organised with what’s stressing you might ease a little of your anxiety. Try writing down a list of things that needs to be done in order of priority. You should also have a calendar and/or diary where you can write down deadlines and when you need to do your work it might force you to put in the effort.
3. Stress Journal – This could work for any stress related problems, just write down all your fears, issues and stress in a book and say about how it made you feel emotionally and physically. Pinning down your problems and overseeing your issues will help master feeling better.
4. Listen to calm and relaxing sounds – This will work as a good combination to meditation, you might want to listen to rain patters or Café chatter. Whatever sounds soothing to you go for it.
5. Talk to someone – Whether it be a friend or a family member or if it is university related, you can go talk to your lecturer or mentor about your problem, if you’re anxious going frontal about it you can email them or if they say you can text them it might be easier. Alternatively, there is a site called blahtherapy.com where you can talk to strangers about your problems for free. It may be good getting a perspective from an outsider.
6. Reward yourself – Give yourself little achievements for struggles you go through. This is great motivation to move yourself forward but also encourage you to keep up the good job. So you got an essay due soon but keep putting it off? Maybe tell yourself to have a relaxing film night in with friends the day after the essay is due, but only if you actually finish that essay on time. Also give yourself a goal you’ll know you’ll achieve!
7. Step away from your phone – Give yourself a little rest from technology for a bit. With the rising popularity of the technology of phones, computers and tablets our lives seem to get wrapped around it a lot more than it should. This may lead us to over-thinking and procrastinating. Getting away from social media will help us think more clearly and think more about the real world.
Maria Tzing Fung Baker 