Finals seem to creep up on me. They are so close to midterms, it’s as if midterms never even ended, and it is now the end of the semester. What happened? I have no idea. Also, the semesters appear to get shorter as they go by, and the time between the “stress periods” gets shorter and shorter. I used to be able to get through midterms and decompress, and then plow into finals. Now, it never ends.
However, if midterms are never ending, then I never get to unravel my muscles before finals. To go for so many months without relaxing is not good for your mind and your body. It decreases the strength of your immune system, makes it hard to focus, makes you fatigued and can contribute to stomach upset, all of which make your life more difficult and make your work suffer.
So, if there is no large amount of time to relax, then what do you do? Well, you need to find small ways to destress and relax your mind and body. These may seem minuscule and like a waste of time, but small actions add up to large differences in your mental health and your grades.
You don’t need to give up much time to reap the benefits of relaxing activities. Here are some examples of ways to step back and relax that can be done in less than a half hour.
This finals season, take a few minutes here and there for yourself; your mind, body and GPA will thank you.
I used to scoff at meditation, but don’t knock it until you try it. There are guided meditation videos that are quite short, less than ten minutes long, and once I open my eyes at the end, I always feel refreshed.
Take a walk
I live right near Boston Common, so I am always ready to take a walk. Never underestimate the power of a good walk while listening to good tunes! I don’t walk for exercise, I walk to smile at the sun while mouthing Christina Aguilera.
Listen to music
You don’t even need to walk, you can just lay down in bed, close your eyes and listen to pump up music, or screamo music, whatever floats your boat.
Journal
Personally, I have never been able to get into journaling, but taking a few minutes a day to write how you are feeling can help you organize your thoughts and check in with yourself.
Take a nap
I was hesitant to add “taking a nap” to this list because they can quickly get out of hand or you can wake up feeling worse than you did before you took your nap. Make sure to set an alarm for about 20 minutes, since that is how long your nap should be and try not to go back to sleep. When done well, naps can really help and you can feel like a new person when you wake up. When done badly, you can feel like the grinch with a hangover. Experiment before finals week to see what works best for you.
Don’t forget to eat
When you’re stressed, basic elements of self care, like sleeping, showering, changing your clothes, and eating, can go right out the window. Recognize that this is an issue, and plan for this. Set up time to eat, perhaps with a friend. Shower every other night and change your clothes before you go to sleep. You can connect these tasks together to make them more effortless. Such as: eat dinner, study a little, shower, get changed, go to sleep.
Plan your studying and break it up over several days
The prep for finals seems insurmountable if you haven’t planned it out. Write out what you have to do and plan what you will do each day. This will prevent you from cramming the night before or catastrophizing.
Watch TV or YouTube
Take some time to put the studying somewhere and watch an episode of a TV show or a few YouTube videos. Set a timer to let yourself know when to get back to work, you don’t want to accidently binge all of Big Mouth, I swear I am not speaking from experience.
Reward yourself once you finish a task, no matter how small
No task is too little, you deserve to reward yourself for a job that is done. Even if you take out the trash, watch a video on YouTube and let in some positivity.
I wish everyone the best of luck! You will do great!