Dealing with Fall Slump: Weather, Wellness & Midterms
Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the cool breeze, sweater weather and pumpkin-flavored drinks. Despite all the wonderful parts of fall, there can be a lot of school and life stresses that creep up during this spooky season. The fall slump is real and hard to deal with, so here are some ways to cope and make your fall a little more bearable.
First, enjoy the weather while you can. Fall produces some of the best colors and sights, so take a walk around campus or your neighborhood. I like to grab a couple of friends and go on a color walk. A color walk is when you pick a color and, as you walk, snap a picture whenever you see it. At the end, your camera roll is filled with aesthetic pictures for your Instagram feed and your mind is a little clearer!
Second, make time for your friends but also yourself. Spending time with friends can be a great way to release stress, whether that means taking a couple of hours to try a new cafe or grab lunch, or spending the day at a pumpkin patch taking cute pictures. Prioritizing yourself is key to helping reduce stress and cope with the fall slump. I like to make Sundays a day for myself. I sleep in, clean up my space, plan my week, and do some self-care. For me, self-care looks like doing an extensive skincare routine with a face mask and throwing on a fall movie or show. Right now, I’ve been on a horror movie binge!
Lastly, my favorite way to reduce stress AND get my work done is a study crawl. Study crawls are the best study strategy in the height of midterms. A study crawl is where you hop from place to place, completing assignments and studying for tests. I like to start my study crawls at a café where I can get a cup of coffee or a sweet treat and knock out my easier assignments first. After my easier assignments are done, I walk to my next location, most likely a library, where I work on harder assignments or study for exams. The key to a good study crawl is to set a goal at each location, and when that goal is completed, move spots. I find study crawls useful because they create built-in breaks, and research shows that moving locations makes learning faster and memories stronger. The best part is you can do them by yourself or with friends!
Despite how beautiful fall is, it can be a stressful time of the school year and can cause burnout. I hope that if you use these coping strategies, they will help you make fall a little less exhausting.