10 ways to RELAX and DE-STRESS yourself this Exam season!

*[This article was written before UK scheduled lockdown, please abide by the new regulations

Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save lives.]

Everyone knows exam season is just around the corner and it can be really stressful! Finding the balance between enjoying the holidays and revising for exams whilst managing coursework can be incredibly difficult. But it’s important to remember that at the end of the day, your mental health and well-being is the most essential thing to ensuring a smooth exam period. That’s why I’ve made a list of ideas of what you can do in between your revision breaks to help ease the process and calm you down when studying get stressful! 

 

1. Do some yoga and meditation exercises

Ok, as cringy and cliche as I know it sounds, hear me out! Yoga and meditation has been scientifically proven to decrease stress and anxiety. It can help you focus your energy on breathing and relieving yourself of negative thoughts. Buy yourself a nice cushioned yoga mat and find a quiet spot to just sit and reflect. Even just 5-10 mins of your day spent on this could really make a difference to your wellbeing! (Come on that’s the same time it takes to watch a mindless cat video on YouTube!) 

 

2. Get some fresh air with some nature walks*

Although the weather is pretty grim here in London, a walk through nature can still do you plenty of good. Wrap up warm and just go to your nearest park. Maybe you can take some pictures, read a book or even just sit and soak up the sounds of nature. You could even pack a little picnic for yourself and eat lunch there. It’s also important to drink lots of water throughout your revision cycles to make sure you are keeping hydrated and awake!

Lockdown alternatives: Only leave the house for your scheduled daily walk or for exercise purposes! Go shoppiing for essential daily items such as food or hygeine items. If you have a garden, use it! And if you still need more nature in your life, watch Studio Ghibli films or nature documentaries! (Some of my personal favourites include ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and the ‘Wonders of the Solar System’ series!

 

3. Take lots of naps and try to get a good night sleep

This tip is one of my favourites. Sleeeeep. You need it. I need it. We all need it. So for heaven’s sake please don’t cram all nighters only to oversleep on the morning of the exam! Just don’t put yourself through that okay! Take it slow and work in short and regular bursts. It’s more effective in the long run and it will make you much happier and more productive. Its better than the looming feeling you get when your procrastinating into the next dimension! At the end of a day of hard work go to sleep at a decent time and get up early in the morning. Make sure you have 8-9hrs of sleep based on your sleep cycle. 

 

4. Keep a journal or make a scrapbook

If you’re not one for leaving your bed (I know I am) a quick an easy way of destressing is to keep a journal or a scrapbook. You can use it to doodle, write poems, press flowers, collect pictures and memories or even just to document your thoughts and feelings from each day. Sometimes it just feels good to let it out and get something onto paper. It might teach you a little bit more about yourself too! 

 

5. Download stress-relieving apps

When the going gets real tough I know that the only thing that managed to calm me down was using a stress relieving app. One of my particular favourites at the moment is quite literally called – ‘Antistress’ and it provides awesome stress relieving toys such as bubble wrap, pottery clay making and skipping stones. 

Meditation apps like ‘Headspace’ and ‘Calm’ can also be really useful resources for incorporating healthy does of meditation into your life. 

There are also others like ‘studybunny’ and ‘Forest’ which help you to spend some time off your phone by giving you points or rewards for all the time you spend off screen revising. 

 

6. Play video games

This can also really help you to destress because it help you to think about focusing your energy on something else and develop your creative thinking skills. 

Some good ones include:

• Super Smash Bros – perfect for getting your anger and agression out when you’re stressed as it involves a load of button-smashing!
• Animal Crossing – super calming and wholesome, can help you escape into another world when this one sucks.
• (My) Sims – again similiar concept as above, funny scenarios, characters makes you feel like you have control over something.
• Minecraft – creative mode can provide a good artistic outlet, adventure/survival mode is also very fun.
• Mario Kart – fun, relaxing whilst still exhilirating!
• Tetris – can be satisfying, makes you feel like you have everything in your life together when the pieces line up perfectly.
• Pretty much any Pokemon game (Pokemon snap especially) – sense of satisfaction, adventure, mostly quite repetitive tasks and calming 

 

7. Escape into fiction

Whether it’s reading a good book or watching a funny show, fiction can really be a great way to take your mind off exams during your breaks! 

Try not to get too addicted to it though! It’s important to set healthy breaks e.g I have completed a good chunk of work today and so I am going to reward myself with a 20 min episode break or a chapter of this book. 

 

8. Make a mini Spa session for you and all your friends!*

This can be a really good way of motivating and including your friends. Sometimes it can really help to destress when you’re able to vent and spend time with people. Why don’t you plan a cute little spa/pampering session to reward yourselves! It doesn’t have to be big or expensive or anything! You can simply invite a few over to your house, buy a couple face masks, let your hair down, eat some chocolate, watch a movie and just unwind! To really set the mood and create the total atmosphere why not play some ambience in the background, light a candle and put some fairy lights on? It’s the perfect post exam remedy! Or you could just plan to go out with your friends as a little treat, personally I tried this, my friends and I went out for pancakes and spent some quality time together and it was really lovely because it gave us something to look forward to at the end of exam season- kinda like the light at the end of the really, long, dark tunnel!

Lockdown alternatives: Get your friends together on Zoom while you all put on a face masks. Hang out with them virtually by playing games on the ‘Houseparty’ app. Plan future events for when the lockdown is over e.g sleepovers, shopping trips, theme parks etc!

 

9. Tidy up your enviroment

Hey, it’s kind of true when they say ‘clean desk = clean mind’! Cleaning up your room once in a while can do wonders for relieving your stress! By organising your physical enviroment you can help yourself sort out your mental enviroment too! Even just something as simple as making your bed in the mornings can make you less stressed. (Especially if your someone like me who does most of their revision on their bed!)

 

10. Make yourself a timetable and stick to it!

The moment you receive the dates of your exams, record them in your calender so that you exactly when they are. Deadlines looming over your head seem a lot less scary when you can see them visually mapped and know exactly when they all are. Then schedule a set amount of time in the day to dedicate revision. I prefer not to write down exactly how many strict hours I want to do because it more unrealistic that I will stick to it if I do this. Instead, I mentally plan what I want to achieve (e.g the topics I want to cover or how far in the essay I want to get to) by the end of the day and try to fulfill this target. This leaves plenty of room for procrastination within the day, whilst still giving me the motivation to achieve my goal by the end of day.

Personally, I know it can be hard to follow all these tips perfectly. When you’re stressed sometimes you can get so absorbed in your emotions and all the overwhelmingness of the work you need to do. Hey I get it. Just remember to take your time through it and go at your own pace. Do whatever works for you and helps you to relax, even if that just includes something as simple as watching a YouTube video. Maybe if you can incorporate even just one of these things into your next relaxation period it can help you to unwind after a stressful study session!

 

But the most important thing to remember is to SLOW DOWN…

Remember to keep things in perspective. Theses exams are not the be all, end all. They are insignificant in the bigger picture and in the existence of the much larger universe. So don’t beat yourself up about them. They are not a true measure of your intelligence or self-worth. Remember that and keep repeating it to yourself when you get really stressed out.

TAKE CARE!

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• exams
• self-care