It’s no secret that a college schedule and course load can often be a recipe for stress and anxiety.
When not addressed, this stress can accumulate and make it even more difficult to keep up with your work, as well as wear you down both mentally and physically. In fact, according to one study, often on more than one occasion. So, what can we do to manage the seemingly crippling weight of a full course load?
Enter, self-care. These days, self-care has become a buzzword that is usually associated with things like elaborate face masks and skincare routines, cucumber eye slices, bubble baths, and luxurious creams and lotions. And while all of that is fine and good, (in fact, it sounds pretty nice) the fact of the matter is that self-care is not a “one size fits all” way to relieve stress. On a college schedule, it can feel nearly impossible to carve out time to do a facemask or take a bath, which makes this idealized idea of what self-care means pretty inaccessible and unrealistic for students.
When I’m away at school, I know this to be true: I’m the busiest I’ve ever been ever and while I find my classes very rewarding, my course load often leaves little room for extracurriculars, and ultimately there just never seems to be enough hours in the day for me to squeeze in a 20-30 minute self-care routine. For a long time, I found this to be incredibly frustrating and, in most cases, the lack of time and lack of self-care just ended up making me feel way, way more stressed than I was to begin with. For this reason, I’ve found it to be super important to figure out small, quick ways to incorporate self-care into your daily life, without feeling like you’re sacrificing time you could be spending doing other things that you may deem “more important”(i.e. schoolwork, applications, extracurriculars).
However, the good news is that the true meaning of self-care isn’t nearly as narrow and concrete as just dropping everything to perform an elaborate skincare routine or pampering yourself. Sometimes, it can take the form of doing laundry, cleaning your room or even finishing an assignment you’ve been putting off. The truth is that maybe just what is needed to relax and ease stress is to check things off of our to-do list. So the idea that self-care can be practiced in ways that are more productive than lounging in a bathrobe and waiting for the stress to dissipate can come as a big relief to busy college students.
One tactic I’ve found to be particularly useful in combating stress and practicing a little self-care is meditation. For many, the idea of meditation immediately makes them think of prolonged contemplation or a monk sitting cross legged in a monastery. But in actuality, meditation is a very approachable and easy way to sit with your thoughts for a few minutes at a time, and then let them fall away. The important thing to remember about meditation is that there’s no right way to do it, so don’t beat yourself up if you sense your mind wandering. Another important note is that the amount of time you spend meditating doesn’t actually matter much. I can usually only stand to meditate for five minutes or so before I start feeling antsy, and that’s totally okay. Even two or three minutes spent meditating can be extremely beneficial to combating stress, and it allows you to practice self-care in the sense that it connects you to your body and forces you to be present in it.
Self-care should work for you, and you should never feel like practicing is a chore or something that’s only going to add to your stress level because of the time it takes to practice it. In my own experience, I know that there will likely be nights where I’m too tired to do my full skincare routine, but by keeping face wipes on my bedside table I’m at least able to go to bed with a clean and fresh face which always makes me feel better in the morning. The same goes for making my bed — no matter what kind of day I’ve had, I know I can count on getting into a nice neat bed at the end of the day. By establishing small routines and habits that help make your daily grind even slightly more bearable, it makes self-care an accessible tool for busy people to keep stress and anxiety at bay, as well as improve your overall mood.
This isn’t to say that you can’t or shouldn’t indulge in the fancy face masks and skincare element, but rather that the next time you skip a night of skincare or forget to floss it’s important to not beat yourself up too much about it, as this is unfair and hurtful to yourself which defeats the whole purpose of self-care. Instead, think of practical ways to make your routines more efficient and more beneficial to what your needs are right now. Need to focus on finishing that group project? Go for it! See if you can squeeze in a face wipe and your favorite pajamas before calling it a night. Need a break? Take a little nap, and just try and carve out some study time later on. Ultimately, self-care at college is all about finding a balance that works for you, and once you’ve found that groove, self-care will feel like a natural part of your routine that’s easy, functional and fun.