If you Google my name and “self care,” you’ll find that I’ve written about self care on various platforms…here at Her Campus, over in the “Healthier” section of Spoon University, my Twitter, Facebook…. Self-care is a big deal, and I’m going to keep talking about it until everybody’s doing it. This is the good kind of peer pressure.
From YouTube vloggers to Instagram influencers, the internet has lost its mind over self care, and I think it’s great that self care has become a trend. But as finals week approaches, it’s more important than ever to remember this big thing about self care:
It’s not always face masks and manicures. Self care totally can be about making yourself look cute and feel pampered, and that’s all we’d have to do in the ideal world–feeling down? paint your nails, and you’re golden!–but we live in a real world, not an ideal one. Finals week often leads to the stereotypical stressed out college student: she’s sleeping 4 hours a night, chugging coffee during the other 20 hours of the day, trading in her nighttime skincare routine for a few swipes of a makeup wipe, and existing solely on snacks available at the university’s convenience store…and that is NOT OKAY.
When you’re stressing, it can be really easy to let yourself fall into the unhealthy routine I described above. But the best thing for you (and for your GPA) is to do the exact opposite of all that: Make sure you’re sleeping enough so that your brain has time to rest and absorb everything you’ve studied. Keep your caffeine intake at or around your normal level, and be careful to drink just as much water as you do anything caffeinated to keep yourself hydrated and feeling good. In addition to drinking plenty of water to keep your skin glowing, don’t neglect your usual skincare routine. I know that pack of makeup wipes is tempting, but disrupting your routine can cause you to break out creating more stress on top of the stress from finals, and then you’ll stress about the break outs, and then you’ll break out because you’re stressed, and stress because you’re breaking out…….you know how it goes. Let’s not allow that, k? Lastly, your body can’t function properly without the right fuel. It’s fine to snack, but be mindful about it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened a bag of chips that was supposed to have 5-6 servings in it, started munching away, and felt my fingers scraping the bottom of the frickin’ bag before I even knew what was happening. I don’t eat while I study for this reason–I save it for study breaks so I can enjoy my salt and vinegar blessings without worrying about grease spots on my work.
Going into next week, keep this in mind: you don’t have to be the stereotypical student freaking out over finals. Take care of yourself, and your grades will reflect it.
[Photos courtesy of Pexels.com]