As a second semester college student, I can say the transition from high school to college was a shock—to say the least. Studying the night before an exam was no longer adequate and the time allocated for the things I loved the most slowly dwindled away. I began to question my previous lifestyle and decided that with a changing schedule my lifestyle also needed to be changed in order to maintain both my mental and physical sanity. I began gi- ving up nights that lasted until 3 am in preparation for a test, studied everyday, and stilled managed to run every day.
Six alterations to my everyday life, outlined in this article, made it possible to keep the things I love the most and oust my old bad habits.
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Exercise
Exercise has always been an important factor of my life. In high school I rode horses, ran track, and cross country. Since the transition into college, I had no longer involved myself in sports teams, however I did keep the one thing I love the most—running. Running not only maintains a healthy mindset, but it also helps reduce stress. Now you very well might not be the type of person who finds running 11 miles everyday, in order to train for a marathon, more of a tortuous activity than a stress reliever and by all of physical activity you enjoy is beneficial to your physical and mental health. This could be walking your dog for a mile every morning or shooting some hoops at your local YMCA.
Exercise is a successful method of clearing your mind and leaves you in a better mood. I never feel bad about being “selfish” to take my me time everyday to go on a run because an essential in college is always putting your sanity first. means that is okay. Any type.
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Study, Study, and Oh Ya Study!
When reading an advice column on how to balance college stress, I’m guessing you wouldn’t except to see STUDY on there. You’re probably asking yourself why I would even think about telling you to study in order to balance stress, but fret not and let me explain.
One thing I have found very important—and probably my favorite piece of advice in this article—is to study, Every. Single. Day. This means allocating at least an hour everyday to every subject to make sure you have full comprehension of what you were just taught. This ends up paying off in the long run because you will not keep yourself up until 4 in the mor- ning learning a months worth of chemistry in one day—been there, done that, and will never again. High school would have been A LOT easier if I knew then what I know now.
If there is one thing you wish to take with you from reading this article, trust me, take this. Procrastination will always be a set up for failure.
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Find Your Support
When college gets tough you will need people to confide in. It is important to pick at least one person you feel like you can vent to when school and life gets hard. This could be a fellow classmates feeling the same pressure of an upcoming exam, your mother who will always have your back, or even a mental health therapist—there is free therapy at every community college, and some select universities for students. Talking about your stress helps to externalize your problems instead of containing them and obtains a different perspective on the things you may be worried about.
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Catch Some Serious Z’s
Now being a college student you may be reading this and thinking “Sleep! Is that a joke! How will I ever have time for that?!” Yes, I’ll assure you it is possible as well as an essential to being successful. The night before an exam, I recommend hitting the pillow and NOT the book. The healthy recommended amount of sleep is around 7-9 hours. Not going to lie, the 9 hours is probably a joke for the majority of college students, but 6-7 hours is doable. If you’re anything like me, you hate going to bed past 12 because you LOVE waking up before the world to go for a run and watch the sun rise. If you’re more of a night owl that is also okay—you need to find what works for you—as long as you are getting enough sleep to function. This goes back to the part when I told you to study for each subject at least an hour everyday! If you stay true to this method you will get your recommended sleep before an exam and wake up ready to kill it—in a good way of course!
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Set a Goal and Make it Your Mission
Successful people set goals and will stop at NOTHING to achieve them. A serious goal is something you sleep on and breathe because, well, that is how they are accomplished. Setting a goal for yourself creates your sense of purpose. You will feel less stressed in the middle of studying for your calculus exam if you remind yourself your hard work is going to pay off in the end because that A on your transcript is going to look great to admission officers at medical school.
One important thing about setting a big goal—like going to medical school—is that you also set little goals, such as, achieving an A in Chemistry 142 or getting a coveted re- search position. And if the path to your goals ever seems hard, just remember if Elon Musk didn’t set goals he wouldn’t have launched a rocket with his red Tesla into space and he sure as heck wouldn’t have dated Amber Heard!
With that being said, college is stressful. There is no secret here. However, there are ways in which to balance the crazy. If you choose to follow these helpful tips, college induced stress won’t be a thing of the past, but it will become something you can learn to successfully work with!
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