What actually helps me during stressful times

The end of the year is almost here!! Guess what’s also here? Exams. And with these come enormous amounts of stress. Like, so much stress that you don’t sleep well at night, are constantly thinking about school and can’t even bear to think about relaxing.

Each year I discover more and more helpful tricks on how to (at least for a moment) reduce stress. These aren’t life-changing hacks, but they make stressful periods a lot more manageable. Here they are (drumroll please): 

The “little things” hack

1. Usually, when you’re extremely stressed the things that trigger anxiety or frustration are often the tiniest details that most people wouldn’t even notice. Like running out of your favourite snack, being clumsy, stumbling on words, getting a stain on your brand new shirt, your hair tie breaking — there are thousands of these little things. That’s why I like to eliminate the chances of it happening at all by doing a little prep before a stressful period. Just a few hours to shop, take care of myself and feel good overall, because I know the next days or weeks are going to be intense. Also, because I’ve been doing it for quite some time my body already recognizes it as a signal to slow down and prepare mentally.

Lower your expectations

2. During stressful times there’s usually a lot to do and often you won’t be able to give your best. And that’s totally okay. Not every study session or test score will be perfect, but at least you’re doing something. So take things easy. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

Rest without guilt

3. The guilt part is superrrr important, because if the whole time you’re resting, you're feeling guilty and thinking about the things you should be doing… that’s not taking a break. You won’t feel fresh, motivated and rested. And I know how difficult it is to take a break and not feel guilty while everything seems like chaos around you — unfinished work, messy space, approaching deadlines. Something that helps me rest without guilt is scheduling. Schedule a specific time you’re going to do that task. That way you feel more relaxed knowing that you’re going to get it done and can rest without guilt.

Talk it out

4. It’s a very underrated tip that I’ve found the most useful of all. Personally, I don’t enjoy journaling and writing my thoughts on paper, but I do like talking things out. So I’ll try preventing a mental breakdown by calmly just talking things out: what I need to get done, have already completed, how I feel, on a scale of 1 to 10 how stressed I am and so on. But the key is to do it informally, be sarcastic, use slang  — whatever you need.  This helps me see what tasks I need to prioritize and organize my thoughts better.

Reward yourself

5. You can do it after each test or project during a stressful time. But I also love to buy and then set aside a candy bar or something that I’ll eat when I survive the difficult time (could also be watching your favourite movie, going out, shopping, etc).  And it’s not like I’ll only eat it if everything goes perfectly — I’m going to eat it anyway. No matter how badly I did in the tests, at least I got through it. So there’s kind of a guarantee that less stressful times are ahead if I think of it that way.

These were my top five tips for coping with stress. You won’t suddenly become stress-free, but you’ll feel more in control and a lot less like you’re falling apart. I hope you can take at least one of these and actually use it!