Finals season is upon us and with the end of the semester drawing near, students are at their peak stress level. While most are worrying about studying, making good grades, and balancing their extracurriculars, we often forget to take care of ourselves. But how can we effectively find time to relax and destress in a season that seems like everyone has a hundred different things to do? Once you know the benefits that taking some time to yourself will have on your work, you may consider penciling in some ‘me time’ beside your late-night studying.

What is Self Care?

Self-care is an important part of our lives that we sometimes forget. Self-care involves small and simple actions that you can do on a daily basis that will ensure a higher quality of life or better wellbeing. These actions are aimed to take care of ourselves and encourages you to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself.

Why Self-Care? 

The pressures of school and activities can stress anyone out, and it often doesn’t take much to feel like you’re slowly falling behind. School is time to explore your interests and prepare for the future, two things that can easily become overwhelming. We start to compare ourselves to other students and when it comes to balancing everything, studying for that science test becomes the priority, while taking care of yourself gets forgotten. 

Self-care can improve your life in so many ways, and it doesn’t have just one advantage. Self-care is effective in preventing illness, improving self-confidence, and allows you to become more in-tune with your mental and physical needs. Along with this, self-care helps you sleep better, improve focus, strengthen relationships, and result in a healthier and happier outlook on life. Students practicing self-care have been shown to score higher on tests and retain material longer than those who don’t. 

Especially for students in a virtual environment, we can easily rotate through a sedentary routine of sitting in front of our screens all-day with little movement directed toward taking care of ourselves. Self-care is extremely important for students of all kinds, but when it comes to virtual students, prioritizing self-care is something that we all should be doing more. 

Self-Care Tips For Students of All Kinds

Well, what can you do for self-care? There are many activities and actions that you can take and implement on a daily basis that will allow you to effectively relax and destress to regain focus. Here are some ideas:

• Meditation: Meditating is a great self-care technique that can easily fit into any schedule. Whether you set aside 20 minutes or only 5, meditation is effective in any form and will allow you to clear your mind and in turn focus easier afterward.

• Exercise: Although we have many athletes at iUniversity Prep that get plenty of movement throughout the day, we can often underestimate the power of a short walk. When you get moving, even for a little while, it can help break up your day and give you some time to yourself. You don’t even have to break a sweat!

• Go Outside: You don’t have to go for an intense 5-mile run in order to get outside! It’s extremely vital for virtual students of all kinds to get outside at least once a day in order to get some fresh air! Go eat lunch outside, or take the book you’re reading for your English and enjoy it under the sun! This small change of scenery will be refreshing for a number of reasons and is a great way to enjoy some self-care time!

• Read, for fun: It’s no secret that reading for schoolwork isn’t the most fun thing in the world. However, reading what you want to is a great way to spend some well-needed alone time. Find a book you know you’ll enjoy and find a cozy place to take a break from your everyday tasks.

• Find a Hobby: A great way to practice self-care is to practice a hobby or pastime you really enjoy. When finding a hobby for the purpose of self-care, make sure there are no obligations whatsoever! Find something you like to enjoy that involves no pressure, no deadlines, and most importantly, no stress! Having a hobby like this is a great way to stay busy, but stress-free!

• Hydrate and Grab a Snack: Water and food are two of life’s basic necessities that we can’t live without. Therefore, we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of them. If you’re hungry, go snack on some pretzels and if you’re thirsty go drink a nice tall glass of water. By fueling your body, in a way, you’ll be rewarding yourself for the work you have completed, or the work you will complete

• Schedule a Do-Nothing Break: Just as you would schedule your schoolwork, make sure to schedule a break! We can easily get absorbed in our work, and by actually scheduling a break as another obligation, you make your mental health a priority. School is important, but so are you!

• Family and Friends Time: It can be effortless to believe that we’re alone, but in reality we’re not, and we can’t isolate ourselves from those who love us. FaceTime that friend you love to laugh with or go join your family to watch a movie! Being with others that you love can be a great way to care for yourself and you’re wellbeing! 

• Journaling: Now, this may seem like a cheesy one, but journaling is a great way to take care of your mental health. You can journal about anything, from what you’re grateful for to your goals for tomorrow. Putting random thoughts on a page with no intention can be an easy way to vent a little and even release pent up emotions, which has been proved advantageous when it comes to self-care. 

• When you have a break, Take A Break: This one seems like the most obvious, but many students have difficulty with this. Whether it’s winter break, spring break, or a student holiday, if you’re given a designated break, make sure you enjoy the time off!

These are just a few examples of self-care, but there are many, many more. Ultimately, the goal is to do these actions for yourself, with no other strings attached. Self-care is important for so many reasons and is especially important when it comes to iUniversity Prep virtual students, who can easily get cooped up inside and staring at a screen all day. After seeing the advantages of self-care, I encourage you to implement these actions on a daily basis.

This is your reminder, fellow students, to make YOU a priority during this coming year and enjoy some time for yourself every single day. Why? Because YOU deserve it.

Citations:

“Benefits of Practicing Self Care & Helpful Techniques.” Find Your Words, 26 Oct. 2020, findyourwords.org/self-care/benefits-of-putting-yourself-first/.

“Self-Care Tips for High School Students.” InGenius Prep, 9 July 2020, ingeniusprep.com/blog/self-care-tips-for-high-school-students/. 

Goode, Hannah. “Why All College Students Should Practice Self-Care.” Medium, Medium, 14 Dec. 2017, medium.com/@ghannah2/why-all-college-students-should-practice-self-care-f429db5e32bb.