Five hot tips to help ease stress when going back to school!

School’s back! – but this time it hits a little differently.

Here at Vitae, we understand the enormous pressure and stress that must be placed on you as you head back into classrooms. After all, we are in a pandemic, and this is all so very new for all of us. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed, anxious and otherwise, but hopefully in this post we can help ease that stress even just a little bit with some tips on how to safely intergrade school back into your routine.

Now these tips can also apply to any of you; school, university students or workforce employees, it’s all important <3

 

1. Set some goals

Instead of feeling totally overwhelmed by all of the homework you now have, or the added pressure of other activities and classes too – set some goals for yourself. Like right now! Grab a notebook and pen and set some goals you want to achieve this year. Include scholarly ambitions, but also try to include some self-love, reflective ones too.

For example:

This school year I want to improve by overall English score from a B to a B+ - this may feel like something only minor, but it’s proof that you’re learning and developing, and every small step should be treated with the same amount of achievement! 

Or perhaps:

This school year I want to improve my self-love, and really feel one with my body.

They can be specific, or they can be broad, either way write down those deep ambitions you have for this school year. Put them on your wall, look at them every day and remind yourself that this is all a progress towards greatness.

 

2. Establish a routine

After the holidays, you might be finding that it’s really hard to get back into the routine of things – and that is totally okay!

But our piece of advice would be to ease yourself back into it. Get prepared the night before. Lay out the clothes you’ll wear, make sure your backpack is all packed and ready to go. It’s such a simple tip, but it truly is effective in making sure you sleep well with your mind at ease, and also wake up feeling like you’re already ready for the day ahead.

Sometimes (whilst we all hate it), it may even be easier to wake up even earlier than you need. Have some relaxation time before you even have to start to get ready. Whether that’s meditating or just sitting on the couch with some coffee, it’s important to allow your body time to wake up and be productive.

 

3. Talk through your anxieties

 Okay so arguably this is the most important one.

 It doesn’t matter whether it’s your mum, dad, grandma, best friend, counsellor, dog or otherwise (although we do recommend talking not only to your pet hehe). Get whatever might be stressing you off your chest. Rant it all out and breathe – you should never feel like you have to burden the pain alone.

But also, please reach out to other resources too if you’re struggling. World-wide there are so many support lines and webpages that can help you with your anxiety. So please never be scared or feel ashamed to reach out to them – they’re there to help you, not judge you.

And of course, here at Vitae, we pride ourselves on being there for our Vitae Babes. So always feel like you can reach out to us as well <3

 

4. Get a good night’s sleep

Don’t you roll your eyes at me, this one is just as important as the rest, trust us!! If you find it hard to get to bed early at night, try to switch off all of your technology an hour before you go to sleep. I know that sounds like absolute torture, but allowing your mind time to relax and reflect without the distractions of blue light will reward you with a much more beneficial sleep! 

Try to be strict with yourself – set yourself a time and really stick to it. Don’t fall into the trap of “just one more episode”. If you’ve told yourself at 10:30pm you want to be cuddled up asleep in bed, make it happen.

Getting a good night’s sleep is not only beneficial to your physical health, but also your mental health too. Teenagers in particular need roughly nine hours of sleep a night.

So get sleeping!

 

5. Practice self-care

Did you know that you gotta nourish to flourish?

We swear it’s true!

A lot of the time we can dismiss self-care in order to focus on ‘what needs to be done’. But by falling into this mentality, we only push ourselves further backwards. Because in order to thrive physically, we must thrive mentally first.

This tip will honestly not only help your stress levels towards school, but also your attitude towards anything in life.

But how do I practice self-care?

We’re so glad you asked! Because it’s actually super easy. Here are a couple ideas (although not a fully comprehensive list): 

• Taking care of your gut – take notice of what foods make you feel sickly, as this can often feed into your mental state too.
• Try to exercise daily – this could be as simple as a walk.
• Say no to others and yes to your self-care – obviously it’s always nice to help others, but you should also never be afraid of saying no when necessary.
• Plan a little getaway – a change of scenery is always great!
• Get outside more, take breaks and enjoy the fresh air.
• Schedule in time in the day that’s completely devoted to your self-care. Stick to it! 

 

We hope you enjoyed and found these little tips helpful for easing your back-to-school/uni/work stress! Of course this is only a start, and there are so many other tips out there as well… but we all got to start somewhere.

So tell us - which tip stood out for you the most, which one will you be taking on board more, and are there any other tips you’d like to share with your fellow Vitae Babes? 

Let us know!

This is a safe and welcome community, where we all strive off feeding positivity into one another’s lives. So if you ever feel like there’s nobody to turn to, remember you’ve got your own Vitae army right behind you!

And remember, the most important thing to take out of this post:

Be kind to yourself.

Always.

 

‘Till next time Vitae Babes.