Student Stress

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Student stress is a very real problem, particularly around exam periods. Stress in its chronic form will fatigue students and make it harder for them to learn – it can create ‘brain fog’ 🙂 so everything is more difficult to process. In its acute form it can lead to panic when you feel that your brain is shutting down and refusing to function at all.

Once you take away the fear and do what you can to lessen stress things become more manageable. You may feel like you’re facing a firing squad but an exam is ‘just’ an exam. The most effective study tips are not glamorous or particularly clever – they just make things more manageable and help you to approach things in a more effective way, which takes away some of the panic.

I may post some tips on student stress soon but here are some brief suggestions: use study tips which make sense to you – if they make you feel brighter and more hopeful, they’re worth using. If you can’t see how they apply to you, put them on the back burner and find something you can get enthusiastic about.

BREATHE. Simply breathing deeply and taking the time to exhale as far as you can really does help. 5 minutes will make an enormous difference but in fact even taking 3 deep breaths (and exhaling!) will help more than you expect it to. Simple exercise: breathe in for a count of 3, hold your breath for 3, exhale for 3. Repeat but for a count of 4, then 5. The brain needs oxygen 🙂 .

SLEEP! Eat as well as you can, drink lots of water, make time to get out in the fresh air and take some exercise – 10 minute walks to break up study sessions can have a really helpful effect. Walking breaks are a great time to enjoy listening to your favourite energising music – said music while you’re trying to read really isn’t likely to be a good idea 🙂 .

Espresso anyone? 🙂 🙂

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