As we all know, midterms are just around the corner and they seem to be very daunting at times. Not only that, but balancing a social life, love life, and extracurricular activity life is extremely difficult. Personally, I know my mental health always seems to struggle during this time. My work ethic diminishes and I feel empty at times. I have found ways and activities to help me focus on myself even when I am extremely stressed out. Hopefully, this will article will discover someone who finds this information helpful.
- Be sure to find time to really focus on you. I know this can be difficult because you may not want to disappoint your best friends or people in general. I’m here to tell you that prioritizing your own feelings over everyone else’s can be extremely beneficial. Take time to focus on yourself, shower, brush your teeth, eat, etc. Do something you actually want to do at least one time a day. It may not seem like you have time, but I promise that you have plenty of time in the day.
- Delete social media (if needed). Social media is the number 1 cause of mental health issues. If you spend all of your time on your phone instead of studying, there is no way you can focus on your own future. Set boundaries between you and your phone. This can be done by simply deleting apps and going incognito, or setting times on your phone of how long you can be on certain apps. Trust me, I have made the mistake of spending all of my time “studying” on my phone and not being able to focus on actual school work at all.
- Do daily check-ins on yourself. Sometimes, it is hard to focus on yourself if you aren’t paying attention to your mental health if you can’t check-in with yourself. If you do a daily, “Self, how are you doing?” it is more likely that you are able to recognize that you might not be doing well. If this doesn’t seem to work, be honest with yourself and ask a friend to check-in on you. I know this is extremely difficult, but it is better to do daily check-ins on each other then just act like everything is okay every time you see them.
Honestly, midterms are extremely stressful. Arguably, I find it more stressful than finals at times. They don’t feel like real tests and they come extremely early in the semester. It always feels very rushed and as though the halfway point in the semester should be later. Unfortunately, this is something that I have felt every single year midterms have come around whether it be the spring or fall semester. I have found doing these three things are extremely helpful to me, but I am not a medical professional nor do I claim to be, this is just a completely opinion-based article.