As a student, I often find myself wishing for more hours in the day. Lately, my routine has been a nonstop cycle: work in the morning, class during the day, long hours at the library, and finally getting home around 10 p.m., only to do it all over again the next day. I’m sure many of us can relate to this relentless pace.
Something that I have been trying my absolute best to recently work on is practicing self-care; it’s not something that we were necessarily taught, and it’s important to practice as a college student and as you navigate adulting. Self-care is so crucial to your well-being and can be a major help when it comes to experiencing burn-out or extreme fatigue.
There is a misconception that self-care means you go to the spa, get a massage, or take a long bath—while, yes, those are fabulous examples of self-care, there are also so many other ways you can be kind to yourself.
Self-care can look like having a morning routine that is not waking up twenty minutes before class or work and rushing out the door; self-care can be meal prepping so you are set for your busy midterm-filled week; self-care can look like going to the gym or going for a walk to help with your productivity and stay active in your busy life. Self-care does not have to be big grandeur things. It can be very small changes that inevitably add up to much bigger results.
One version of self-care—which may not sound super fun—that I do for myself is a Sunday reset. This was something my sister instilled in me when she was helping me move into my first apartment. Every Sunday I do my best to fully clean my entire apartment. That way, my week is off to a good start. Every time I come home from being on campus for the whole day, coming back to a perfectly clean apartment is one of the best feelings.
Something it has taken some time to realize is that what I thought was self-care may not really be beneficial to my health. One example is scrolling through Instagram reels; after I get home from being in classes and working all day, I gravitated towards doom scrolling and never felt relaxed after doing it. I would look at the clock and have no idea where the time went. This is not self-care, rather it is a way to put off genuine productivity. To combat this, I created a time limit for social media (and now try to only go onto Instagram reels to find new recipes). This is just one example of how self-care can become misconstrued—it is important to value your time and spend it bringing joy into your everyday routine.