Welcome back from spring break, Lumberjacks!!
I hope everyone had an amazing, and restful break. With only about 6 weeks left of the semester, finals are coming up quick! Take a moment to revisit your first half of the spring semester. Maybe your grades are not where you want them to be or you feel like you are not taking care of yourself. Reflect on what went really well for you, and also what did not go so well. Write it down
so that you can compare and visually see what you can continue to do or what you can change to help you succeed the rest of this semester. I know it can be tough to criticize yourself and point out the things that went wrong but the only way to resolve issues, is first identifying them. Being able to recovery from adversity is an amazing skill to have; this will greatly build up your mental health.
- Allow yourself to reflect: You know that feeling when you remember something incredibly embarrassing that you tried so hard to forget? Do not forget your mistakes!! Learn from them. I know it is difficult to do but realizing that things do not always go to plan can prevent you from making the same mistakes twice. You studied using flashcards and didn’t get the exam score you wanted? Try a different studying method like drawing out diagrams! 10 minutes of meditating didn’t work out? Try spending 30 minutes!
Create game plan: Okay, so you made a list of things that went well and things that did not go well. Now what? Create a plan to resolve the issues you were having. Don’t just ignore them. There are many ways to do this and my favorite is drawing things out. I am more of a visual person and I enjoy making things pretty and colorful so I draw my game plans out. Some people are more goal oriented and are more successful writing words out! It does not matter what you do, just as long as you do it.- Have check points: After creating a game plan, set dates to have a little check point with yourself. You can even have somebody else (mentor, friend, roommate, mom, dad, etc) do it for you! I recommend checking in with yourself every week to remind yourself of your goal.
For a personal example of this, I realize that practicing yoga only on Mondays only made me feel relaxed from Monday-Tuesday night. After Tuesday, I would begin to feel extremely stressed and anxious again. My goal for when we return back to school is to practice yoga Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. This will allow me to destress and return to my mind every other day. I will see how I feel every sunday to evaluate my mental health.
Don’t be so hard on yourself during the process and don’t be afraid to ask for help. We are all on this journey together!