Three practices that help me to manage my final year at the university

Studying at a university can be sometimes very demanding and challenging, especially in the final year. Feeling stressed, low or even depressed is not uncommon.

In this blog I would like to share with you some of my practices I do, which help me to be ‘on top of the things’ and don’t let the massive amount of work put me down. It’s very difficult sometimes and I’m not saying I am a completely stress free person, yet there are certainly a few things we can do to improve our well-being.

1) Practicing mindfulness
Mindfulness means seeing things as they are, without trying to change them. Normally our mind wonders, mostly about the future or the past. Mindfulness allows us to become fully present. Regular practice of mindfulness meditation transforms its benefits into our everyday lives. Not only it brings calmness in our lives but we also experience being able to deal better with unexpected situations. You become aware when you feel stressed or angry and by doing this you can get a detached view of the situation and deal with it in a much calmer and better way.

How to start with mindfulness, if you’ve never done it before? You can sit down for five, ten or more minutes, close your eyes and just observe your thoughts. But observe, it’s not meant to solve them. Let them flow, come and go. Later you will reach a state when the mind is quiet; still like a lake for a few seconds. I also like practicing mindfulness while eating, walking, reading. It’s basically about being fully present which is very difficult in the current world when we are constantly overload with so many information. While being focused you are also efficient and can perform better in your studies.

2) Having a routine
University life is full of unexpected events, attending extra lectures, volunteering, part-time jobs, hanging out with friends, sudden deadlines, and so on. You probably know what I mean. Getting organized under such circumstances might be quite difficult. Therefore, I try to have some routines. The best to start with is in terms of waking up every day at the same time, followed by a kind of morning ‘ritual’. This helps me to start a new day with positive energy and joy, and it’s something I’m always really looking forward to. Firstly I make a hot water with lemon (apparently it’s very healthy), then I meditate for 10-15 minutes, do a bit of yoga, take a hot shower, have a big breakfast (with always some fruits). So, what kind of ritual can you make?

3) Motivation
Sometimes we do things and we don’t know really why. The common excuses are something like ‘because we have to’ or ‘we cannot always do enjoyable things’. I strongly believe we can find deeper motivation and meaning in anything we do. Therefore, if I have to do, for example, some relatively boring reading for my seminar, I always ask myself what can I learn from this, what is interesting, or why I am studying this subject. It is also true when we know our inner motivation and are in the state of ‘flow’, we can perform much better.

Overall, I think when we’re experiencing hard times, such as stress due to lots of work, we should not sacrifice our principles and take a great care of ourselves. When we practice mindfulness, positive thinking, etc. it does not mean that we will just feel great 100% of time (do we actually want that?), but we will be able to respond to challenging situations in a less-responsive ways and will be able to overcome them more quickly.

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