Hstyles1798 - Happy.Healthy.

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[transcript under the cut]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Unusual Study Tips

How to Focus in Online School

Keep reading

self care tips for your absolute worst days

so i’m sure we’ve all seen a hundred self care tips masterpost but so many of them just don’t help on my absolute worst days so i thought i’d make my own one to help me and you feel better on those days where it’s all just too much

for when you have 30 seconds:

click for a kitten and for a puppy (refresh the page for a new one!)

clean your face with a wipe or a damp towel. just literally rub it on your face for like 20 seconds and you’ll feel cleaner, trust me

spray dry shampoo into your hair and rub it in to feel cleaner!

stretch once. reach your hands up in the air as far as they can go, and then let them flop back down at your sides. curl up into a tight ball and then relax out straight again. kneel down and then curl your head forward to rest it on your knees.

click to watch a tree grow (refresh the page for a new one!)

drink a glass of water

hug a teddy in bed with you

send me a ask that you are feeling bad and i will reply with love and support! copy paste this text if you don’t have the energy to write anything: “hi i am having a bad day and really need some support right now”

for when you have 5 minutes:

stand under the shower for 5 minutes. you don’t even have to use soap or anything. you could even sit down. just get undressed and put on your favourite song and dry yourself afterwards. put on new clothes if you can, but it’s also 100% good to just put the same clothes back on.

change one item of clothing you are wearing. new socks. new underwear. new tshirt. put on a jumper.

eat a bowl of cereal. don’t have milk? dry cereal is tasty too. don’t have cereal? eat a piece of toast, or a snack bar, or a piece of fruit. just something small to give your body a little energy.

make a cup of tea/hot chocolate and hold it in your hands (once it’s cooled down a bit!). holding a warm mug releases the same chemicals in your brain as a hug does, so think of it as a small warm hug :)

if you have a pet, chat to them. if they are huggable, give them a hug. if you don’t have a pet, here is a cute video of a cat meeting a hedgehog.

wash up one plate. or one bowl. or one mug. 

moisturise!! u will feel softer and also smell good

get some coloured pens/pencils/crayons/ and a colouring book and go wild. you can find things on the internet to print out if you don’t have a book!

reduce the urges:

hold an ice cube

snap an elastic band against your wrist/ankle

paint your nails

dance/sing to your favourite music 

if you have the energy to leave the house, go for a 5 minute walk. or just open a window and breathe next to it.

i like listening to welcome to night vale which is weird and wonderful and the narrator’s voice is so gentle and soothing: here is a link to episode 1 on youtube 

phone a friend!

remember that you are important and loved and deserve so much happiness and so much care and that my ask box is always open on anon for whenever you need a few sentences of love from someone who knows how it feels 💕

good emotional skills to know 4 college but also in general

this is stuff that i’ve found helpful and am in the process of working on. they may not be achievable for you without help and may not work for your specific circumstance, but this is a list of suggestions that you might be able to think about. i am also not a mental health professional so please do feel free to contradict me!!

self soothing.  having a toolbox to take care of yourself by yourself. bc sometimes nobody else is available and you just gotta put some lotion on, listen to a tune, and go to bed early. 

checking in. checking in with yourself to see if you’re okay. knowing how to alter your strategies when your strategies aren’t working. knowing when your strategies aren’t working. this is just taking some time every day to reflect on what goals you didn’t meet and why and what you can do to fix that.

there’s nothing you “should” be doing. if you get caught up thinking “i should be doing x” that’s false! stop that! “should” be doing better implies that you have some obligation to do whatever it is that you “should” be doing. you don’t owe anybody except yourself. analyze why you think you should be doing that thing and change that into…. “i want to be doing x because…” or “doing x will make me happier, because…”. overall, more productive and less self-shamey. 

disconnecting from the crowd. eating in a crowded dining hall can be stressful! knowing how to be alone in a crowd and stay calm is helpful

being okay with being alone.  tbh college is kind of… being alone a lot, in my experience. even though you’re surrounded by people, a lot of time is spent alone. making friends is hard. your friends have different schedules. you’re busy. shit sucks. we make the best of it.

knowing yourself. this relates to a lot of what i’ve already said but like. knowing your emotional state and knowing what helps trick the monkey brain is helpful. stop repressing your feelings, friends.

talking to strangers. ordering from a menu! paying library fines. going to office hours. asking for a cashier at the register if there isn’t one. ya this is hard. ya you gotta expose yourself. sometimes i just try playing a persona. like this isn’t me ordering a sandwich. this is a cool me who knows how to talk to people who is ordering a sandwich.

you don’t have to be friends with your roommates. you just have to live together in a way that doesn’t make you two hate each other. ideally, you two will coexist in a way that doesn’t interfere with the other’s daily life.

give and taking. on the topic of roommates, sometimes your roommate can be a shitty person, but sometimes you are the shitty person! give a little but if they’re negatively impacting your life, communicate.

communicating during disagreements. explain what your emotions are instead of blaming them. “i feel hurt when you…” or “i feel frustrated when” or “i feel unappreciated when.” if things get heated, ask if you both can take a ten minute break and then come back. and don’t bring up disagreements when the other party is preoccupied or going somewhere. you can legitimately schedule a discussion.

it’s okay to apologize. learning to swallow your pride gets easier each time.

knowing that people work differently than you. some people are not gonna click with you and it’s gonna seem like they have this whole brain process up there that is totally unlike yours. and yeah! that’s how it is. and that’s chill if they aren’t hurting anyone else. work with them and be flexible!! 

comforting people. you will probably/definitely see someone cry! hell if i know how to comfort people. someone please help. but some things i’ve learned are: 1) different people need different things. different people need different things! 2) people need different things at different times. 3) you can ask them what they want and it won’t be weird. 4) apparently a lot of people like hugs? but ask. and it’s okay to not want a hug. 5) just show that you care in some way if you don’t know what they need. i used to think that if somebody needed to tell me what they needed it was a sign that i just didn’t know them well enough and we weren’t compatible or i wasn’t being a good friend. that’s fake! friendship isn’t based off of fitting naturally in every way and making an effort to be good for them is important.

knowing it’s okay to not be liked by everyone. it’s okay if strangers think you’re dumb because you said something dumb in public. you know you’re not dumb. it’s okay if not everybody you meet likes you. it’s okay if you do something cringey. everybody has their own shit to deal with and you will not shatter their world.  grow and move on!

forgiving yourself. i’m trying this new thing where when i feel embarrassed about something i say. out loud. “i forgive myself.” and then i just try to grow from that and move on without getting caught in a spiral of shame.

knowing what you need vs what you want and what is better at the time. what you need: a shower. what you want: to not do that. solution: take a shower! or maybe what you actually need is to go to sleep? but guess what. you probably know what is good for you. the hard part is actually doing it.

realize that building habits is less work than discipline. emotional effort is expended every time you have to make yourself do something. just make it part of your routine and you’ll just think it’s normal to do all the good things! like, for example, i’m trying to make it a habit to eat structured meals instead of a “eat when i’m hungry” thing because i know that makes me skip meals, which is bad!

you won’t be able to do everything. forgive yourself for that. write down  things that are top priority and focus on them. everything else is not important right now and you shouldn’t beat yourself up for not being able to do them.

your health is important. i’m not saying health will solve all your problems. it won’t! but health will cause a lot of your problems to go away. because let’s face it. not sleeping causes a lot of problems. 

it’s okay to ask for help. we say this a lot but it’s hard to internalize it. here’s a thought: there’s so much shame and hesitation about asking for help so by doing that you’re actually being proactive (which is respectable) and mature, and therefore… not weak or stupid. ask for help even before you need it! most people love to help others. and especially take advantage of people who are OFFERING help. for example: counselors at school or TAs. it’s literally their job. they want to do it. and if you don’t want to talk to anybody in real life, my inbox is always open.

study less study smart

I decided to share my notes taken from this amazing 1 hour Youtube lecture by Marty Lobdell. i really liked him and his tips, i think they are super effective and cover a lot of situations! i highly recommend it!!!!! wow

but here are the tips and examples Marty mentions, so if you don’t have the time to go through the full hour, you can just scroll down. hope this helps somebody!

Break your study time in chunks with breaks

most students lose focus at 25 minutes

it’s a mistake to keep going once you do, since you won’t actually learn anything and you’ll hate every minute of it

so when you start losing focus take a 5 minute break

do something nice like talking to someone or listening to music

it’s something you practice so with time you’ll be able to work for more time without losing focus

in the end of the study session have a big reward you look forward to

Create a study area

environment highly affects the way you act. Bedrooms are for sleeping, kitchens for eating: you’ll feel sleepy in your bedroom and hungry in the kitchen. So if you have a study area, it’ll be easier to start studying and staying focused.

study in a specific room like an office or school library if you can

if you have to study in your bedroom use a specific object you only use for studying: a lamp/desk. Make it a no-distraction, away from your bed, blank walls area.

 The more active the learning, the better

80% active learning 20% passive

ask yourself: is it a concept or a fact?

learning a concept: understand/grasp/know it

put it into your own words

really think about the meaning of it

relate it with something you already know

teach somebody else. Recapitulate what you’ve learned. Talk out loud even if you don’t have anyone to teach - talk alone. Or at anyone that listens.

learning a fact: memorize it

use mnemonics

Acronyms (e.g. colours of the rainbow RoyGBiv – red orange yellow green blue indigo violet)

 Coined sayings - anything popular or sayings you’ve heard since you were a child.

Interacting images – work even better if they’re weird. Creative associations make you never forget specific details. (e.g. 1 gram of fat has 9 calories: picture a fat cat – each cat has 9 lives)

any time 2 things are highly similar but not the same you will get maximal interference!! USE mnemonics!! (e.g. afferent vs efferent neurons: SAME - Sensory Afferent Motor Efferent)

Be a part of  study groups

others can help you in ways you never thought before

Recognizing VS remembering

never confuse the two

while reviewing a chapter you may recognize concepts but not actually know them

and when you get to the test you won’t be able to remember any of it

so quiz yourself without looking at it

or stop in a page of your notes/textbook and ask yourself what is the concept immediately after and before it

Get your REM Sleep 

get ~8 hours so you don’t undo your studying

this is how your brain stores permanent memories

without it you’re ability to remember seriously decreases

most people don’t even begin to take the advice but it’s simple: sleep better. Do better.

There’s 162 hours in a week. There is time.

reflect on what you are doing with your time and what activities you have to prioritize to succed as a student

Taking notes is vital.

right after the class take 5 minutes to expand everything you’ve jotted down, give it depth.

NOT hours later. You won’t remember half the things you wrote down.

Ask your questions to class mates and teachers.

teachers want you to succeed and it’s more than ok to ask your question in the teacher’s office or in the next class

How to use a textbook: SQ3R technique

Survey Question Read Recite Review

Survey: skim through the entire chapter in a couple of minutes.

Raise questions: e.g. what is osmosis? What is this graphic about? What is a prototype?

it causes you to look for answers and you’ll find the information better once you actually study it after. If you intend to find something you learn it better.

Start studying for tests early.

don’t undo yourself. You should only be reviewing the days before the test. don’t leave it till the last minute!

(don’t just scroll through this!!!! really think about these methods and how you can actually implement them so you can benefit from them!!! these actually work but only if you put them into practice boo good luck!)