Overwhelmed

(I always go to my best friend amy when I need a vent)

So yesterday I had one of those days where I just felt incredibly overwhelmed. I felt like everyone wanted a bit of me and I felt stretched incredibly thin. So I just thought I’d write a little something about ways to reduce these overwhelmed feelings.

1)Meet a friend

Yesterday I was due to meet my friend Nicky. And honestly, I debated cancelling. Not because I didn’t want to see her, but because I had so much work to do and thought I should probably stay in and do it. However, I went anyway and spent 3 hours just chatting. Turns out, It was exactly what I needed mentally, because when I got home I bashed out an essay draft. So go meet that friend you’re due to meet. It’ll help.

2)Lists lists and more lists

During A levels when I was feeling stressed about the amount of work, my Mumma told me to write a list, and pop things on their in order of priority. It may sound simple- but it works. Realistically, an essay deadline is probably more important than a tutorial task. However this does not mean cut all the fun things. You need breaks too! Regardless of how busy I am, I will always take the time to exercise. That’s my ‘rest’ time.

3)Make sure you’re sleeping

The most effective type of medicine there is. We’re meant to get 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Do I get this at the moment? Absolutely not. Should I therefore go to bed earlier and make the effort to get that sleep? Definitely. Obviously, it’s not always this easy. But you know what they say- sleep deprivation is the most common type of torture…

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/teens-and-sleep#:~:text=Teens%20need%20about%208%20to%2010%20hours%20of,reported%20sleeping%208%201%2F2%20hours%20on%20school%20nights.

4)Realise that no one is going to die if you sacrifice one of your tasks

Sometimes, It’s gotta be done. There’s not enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do (Trust me, I’ve tried.) So sometimes you might have to accept that a) isn’t going to get done, but that’s okay, because you’ll smash out b) and c) to the best of your ability.

5) Accept when enough is enough

These ideas are all very well and good. But if you’re overwhelmed to the extent where you feel like you can’t escape it, you need to maybe let someone know how overwhelmed you’re feeling. Even chatting to a friend about it might release some of that stress. Also your personal tutor-after all, that’s what they’re there for.

We all relate to your feelings. Don’t struggle alone!