With finals time fast approaching and the time for procrastination dwindling down to nothing, stress levels are at a yearly high for a lot of us. So, I've reexamined everything I do to remain focused and calm and broken them down into ten tips.
1) Be able to imagine and access a 'happy place'. For some people this is an actual place such as their home. For me however, I close my eyes and hear the sound of the ocean. I open my eyes and see a beach at dawn with a forest behind it and the Hogwarts castle on a cliff in the distance. Be creative, let your happy place be literally anything you can dream up.
2) Start a book. I recommend something that you already know you will like. For me, personally, this is the Alexander Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow; for you it might be time to reread a favorite or just get a book or audio book that you've wanted for awhile. Take 10 to 15 minutes a day a spend some time just on yourself.
3) Take a shower. I'm very guilty of getting 'too busy' to spend 20 minutes in the shower but I guarantee you will feel better. Being clean just allows you to feel put together and ready to start fresh.
4) If you're in the middle range of panic, visit this site. It's a meditation site that offers various calming images and sounds. It's just enough distraction to calm me down when I'm mildly panicked. (The Mountain Lake is my favorite)
5) Ground your feet to the floor. Examine your posture. Are you hunched over? Are your legs crossed and your body pulling in on itself? Sometimes just shifting and planting your feet firmly on the floor while sitting straight can make all the difference. It's like smiling at yourself in the mirror will make you happier, sitting confidently will make you more sure of yourself and therefore calmer.
6) Listen to some music. My personal recommendations for study music or calming music are the soundtrack to The Little Prince (2016) or classical music (Tchaikovsky is my ultimate favorite).
7) Make your own playlist. I find this to be a good way to take a break and still be productive. My personal study playlist is called In the Hogwarts Library and is filled with soundtracks from a large variety of films that feel like magic to me.
8) If you're in need of intense study time, use this video in the background. Or, if you can't tolerate that it's also related to Harry Potter use another video from the channel, there are hundreds of options. I know Harry Potter is a bit of a trend, but remember that associating things with the feeling of calm over and over again will trigger your brain into feeling relaxed whenever they are brought up.
9) Take a walk. Exercise works to relieve stress so simply getting up and walking around the library or up and down some stairs can be a huge help just to release that anxious energy.
10) My final tip is for when you're on the edge of a panic attack. I learned this from a therapist a long time ago. When counting your breaths won't work anymore and other tactics have failed, close your eyes and imagine yourself. See how you feel and what you're brain is telling you. Then, create something that will be comforting. This may seem vague so I will let you into my brain.
When I'm on the edge of a panic attack I close my eyes and I see myself as a young child, huddled on the floor crying or failing at something relevant to my stress. I then take a breath and imagine a motherly figure in a white dress coming into the scene. She's not anyone recognizable but a mix of mothers both from literature and my real life. She holds the stressed out child me and whispers it's ok, chasing what is typically a dark figure away. The dark figure is all the negative self talk, the 'you can't do it', 'you're not good at any of this.' If I take a moment and do this then my anxiety is minimized in an unprecedented way.
I also want to mention that for me, this character and story-driven way works best but that's not how it has to be. My therapist says she imagines a series of gears in her head and goes about and gently fixes them. The key to this method is to imagine the inside of your head and your emotions and then pull on what comes easiest to you to fix or comfort that symbolization.
And those are my 10 major tips on remaining calm. I hope they were helpful and if you have any tips you'd like to share, please don't hesitate.
