With finals coming up, it’s not very difficult for people to forget to take care of themselves. It’s one of the most stressful times of the year so we have a tendency to overlook taking a break to rest our minds from being under constant pressure to stay on top of everything. Almost everyone I talk to is either running on few hours of sleep, forgetting to eat regularly, or sometimes both. I know that I’m guilty of taking poor care of myself throughout the year, but it’s even worse around finals week.

We get wrapped up in school responsibilities like studying for finals, writing papers, and finishing up projects, but we’re also trying to remember everything we need to accomplish before going home for the holidays. No wonder everyone breaks down this time of year! And while it’s important to make sure you get enough sleep, eat regularly, and stay hydrated, that’s not the kind of taking care of yourself I’m talking about here. I’m talking about taking care of yourself mentally.

If we don’t take good care of ourselves physically, do we really think that we’ll take care of ourselves mentally? Probably not. I’m constantly stressed out, as many of my friends are… not just during finals week, but generally. It’s pretty easy to see when some people are stressed, but others cover it up pretty well. Personally, I carry tension in my back and shoulders so I get constant pain there or I’ll get headaches. Stress symptoms can present themselves in a variety of ways and will differ with each person. It’s incredibly important to recognize how stress appears in your own body so you can tell when you’re doing too much and need to take a break.

Last year, I saw a counselor regularly at my university. I started working with her because it was my first year living away from home and I was dealing with a couple things that I figured I couldn’t quite handle on my own. As the year progressed, however, she became more of a weekly checkpoint for me and would ask me what I was doing to take care of myself. I tried telling her that by remembering to eat, drinking water, or even taking a shower, I was taking care of myself, but that’s not really what she was asking of me. She wanted to make sure I was taking a little time out of each day to do something that is purely for the purpose of relieving tension and getting my mind off everything else I needed to do that week. It could be reading for fun, drawing, exercising, or even taking a nap.

Once I started setting aside time each day to do something like that, I began to feel less overwhelmed on a daily basis. My grades improved, I slept better at night, and I generally felt more like a person. Humans aren’t wired to go endlessly until we break down, we need to take breaks to recharge sometimes. Remembering this is extremely important for not only physical health, but for mental health.

During this season, and all throughout the year, be sure to set aside some time to care for yourself… your body will be forever grateful.