Hi there, let’s have a chat about self-care. You might think that self-care is all about pampering yourself and having some fun, and that’s part of it, but not all of it. Self-care is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. It’s an essential part of being a human being.
So don’t feel guilty or selfish for taking care of yourself, feel smart and wise. Because self-care helps you avoid burnout, cope with stress, and stay focused on what matters most.
You might think that this will make you less productive, but actually it’s the opposite. When you make time for yourself, you boost your energy, creativity, and motivation. And no matter how much you achieve, remember that you are a human being and that you deserve kindness and compassion.
So, before you reach a breaking point, find out what self-care means to you and what works for you. For example, there are some self-care practices that can benefit everyone, such as eating well, exercising, sleeping enough, drinking water, and taking short breaks during the day. But this self-care routine is tailored for students. So, let’s get started, shall we?
1. Wake up early
As the saying goes – “Early bird gets the worm”. Waking up early means you’ve to sleep early as well. Every human being has a nocturnal clock inside his subconscious mind. This clock regulates your sleeping behavior to prevent your body from wearing itself out and when you force yourself to be awake for late-night activities, it affects the regenerative speed of brain cells which is not very good for your learning capacity. After a while, you’ll start becoming lazy, restless, mentally exhausted for no reason. So sleep according to the schedule10pm – 5 am.
• Yoga and meditation
Going on a walk, a little bit of stretching, then doing yoga or meditation will give you energy and self-confidence throughout the day. Try to visit a park or some area that has a lot of trees so that you can get fresh and clean air in the morning. Doing early morning activities in a clean environment makes your skin glow and your body flexible.
• Reading newspaper
After exercise, you can drink any one of these while reading through the newspaper – tea (except milk tea), warm milk, warm water, fruit juice. Reading newspapers makes you more informative, develops your thinking capacity, improves your logical, reasoning, and deductive ability improves your vocabulary and reading skills but try to read don’t watch the news on TV.
Developed logical and reasonable thinking can prevent you from burning out of stress from exam’s pressure or any other stuff.
• Light breakfast or heavy breakfast
Usually, the Metabolism rate of a teenager is faster than that of an adult. So while it may be generally preferred that a person should have a light breakfast, it is contradictory to a student as a student must take a heavy breakfast. So that he won’t feel hungry and wait for lunch for the entire morning time, and it’s obvious that when you are hungry, you become less productive for anything.
• Listen to music or take a walk
After breakfast, don’t start studying immediately, or engage yourself in some heavy activity rather listen to music while taking a stroll in your room itself, or you can clean up your room and after half an hour you can start.
The reason here is pretty simple, your blood flow turns into a mesenteric blood flow, in which the body’s blood flow is directed more towards the stomach during the digestion process and less towards extremities like hands, legs, and brain. Less blood flow in the brain means less oxygen in the brain, which will make you sleepy, the moment you hit the books after a heavy meal.
Now you can start your day i.e. school. College. Coaching. Clubs. Etc.
• Make a log of good memories
If we are feeling stressed or sad then browsing that log of good memories puts our mind at ease and boosts our morale, after that, we start to feel happy and positive again.
• Make sure to take small breaks
You can’t sustain your concentration ability for long while learning, so try 50-10 or 25-5 formula i.e. either 50-minute study and 10-minute rest or 25-minute study and 5-minute rest, and continue this throughout the day.
In summary, it’s crucial to internalize Melody Beattie’s wisdom: “Self-care is an attitude that says, I am responsible for myself.” In essence, acknowledging and honoring this responsibility is akin to cherishing something precious in our lives.