Transition Year (TY) student Sanidhya Arora tells us of five simple things he’s learned help him to cope with stress.
Like most teenagers, I have experienced stress. With packed schedules, deadlines to meet, and exams always around the corner, feeling stressed is extremely normal.
The feeling of stress is extremely uncomfortable and overwhelming at times too. I understood that coming up with a solution to cope with this stress is essential, otherwise it could cause negative impacts to my mental and physical wellbeing.
I did a lot of research into this topic, and found out different ways to solve this problem. I started to build these simple methods into my lifestyle, and saw a big difference.
What stressed me out
I am currently a TY student and study at Edmund Rice College. After completing a stress-filled third year and Junior Certificate exams, TY was meant to be a break – or at least that’s what I thought!
I went the completely opposite way and started working harder than I did the previous year. I involved myself in all the extra-curricular activities my school had to offer, and began to cruise my way through the academic side too. Eventually, all of this became overwhelming.
I got the inevitable feeling of stress, something I also experienced during the Junior Certificate. Back then, I was stressed with all of the different deadlines and exams; this year, I was stressed by the added responsibilities. COVID-19 made a contribution to my stress in both years. I started to feel exhausted with the workload and realised something needs to change.
I began to do research, and stumbled upon a lot of solutions. In fact, there were too many solutions! But I eventually made a list of the ones I felt would help me and began to incorporate them into my lifestyle.
What helped my stress
These are the things I did to cope with stress:
Exercise
Exercising is one of the best things I ever started to do! I got into the habit of doing a 30 minute home workout every day, and walking 10,000 steps a day too. At first, this may seem difficult, but, take my word, it really isn’t. Exercising and going for walks really helped relax me and free my mind. This is the time of the day where I get to spend some time with myself. This also helped me in distracting my mind from work. Exercising and going for a walk every day is key to coping with stress, and I highly recommend it.
Want to learn more about the impact of exercise for our mental health? Listen to our Healthy Minds and Bodies podcast.
Get enough sleep
This, for me, is probably the most effective thing on the list. At times, I don’t get enough sleep. I realised that this has extremely negative impacts on my overall wellbeing. When we don’t get enough sleep, our brain is too tired to come up with solutions to problems. This can cause stress, and I experienced this as well. On days when I didn’t get enough sleep, I felt even more stressed. The recommended time to sleep for teenagers is seven to nine hours, and getting that amount of sleep is a great solution to feeling more energetic and ready to face any challenge!
Take a look at how we can build healthy sleep routines here.
Develop a hobby
Developing a hobby is, again, an extremely important thing to do, and I wished I knew this much earlier. Working on my hobby helped in relaxing my mind, and made me feel much easy and calm. I started learning to play guitar through YouTube. I would search for guitar tutorials on my favourite songs and learn them. This helped in making me feel relaxed. At first, I found it tough to find a hobby for myself, but I tried out different things, and then found out the things that I love to do. I also started reading which really helped clear my mind too!
Looking for a new hobby? Visit our YouTube to get started with some art sessions, reading corners, sound baths and more.
Talk with friends
Talking with my friends really helped me in coping with stress. It made me feel much better, as this always lifts my mood and I thoroughly enjoy myself too. I realised that having fun is, for me, the best way to get rid of stress. I started meeting up with my friends in my free time, and this was the perfect way to divert my mind; it helped me feel much better. A thing as simple as this is really effective.
Wondering how you can support a friend going through a tough time? Get some tips from mental health experts here.
Eat healthy
I always ate healthy food, but, after doing some more research, I found out more about the best types of meals to have and how important it is to get the right nutrients. I followed a balanced diet. After altering my eating habits, I noticed that I felt more energetic and charged up. My mood was also better. Eating healthy is a really effective way to combat stress, and I realised the importance of it.
How I feel now
These are just five things that I have incorporated into my lifestyle, and they have made a great difference to me. I find that I don’t feel stressed any more. I feel like I am ready for all the challenges I face. I know there are other methods to cope with stress, but these are the things that successfully worked for me.
Feeling stressed out is not a nice feeling, but by following these simple things, I don’t feel so stressed anymore!
Want to see more from Sanidhya? You can follow him on Instagram or visit his website.
