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So there are several strategies to de-stress that I would recommend to

students preparing for university.

The first would be to ensure that they remain physically active.

It's really important when you're mentally under a lot of stress with university

work to make sure that your body is quite active.

It can also form a nice distraction

from the rigorous mental activity that you might do.

Whether it's preparing for assessments, preparing for examinations,

being in the lab, whatever it may be.

Another thing to de-stress would be to socialize, make sure that you still have

your networks in place whether that's family and friends.

They can provide a great means to talk about the stresses of

university and also to provide really fun distractions.

>> I think it's really important when you're studying at uni that you work out,

pick some good strategies to help you de-stress.

I mean obviously, it's easy to get stressed with the workload and

you get a lot of essays and assignments and exams to do.

But if you can find a way to kind of overcome that,

stay a bit calm and happy throughout it, you do a lot better work.

And it will also be a lot healthier and happy as a person.

So I find if you can just work out things that make you really happy or

help you to calm down and then stick to those.

And so that you can rely on them any times that you get a bit stressed.

You can go to that, whether it's reading a certain book or

listening to certain music.

Or even just having a long night sleep to kind of clear your head and

calm down a bit.

I find it really helps me if I can spare a few hours to do some baking,

I just get them to the kitchen and I can make a cake.

That's really useful because it's something completely different from what

I'm studying at uni.

And so it gives me a chance to completely clear my head and I'm not able to think

about uni all because I'm so focused on making sure that cake is perfect.

So it's a really good chance to kind of reset the body and then afterwards you're

refreshed and you can get back into doing that work at a much higher quality.

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>> Letting things go can be one of the hardest things that you learn at

university.

I think there's a constant pressure to succeed and always achieve the best.

But sometimes you just might not get there and that's okay.

So that's a really important lesson I learned and

also failure is actually probably the best way to let things go.

So I had a personal experience where I had misread some of my

assessment criteria and actually failed my mid-semester assessment.

And I spoke to my lecturer and thankfully they were really supportive.

I, for the first time start putting an insane

amount of pressure on myself which I had been doing prior to that assessment.

And probably actually led me to misreading the assessment criteria in

the first place.

And when I spoke to my lecturer seeking some advice about what happened.

The best thing that she said to me was just let this assessment go and

try your best for the next one.

And so I went into the final examination and

actually ended up with a really great mark for that entire course.

And it was because I had put that behind me and just kind of move forward so

I could still achieve my goal of finishing that course.

So yeah, it's not my proudest kind of moment but

I think it was one of the most formative experiences I had at university.

Where I really learned that you don't need to achieve

110% in every single thing you do and those experiences of failure.

Failure's a bit of a harsh word, but just difficulty I guess.

I can be just as important as the successes that you have.

>> The strategy that I recommend to students trying to let things go is

definitely talking about your experience if something has gotten you down.

So for me particularly, an example comes to mind with my first semester of

university where I achieved a pass grade for a history essay that I did.

And I spent a lot of time on it and I was really confident that I was going to do

really well, but I ended up being disappointed with my grade.

And so instead of being bummed down about it for

a long time, I spoke to my tutor and I took the essay with me.

And it's learning like that I haven't really done what I was expected of me.

So I thought that what I was doing was right, but

actually having that conversation.

And taking the time to get the positive and negative feedback was really

helpful enabling me to better in future assessments.

So I think it's also important for

us you're not the only person who's going through this.

So speak to your peers around you and support each other.

So as well as having your lectures and tutors, your classes are really important.

Pull the resources that you can use to help you learn how to let things go and

move on and do better.

And even in terms of your social life at university, so

you might not make friends at the beginning.

But get involved and join societies.

And definitely know that your first few weeks at university isn't

going to determine the amazing amount of time that you're going to have here and

be able to learn from that.

>> So something that I found a lot at uni is I struggle to let things go,

you become very personally invested in everything that you do.

And so it can be hard when you realize that maybe you've done a bit too much or

you can't necessarily do things the way that you want to.

And you have to find the right compromise, so that something is actually achievable.

There's not enough time for you to be able to do everything you want to.

And it's really important to eventually realize

that not everything you do can be perfect.

So it's just finding that right level where

you're happy with what you've done and

you've also reached a high enough standard that it's going to do okay for you.

And that can be quite a hard thing to realize,

it's taken me a lot of practice to get to that stage.

Where I know okay, I've put a lot of work into doing this thing but

it's just not achievable for me to keep going.

And I have to learn to just take a step back and stop and just let it go as it is.

I find that especially when you feel like you could just keep on studying for

an exam forever.

Or with an essay, I spend hours and hours trying to fine tune the same paragraph.

Rewriting the same sentence lots of times in the hope that maybe finally I'll

get the perfect sentence out of it, which is just it's really not possible.

So you just need to learn to be happy with the work that you've done and

it's better for yourself to be out of and just move on and focus on other things.

And I find in this,

it can be really helpful to bring in someone else like a friend or

someone you trust to kind of share your problem with and get their perspective.

Because once you've been doing something for

a long time, it's really hard to say things objectively.

Because you're very committed to it and

you got a lot of investment in the work that you've done.

Whereas that coming out with a fresh mind and they can see it

from an objective perspective and realize what's actually the best course for you.

Rather than you being saddened on a sudden idea, that's maybe not the best one.

So always talk to someone else and

they're sure to be able to help you

to kind of reach that right moment.

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5.4c Learning to De-Stress & Let Things Go

Problem-Solving Skills for University Success

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