Love Your Mind
We know that there is a clear link between managing your wellbeing and academic performance.
The Student Wellbeing Service at Buxton is setting up a Love your Mind Resource, which when fully established will have links for information advice and support and run a series of workshops to promote wellbeing.
We are in the process of setting up a series of workshops to cover a range of wellbeing issues throughout the academic year, workshops will focus on helping you to improve your academic performance and university experience. Details of the workshops can be found here.
» Food
A healthy diet is important not just for our physical and mental health. It also allows us to maintain concentration and energy - which are vital for studying and surviving the busy student lifestyle.
If your diet is poor you will end up feeling sluggish, tired, and struggling to concentrate and you may also find your mood become lower.
We have lots of tips on how to maintain a healthy diet and how to eat well cheaply.
» Exercise
Exercise helps us to sleep and relax, it increases our energy levels and improves concentration and memory.
Exercise also helps to get rid of the adrenaline that anxiety stimulates.
Student life can seem very busy and in stressful times like exam periods it can be easy to stop exercising, but in doing so you will probably reduce your energy levels and your academic performance.
Find time to exercise regularly during the day and make sure you are getting at least 2 hours of cardio-vascular exercise each week.
However, you should avoid exercising late in an evening. Allow time for your body to recuperate and relax after exercise before going to bed.
» Stay Safe
Buxton is a safe and friendly town but as with any place bad things can happen. To keep yourself safe when out and about follow these tips:
- Walk confidently and be aware of what is going on around you at all times.
- If you are planning to get drunk make sure you know how you are getting home before you go out. Book a taxi or make an arrangement with a friend to get home together.
- Keep bags closed, zipped up and buckled. Be extra careful with rucksacks. If someone grabs it, let it go. Bags and their contents can be replaced.
- Carry your wallet out of sight.
- When using a cash machine, go in daylight or choose a well lit one.
- If you are taking your laptop somewhere keep it hidden in an annonymous bag like a rucksack. If you take your mobile out with you, keep it hidden and keep calls brief.
- If you suspect you are being followed, cross over the road to see if they follow. If they do, go in to a shop or pub to call a friend or the police.
- Have your house keys ready before you reach the door and carry them in your pockets, not in your bag. Rummaging around for them means you are not looking at what is around you.
- Remember if you are chatting on the phone or listening to music, you will not hear someone come up behind you. Your hearing is your best protection: your voice is your best defence. If you are attacked, shout and run.
- If something does happen to you, report it to the police and campus authorities. You could stop it happening to someone else.
- Personal Alarms are available from all UDSU reception points, charged at a minimal cost but well worth investing in for your personal safety and peace of mind.
» Sleep
We can not underestimate how important a good nights sleep is for academic performance and our physical and mental wellbeing.
If we get less sleep than we need then we become tired, irritable and less able to function. Lack of sleep also reduces our ability to concentrate, remember and think creatively - all of which are vital for academic work.
This in turn can impact on our mood as we feel less able to cope with life, which in turn increases anxiety and disrupts our sleep further. All of this usually stops once the 'sleep debt' is repaid.
It can be difficult at the start of term to establish a good sleeping pattern. There are lots of parties and conversations in people's rooms that go on late in to the night. You may also be sleeping in a new room in halls or a student house and your sleep may be more disturbed while you get used to your new environment.
Don't worry if this is happening to you. Student life does settle down after the first few weeks and once you catch up on your sleep you will be fine.
» Work and Life Balance
For some students finding time to fit course work, paid work, socialising and time for themselves into each day will seem like a challenge.
For others suddenly having lots of time that is not structured by somebody else can make the days apparently stretch ahead with nothing to do.
It is important as a university student that each day has a structure that is manageable for you. Feeling like you have too much to cram into each day can lead to increased anxiety. Feeling like time is drifting by with no purpose can lower your mood and lead to depression.
Planning your time
Managing your time well can help you achieve more, lead to a balanced life, reduce stress and overcome procrastination.
In order to use your time well you need to plan - without a plan time will slip away and you will not accomplish the things you wanted to.
Plan out all the things you need to do each week - include some fun things as well as the coursework and paid work that you need to complete. It is important that you have time to relax and enjoy yourself otherwise stress will begin to build and it will affect your academic performance.
Divide your list of things to do into two - fixed commitments, such as assignments that must be submitted on time and flexible commitments, those things that could wait until another time.
Then allot time during the week to complete these tasks. Use a timetable and be realistic, if you can't fit the tasks into the timetable on paper then they won't fit into the day.
If you are finding yourself getting stuck, it may be that sitting down with a friend, member of the Student Wellbeing Service or counsellor could be helpful.
For example, you might realise through examining how you spend time, that you seem to be procrastinating. There are lots of reasons why people put off starting tasks or following through on them. Perfectionism (e.g. the feeling that everything you do must turn out 'just right') or fear of failure might be one reason. If you feel this is affecting you, make an appointment to see a Student Adviser on t: 01332 594 414.
» Homesickness
If this is the first time you have lived away from home you may find yourself missing family and friends. This is simply because you are naturally attached to familiar people and places. The problem can be compounded further for international students by the culture shock of discovering a new country.
Homesickness often dissolves away naturally in the first few weeks of term as you get involved more in your course and social life. The university environment can become familiar pretty quickly, which tends to give a sense of calm and control.
Your homesickness may continue if you are struggling to find your niche, or if there are problems at home that you are worrying about. If you still feel homesick after a few weeeks, don't lose confidence that you can adjust to living independently from home.
Homesickness can also be caused by:
- A sense of anticlimax - you have finally arrived at university after working towards it for so long.
- Unhappiness when things are different to your expectations of student life.
- A heavy workload.
- Those who are homesick often feel they have no control over their environment, and that they are not identified with it or committed to the university or their place in it.
What might help?
- Talk to someone. If you have not yet made friends then try a member of the Student Wellbeing Service, the Chaplaincy, a Student Union Adviser or a member of halls staff.
- Keep in contact with home but make a real effort to make new friends at university too. Decide whether the best policy for you is to have frequent contact with home (because contact makes you feel better), or little contact (because contact makes you feel worse). Think carefully about whether or not to go home at weekends. Some students find it helps to ease the transition: others find the constant readjustment makes them feel worse.
- Make a real effort to join societies/activities and to make at least one or two friends. This might feel very difficult, but the more you feel part of campus life, the less homesick you will feel.
- Be realistic about what to expect from your university and from yourself. Establish a balance between work and leisure: you are not expected to work all the time - you would soon burn out. On the other hand, if you dont put in enough time on work, you can very quickly get behind, which only adds to your stress.
- Try to establish a routine as soon as possible. The fuller your days are, the less time you will have to feel homesick or lonely.
- Give yourself time to adjust: you don't have to get everything right straight away. Nor do you have to rush into making major decisions about staying or leaving.
