University life sure is great, but sometimes it is a little overwhelming balancing work, study and a desire to be social. The normal response to everything that is going on in our lives is stress. Although small amounts of stress can be healthy, if left to linger, stress can become detrimental to our mental and physical well-being. So, what does stress look like?

Mental symptoms:

• Racing thinking and thoughts
• Constant worrying
• Difficulty to concentrate and make decisions
• Negative bias
• Memory problems
• Emotional Symptoms
• General unhappiness
• Moodiness
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Agitation
• Loneliness

Physical symptoms:

• Muscle tension
• Nausea and dizziness
• Aches, pains and headaches
• Rapid heart rate
• Shaking
• Frequent colds and flues
• Difficulty sleeping

So, you're stressed! What can you do? One of the best things to do is to practice self-care. Self-care includes all those deliberate (sometimes little, sometimes big) things that we do to make time for ourselves. Self-care isn’t selfish. Self-care is all about creating healthy habits to manage your well-being and stressful times.

Ideas for Self-Care:

• Fix yourself a warm cup of tea
• Unplug for an hour
• Do some colouring in 
• Scratch a lurker off your to-do list (e.g. book that dentist appointment)
• Try meditating
• Pick up that book you never finished
• Make one small diet change for the week
• Get outside
• Write down your thoughts
• Express gratitude
• Say no to something
• Get your body moving
• Pamper yourself
• Make a time with a friend
• Do something you loved doing as a child
• Listen to music
• Watch the clouds or spot the stars
• Buy some flowers for your table/room
• Create a ‘no’ list of things you no longer want to do or have time for (e.g. not checking emails at night, not answering the phone during lunch or dinner)