This article was first published in August 2018.
You know it: life can be stressful.
Getting your results, applying for jobs, taking resits鈥 All this can leave you tearing your hair out. You might feel too drained to do much, and that鈥檚 totally fine. However, entertainment and distraction are as important as resting. We鈥檝e asked our coaches for their advice on all things self-care, with a sprinkle of tips on how to keep your self-confidence up.
In this short film, our coaches give their tips on how to up your self-care and self-confidence game.
"One thing that affects your efficiency and how well you're working is that downtime. If you look at any successful person, in whatever field you look at, they have something that they like to spend time doing outside of their work or their career. It's very important to find what it is for you."
"I'm partial to the occasional video game, but that really helped me. You don't have to be into video games. It can be drawing, it can be running, it can be exercising, playing sports, anything you like."
"I would recommend sports. Scientifically, sports are proven to improve your mood and health and well-being, so have something like that and it'll complement your work.
"Just make sure you have a schedule of 'this is when I'm working, this is when I'm revising, this is when I'm enjoying myself and relaxing'."
"Make sure you've got that time to yourself, as well as to revise. It's really up to you, but you need to find something you enjoyand then you can use the set of skills that you've learned from that in other places to help develop your own confidence. If you're like me, you're probably never going to be confident. Sorry to break it to you, but you're probably never going to be totally confidentin absolutely everything you do. Definitely, definitely fake it until you make it!"
If you鈥檙e not feeling quite right:
- Before you do anything else, check in with yourself: are you sleeping well? Are you eating the right things? Have you seen and spoken to other people in the past few days?
- Don鈥檛 deny yourself some fun! Whether you鈥檙e revising, planning for your first year at uni, or you have a deadline you can鈥檛 miss: you can鈥檛 work all the time. Don鈥檛 feel guilty about having some downtime
- But don鈥檛 confuse self-care with sitting mindlessly in front of a screen. That鈥檚 OK for a limited amount of time, but your brain and soul also need time with friends and family, being in nature, and meaningful me-time
- Everyone feels inadequate from time to time, but low self-esteem can be really upsetting. Every time you think something like: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 do this鈥, challenge those thoughts. Would you speak to your best friend like that? You probably wouldn鈥檛, so be your best friend!
- If you鈥檝e tried giving yourself some TLC and you鈥檙e still not feeling great, talk to your GP 鈥 they will be able to help.
If you need support
You should always tell someone about the things you鈥檙e worried about. You can tell a friend, parent, guardian, teacher, or another trusted adult. If you're struggling with your mental health, going to your GP can be a good place to start to find help. Your GP can let you know what support is available to you, suggest different types of treatment and offer regular check-ups to see how you鈥檙e doing.
If you鈥檙e in need of in-the-moment support you can contact , where you can speak to a counsellor. Their lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
There are more links to helpful organisations on 成人论坛 Action Line.
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