Student leaders face a variety of challenges throughout their academic careers, from trying to excel in the classroom, balance their commitments to their respective organizations, and deal with emotionally draining situations that arise within their professional and personal lives. It’s no surprise that student leaders can sometimes become burnt out due to all that pressure. If you are a student leader, here are five ways to help alleviate some of your stress:
1. Schedule Relaxation
It might sound silly, but blocking out time in your schedule to relax can be helpful. Oftentimes, as leaders, we feel bad about taking a break when there’s so much else that we could be doing. Unless you remind yourself to take a break, you might not even remember how necessary it is.
2. Eat a good meal
Back-to-back meetings, events, classes, and assignments can take up a huge portion of a student leader’s day. It can be easy to forget to eat a proper meal when you’re running all over campus but it is absolutely necessary to eat 3 balanced meals. Without proper nutrition, it’s easier to become exhausted, sick, and overall less productive. Scheduling time to eat is important in order for student leaders to be as effective as they want to be.
3. Have a Support System
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all of your responsibilities, it’s important to have people to talk to. Friends, family, coworkers – all can provide you with support, or even just a listening ear when you’re stressed out.
4. Exercise
Take it from my girl Elle Woods, if you want to be happy, exercise. There are a lot of stress-relieving benefits to exercise including reduced anxiety levels and better sleep. Even just a little bit of exercise can put you in a better mood for almost 12 hours, so if you’re feeling stressed be sure to go for a run.
5. Meditate
Meditation can help take your mind off of whatever is bothering you and give you a chance to “decompress” from those stresses. Focusing your attention away from problems can allow you to return to them with a clearer focus and concentration. Sometimes it can be helpful to take a break so that you can look at an issue from a new perspective.
Student leadership can be a real challenge but there are ways that you can make things easier on yourself by practicing good self-care with these tips. Without proper self-care, student leaders can become burned out and unable to be effective leaders.