Tips To Help You Balance School Life With Your Mental Health
By
Izzy
Overview
- What do you do when your psyche isn't collaborating with your schoolwork?
- What do you do when you watch your marks catapult further into the ground?
- What do you do if you can't find motivation and are struggling with school?
1. You come first
School is important. But you are more important.
Therefore, before worrying about frivolous marks and assessments, get yourself in check first.
Eat your greens, drink enough water, get eight hours sleep, see your friends and family and make some time to chill. Look after the pillars that hold you up and keep you sane, because you really need 'em.
2. Distract yourself
Start to think about what makes you happy or what distracts you when you're frazzled.
You might consider yourself a magician with words, so writing may be your thing. Perhaps you like to paint even if you're absolutely hopeless at it (no need to lie anymore Mum, I know I'm bad). You could even start to get active and go out for a surf, swim or run.
If you can't quite put your finger on what makes you happy or distracts you, then it's time to get experimenting!
Try and cook up a mean feed with ingredients you find in your pantry or start a little forest in your room with plants and succulents. Whenever I get frazzled, I go straight to my violin and jam it out.
Distract yourself with something worthwhile. And who knows, this could make you write a film script or become a world-renowned surfer.
By practising something before school or before you do some studying, you're bound to feel a little happier and more accomplished.
3. Work out new ways to study
One way could be studying for 15 minutes every morning before school or finding a special spot outside that keeps you zen while you're studying.
Even try listening to music in the background or calming sounds to get your juices going.
Study with friends, study with your dogs- do anything that will make the process bearable.
4. Don't beat yourself up
Don't knock yourself down when you get a bad mark or forget some homework. Be your biggest fan and hype yourself up.
Stop dwelling on the past and start focusing on what you can do now to help future you.
5. Let it out
Bottling up emotions will only make things worse. Open up to your friends, open up to your family and if you struggle to talk to them or feel that it's not enough, contact a school councillor.
If you're not entirely comfortable with expressing through words, buy a journal and commit to writing every thought for 20 minutes every day. Even record voice memos on your phone and vent about your feelings and how you want to better yourself and consequently your school grades. Let it out!
Year13 encourages anyone struggling to speak out about your mental health and seek help if you need it:
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Helpline 1800 551 800
MensLine Australia 1300 789 978
Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36
Headspace 1800 650 890
