Stress Busters!

Exam season is nigh.

   I am on study leave, I've already had two exams and I've got three more big ones to go so I'm definitely in the exam zone. My French oral exam was okay but after some reflection, maybe it wasn't a good idea to start talking about Justin Bieber's recent issues with the press when my teacher asked me to talk about things  and bad influences that can cause delinquency amongst young people...

  But let's not dwell on that. This post is on how to relieve stress. I've already had my 'Oh-my-gosh-I-don't-know-anything-my-exams-will-go-badly-and-I-wont-get-into-Dream-Uni-and-my-life-will-be-over' panic attack/breakdown and now that that's out of the way, I want to help others get over it and power through. Those that know me will know that I encourage all sorts of positiveness and I absolutely loathe when people are negative. Of course, we're only human and we will occasionally had the odd freak out here and there but we shouldn't let this be too often. If you feel yourself become stressed and you are staring at your notes and are about to cry because there's so much to know and you feel like nothing is going in, don't yell at your family members like I did (sorry, Tai). Here are a few methods that work for me that you can try:

1) Take a break. Revising under stress is never a good idea so take a 10-15 minute break to get a drink (tea for me) have a snack, read a chapter of your book, catch up on tweets (unfollow negative people that stress you out if it helps) and normally after this, you'll feel ready to tackle your revision with a clearer mind. In fact, I am currently on a break and I am using it to write this post and blogging is another good stress buster.

2) Listen to some music. I personally have an 'inspirational songs' playlist that may or may not include some Destiny's Child ('Survivor' is my revision fave). This will lift the mood, as long as you stay away from depressing songs about failure. In fact, Magic FM has a 'stress busters' session at night with soothing songs that are good to revise to. ClassicFM is another personally favourite or FranceMusique for French keenos like myself.

3) Watch a few funny YouTube videos. I am a huge fan of Charlie McDonnell, Kingsley and Dan Howell and their videos always make me laugh and feel less stressed. But 'few' is the key word as it is easy to get carried away and spend hours on YouTube. Trust me, I've been there.

4) Knit! I am a keen knitter and I am currently working on a scarf for a baby girl. It is very fun and it is an excellent way to feel less stressed. And yes, people will call you an 'old lady' for doing it but who cares because unlike them, you won't be stressed and revision might even become dare I say it, 'fun'.

5) Set yourself revision challenges. During GCSE study leave, my sister and I set ourselves the challenge of learning Nicki Minaj's 'Superbass' in our revision breaks. It sounds weird but it definitely made revision more interesting! We haven't picked a rap for this year yet though...

6) Finally, I find making a revision timetable very efficient. With this, you can make sure that you're revising all subjects and you have a set time to start and finish each day. In addition, you can make the timetable suit you and how you work. For example, I like to sleep in so I normally start revising at around 1pm and I can revise till midnight, and I stop to catch up on the TV that I've missed in the day/ watch a film till about 4am.

That's all, folks. If exams don't finish me, I'll be back. Till then, happy revisin'!

Random acts of kindness

 
Hi.

    So, it turns out that my French oral exam is actually next week and not this week like it was supposed to be due to circumstances beyond my control. Most people would have been overjoyed by the prospect of having an extra week to revise but not me. I was quite bitter about it for a while (I ranted to anyone who would listen) because I was really ready to have it this week and I don't like to over revise as that just allows panic to set in and you can often start to forget things. However, I got over my anger and I've decided to take this as a blessing. Maybe this extra week of practice will help me get that A* instead of an A (but I would be very very chuffed with an A, that's all dream uni is asking for).

  Due to all this extra revision, I haven't had much time to read for fun (sad times). Therefore, this will not be a book reviewing post, unfortunately. I want to talk about random acts of kindness and doing nice things to surprise people. I'm often told that I tend to go over the top for birthday presents. For example, I once gave someone £50 because he was my first friend at the second school that I go to. He wasn't expecting it at all which made it even better. I made a friend a scarf and another a tie because I'd promised them months earlier that I'd do it. They were shocked that I remembered my promise when I gave it to them as well as being surprised at the fact that I had also bought them cakes. Another example which I view as one of the best things that I've ever done is the time that I gave my bestfriend tickets to meet Justin Bieber. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love Justin Bieber but seeing her face and how happy it made her to meet him was a reward to me in itself. OTT, I know, but they all deserved it.

  So, why do I do this? I think that great people deserve great things, especially if they're good friends. I also make a big deal of birthdays because being one year older is something that we shouldn't take for granted as not everyone in the world is that lucky.

  Hopefully, I'll have a book post soon but now, I shall leave you with the 'cookie cake' that inspired this post. He said, "Why are you doing this for me?" I said, "Because we're friends!" And the fact that he didn't expect it is exactly why he got it.