unwind

[aria]

By Saturday the twelfth I will have completed 90% of my work and can hopefully stop feeling as though there's a meltdown imminent. In the meantime, though, Aria's five ways to briefly unwind from academic stress:

1. The tried-and-true scouring of the internet for entertaining things. Some current favourites: *Hark! A Vagrant; *Autocomplete Me; *Muppets Studio; *ADORABLE BBC Doctor Who Christmas indent; *A priest, a rabbi, and an ATA user walk into a bar ...; *New Moon parody that ships Edward/Jacob. I never pretended to have taste.

2. Hoarding little bottles of girly drinks and attempting to write porn. Caution: don't try this on week nights or your future self will hate you.

3. Watching comfort telly. See re: my previous statement about having no taste; my comfort telly ranges from "Anything with Paul Gross in, provided I don't have to hide behind my hands too often" to "Scenes from the High School Musicals" to "I think I need to watch a lieutenant colonel is being beaten for the twentieth time."

4. Going to the gym and biking or running until there's no room at all for worrying and cataloguing everything I still need to do, and the only thing left is if I can get my body to behave, I can get my mind to behave too. I run longer on loud Hugh Dillon music than I do with anything else, but YMMV.

5. Sleeping. Sleeping as much as I possibly can.

I notice that when I'm stressed out I tend to spend as much time alone as possible, but I think that's fairly healthy; this way I don't take out my stress on my friends, and I have the time to just settle into myself and center. What do you guys do to reduce stress? I'm very much in keeping-the-panic-at-bay mode and I'm always up for more calming and happy-making.

Comments

[feverbeats]

I will be mostly done by then, too! \o/ We should watch Velvet Goldmine before the end of the semester.

You sound like you totally have a handle on making finals as sane as possible! I have not yet worked out how to do that, so instead I just blew off grad school writing to watch DW and read a fuckton of fic. :D?

[aria]

EXCELLENT. I mean, I will still have a research paper to do, but it's essentially the only thing I have at that point. Watching this is a go!

And ahaha, you did not see me literally shaking with nervous adrenaline earlier this evening. But I suppose I mostly have a handle on things! Also, blowing off important stuff to watch DW and read fic is always valid. /o\

[schiarire]

I'm a stress-sleeper too... and a stress-caffeinator. These are two tricks that don't play well together!

I also find listening to Thich Nhat Hanh very good. But sometimes I'm too stressed out and can't let him in because my mind is too busy rolling around shouting 'you will never do or be anything.'

[aria]

I recommend stress-sleep over stress-caffeine! This is probably because sleep makes me feel slightly saner. Being wired ... doesn't.

Don't believe your mind when it does that! <333

[sasha_feather]

Lately I feel stressed and I am... taking a lot of showers. Also washing dishes. I think it's something about the hot water that I find helpful.

The 12th, that is soon! You will get there. <3

[aria]

Mm, that sounds absolutely lovely. Hot water is helpful.

And yes, I will! Thank you. <333