Stress

Hi,
My name's Alisha and I am the Queen of Stress - bow down to your queen people!!!!!!!!!!!

No matter what I do, I get stressed; no matter its importance. Which is not good because I either get really ill - one of the only times I do get ill because I have quite a good immune system - or I just curl up a ball and cry loads. It's usually the latter to be honest. I really do cry quite a bit.

The most stressed I've ever been was definitely my G.C.S.Es. I had all my exams in the May/June of 2014 and I have 26 exams all together; so I think you can all imagine my stress. Having to know everything for all 26 exams is hard enough as it is, but by having not learnt everything on the courses by the Easter; you can understand my panic. Also the pressure that my parents, grandparents, teachers and even friends but on me unknowingly made it even harder. I'm fairly intelligent but not that intelligent either. I do like to learn things, don't get me wrong, I mean I'm one of those weird children who loves school and I can never get my nose out of a book; but my brain mainly runs on creative/practical stuff. You know like singing, acting, dancing and writing - duh. So it takes a while for me to learn everything.
So having very intelligent friends who didn't need to revise excessively as I did ... do ... to achieve top grades was even worse.

For me a lot of time at G.C.S.Es was spent curled up in a ball, crying my eyes out and eating about triple my body weight in sweets and other comfort foods like that - genuinely I put on like 2kg in the monthish of exams alone. All that wasn't great for me because it meant that I lost time doing the revision that needed to be done.

And I know I'm probably going to be in a similar state for my a-levels because I'm the idiot who decided to do my pathway and two bloody demanding additionals on top. Oh ... do excuse my french.

But that isn't good - I really don't want to be spending the next two years either being sick or crying all the time thank you very much - so I now follow some rules/guidelines that I thought I should share with you all because stress really isn't your friend.

1 - Start revision early.
I know, this one sounds obvious but literally start revision straight away because  the longer you get to work on something the longer you're going to have to remember it so the more you'll be able to remember by the end of it.

2 - Have a timetable.
This one is a given too and you will be told by loads of people - parents, teachers etc ... But it really does help. Split up your work load into manageable chunks and you will get a lot more work done, trust me.

3 - Get rid of distractions.
So that means one thing and one thing only. GET RID OF YOUR PHONE!!!!!!! Sorry, I had to shout, it was the only way to get my word across. I know that this one is hard, my generation is the one that has a phone permanently attached to their phone. Literally. I expect most were pushed out of their mother's womb/uterus/thing - whatever you want to call it -  with a phone in their hand, screaming as they tried to get their highest score on flappy bird. Well, okay, maybe not but you get what I'm saying - we're obsessed with our phones!!!!!! Anyway, having your phone around is a major distraction and you won't get any work done and trust me when I say that this will seriously stress you out! Also get rid of friends and family too. Work time is work time, no friends allowed. Put your phone on silent and in another room, turn the wifi off so that facebook, twitter or youtube will not become you or call for any distractions. I know some of these things might sound a little but harsh but if you want to do well then do these things; trust me it really helps.

4 - Breaks
This is really important, save some time off to relax. Toilet breaks. Coffee breaks. Whatever. But on these breaks please go out of the room and go and do something. A fresh mind is a clever mind. Just wait until the end of your section to go and have a break; unless you really can't concentrate then I go and spend sometime outside with my adorable ferrets. They always distract me and help me relax a little bit.

5 - Relax
This is probably the  most important thing you are going to read in this post. Relax. At some point we all need to go and relax. Whether that's curling up with the telly or a book or just spending some time doing with me. Whether that's going out with your friends or stuffing your face with Ben and Jerry's. It really doesn't matter. As long as you don't spend every single second of the day revising or working then you'll be fine, because if you do, your brain is likely to explode! Trust me on this, I know, that has almost happened to me on multiple occasions.
Sometimes just stop work and forget about it for the day. Have a pamper session and just relax.
I'm going to do a post soon about my stress relief pamper session, so don't worry. It will help.

By doing some of this stuff, you will feel slightly less stressed compared to before. Just eat a lot of junk/comfort food and you will feel a lot better. I promise.

-IAMAGEEKINGGINGER!
XXX