Abi shares her tips on dealing with challenging times at uni

While your time at university may be full of positive moments, there will probably be times where you might feel down or low as well.

Working through these bad times is important as you want to get the most out of your university experience. 

Here are some suggestions on how to navigate feeling low and how to improve your mood while at university!

1: Reach Out For Help

There are multiple support services available at university such as the well being service, Residential Advisers and Hall Wardens that you can talk to about any problems you are facing. When you feel down it can be hard to see the bigger picture of things for example you may feel low then get yourself into a negative thought spiral and let things build up so you can’t rationalise situations in your head. By speaking to somebody, they can help you rationalise it so you don’t make any rush decisions like wanting to quit university because you are feeling down.

Similarly to support staff, family and friends can help too! While you may think that now you have moved away from home you have to manage everything on your own and be independent, a FaceTime call can go a long way in opening up about feeling down and help boost your mood. If you have friends from home also at university, they could be feeling the same way as you so you can help each other through bad times.

Find out more about support available to you while living at Halls.

2: Creating Routines

One way which has helped me improve my mood and mental health is creating little routines for myself which I do everyday no matter how I’m feeling. While you may sometimes lack motivation to do anything, even small things can help you feel more in control and that you have achieved some thing each day. Examples of routines could be getting fresh air and exercise every day, spend time preparing a nice meal or putting your favourite music on while having a nice shower. Like anything, building routines takes practise but can lead to big results. I have found that even leaving my room and doing work somewhere else helps me focus better and lifts my mood. A routine I would recommend is to create a PowerPoint or document then put photos of happy moments or new things you have tried throughout the semester so, you can document all of the great experiences you have had while at university.

3: Reward Yourself

Whether it is buying your favourite snack, finding a nice plant, or giving yourself a day off studying, there are lots of ways to be kind to yourself when you are feeling down and reward yourself for all the new experiences you have gathered whilst being at university. When you aren’t studying you have navigated how to live in a flat with strangers, moved into a new city and began learning about your degree subject in a new way compared to being at school. When you take all of these factors into consideration, you realise that it is ok to reward yourself for balancing all of these new things!

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