In the first term of university it’s very easy to just bustle yourself through every day; freshers’ week, fresher’s fayre, society meets and coursework. Often having some downtime is the last thing on your list. One minute you’re juggling all these exciting new things and the next minute you’ll have no energy to do anything at all and everything can spin out of your control very quickly.
This is where time to yourself and downtime should be part of/ integrated into your weekly load. What I mean by that isn’t just lying in bed watching the 9th episode in a row of some show on Netflix, but some time you can set aside to just relax and allow yourself to slow time down a bit; take a few deep breaths and listen to some music (listening to ocean sounds is up there for me). It doesn’t have to be time alone in your room, it could be nipping into town and sitting down for a coffee or ice cream (weather depending), going to look at the latest art exhibition at the library or riding your bike around for a bit, exploring parts of town you haven’t touched before.
Getting into the habit of claiming back some time to yourself has endless benefits in the long run and can help to calm your mind during stressful periods of term, not to mention benefiting the levels of tolerance you have for those ‘difficult’ housemates you might live with.