Featured Student: How do you nurture yourself?

School is tough, there’s no two ways about it. Besides getting to class at 8am twice a week (that’s me in Chemistry), there’s homework, tests, papers, dreaded group projects. And all of this takes time…precious time! If you’re like me, you find yourself exclaiming multiple times a day to anyone who will listen, “It’s _____ o’clock already? Where did the day GO?”
It’s an old, boring conversation that I have with myself, but it’s true. I’m just so dang busy all the time. And because the life of a student (and I work full time, too) is very demanding, it leaves little time for self-care and nurturing.
“Um, excuse me, Amanda,” you say. “Who the heck as time for THAT?”

Yeah, yeah, I knew you were going to say that. But trust me on this, folks, taking care of yourself, especially when you’re frazzled, is the most important skill you can develop (And here you thought I was going to say calculating BMI and fat grams!) Trust me on this.

Last semester was KILLER for me. I had a few minor (OK, major) meltdowns and I felt like I was going insane. And during that time, I stopped doing the things that made me feel better: exercising a lot, writing in my journal, cooking, seeing or talking with friends, taking baths, and that slightly important activity called SLEEP. If I was a cookie jar, I only had crumbs left.

After the semester ended, I vowed that I wouldn’t do that to myself again. I couldn’t. I wasn’t happy nor was I enjoying my studies.  So this semester is different. I’m carving out ME time: going to the gym, taking baths, going to yoga, getting a manicure or pedicure, a massage even. Self indulgent? Maybe. But necessary, and my sanity is well worth it. I feel more like ME, and thus I am a heck of a lot happier.

So my question to you is: What form of self-nurturing can you add to your life this week? Some simple ideas of self-care:

      -go to bed one hour earlier

      -start reading the fiction novel you wanted to read (no cheating: nothing nutrition related)

      -go to the gym, take a yoga class

      -cook a meal, bake a cake

      -buy yourself some flowers

      -buy some new music on iTunes and get dancing

Now, that wasn’t too hard, was it? I promise, one small action to take care of NOW yourself will greatly pay off in the long run.