StudySkills@TheLibrary
How To Stay Positive About Your Schoolwork
It can be difficult to stay positive at all times about your schoolwork, particularly if you have personal challenges or are struggling to balance online learning. When we allow pressure and stress to build up, we can let go of good habits and invite bad ones. This can result in students feeling even more drained and exhausted.
The key to being positive and managing negative emotions in pressure situations is to “fuel up”. “Fuelling Up” is about boosting wellbeing factors in your life. You need to boost the wellbeing factors in your BODY, MIND and EMOTIONS.
Exercise and practice relaxation and mindfullness
BODY: Here are some things you can do to boost the energy in your BODY
Get better sleep.
Feeling good all starts with getting the right amount and type of sleep. Start with a good nightly routine. Minimise stimulants such as caffeine, TV or computer, iPad or phone screens etc. Try a warm drink such as chamomile tea and use essential oils such as lavender. Having a soothing bath or shower can also help, along with gentle stretching to ease those tight or tense muscles. If you still feel you are not getting a “good” sleep, be sure to see your doctor.
Eat in Moderation
Never skip a meal, especially breakfast. Breakfast replenishes your body and helps you start your day full of energy. Eat three main meals, and two to three snack meals a day. Eating five to six times in a day keeps your blood sugar balanced, giving you an overall sense of well-being needed for focusing on your tasks and responsibilities.
Exercise Regularly
Regular exercise, at least three times per week for a minimum of 30 minute sessions, can virtually “soak up” stress chemicals in your body and help you to relax and even sleep better. Brisk walking, aerobic classes, swimming, bike riding, or jogging are great exercises to release stress buildup and relax your body and mind to either start or end your day right. Yoga and mindfulness are also helpful to reduce stress and relax.
MIND: Here are some things you can do to THINK more positive
Change your thinking and perceptions
Write down your top 5 fears and worries. What’s the worst thing that can happen? Then ask yourself, “IS THAT TRUE”? Usually fears and worries are not based on reality but on imagined scenarios that have little to no evidence. If it’s something that can’t be changed bring acceptance to it. It is what it is for now!
Change your focus
Have you noticed that what we worry about we make bigger and keep closer to us by the way we think and focus. Try this…make your fears and worries SMALL in size (5 cm in height) DARK in brightness and as far away as possible in DISTANCE. When we change the size, brightness and distance of the things that upset us in our minds it reduces the intensity of the emotion.
EMOTIONS: Here are some things you can do to FEEL more positive
Acts of kindness
Make a list of 5 acts of kindness you can do every day. Make them simple acts of kindness that are easy to do such as saying thank you etc. Do these 5 acts of kindness every day for 6 weeks. The research shows that people that do this and think of 3 good things in their life (as above) have a dramatic positive boost in their mood.
'Three good things' exercise
Every day at the start and end of your day think of 3 good things that happened. Write them down. Then think about either WHY those good things happened or how it MADE YOU FEEL when those good things happened.
Start ticking things off your list
Pick something small and achievable to start with that you need to do for school and get it done. You will feel much more positive when you start doing things. Do a few more easy things to get your confidence up then tackle a more challenging task.
The College Library
