Give yourself a break – top tips on de-stressing for free
Published on 11 May 12
Long of hours of study and the pressure of looming exams can all take their toll. You are pushing your body and your mind to the limit – and you need to rest and recuperate in order to perform at your best.
• Don’t just sit there. Vegetate at your desk all day and your productivity will dwindle, along with your mood. Physical activity boosts your mood, relieves tension, and provides a therapeutic time-out. Take a gentle 20-minute walk around your nearest park, hop on your bike and cycle round the block, or just run up and down the stairs listening to the Rocky theme tune!
• Clear your mind. You aren’t working right now, so why are you thinking about work? Distract yourself from your worries and escape from the atmosphere of busily revising housemates or stressed out students in the Library, by visiting an art gallery or museum. It doesn’t have to be a big day out or an intense cultural experience, just a nice stroll amongst beautiful and interesting objects – with the added bonus of keeping you out of the rain!
The Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Museum are both owned by the University, are located on Oxford road, and offer free entry.
Sign up today for a free tour of the new Alan Turing exhibition at the Manchester Museum.
• Free massages, free meditation sessions and even free fruit. Next week, your Students’ Union is pulling out all the stops to improve your wellbeing with their Mental Health awareness week. Make sure you take full advantage of their impressive freebies, and specially designed chill out space and put yourself into a good mood – after all that’s what it’s there for. Click here for full details of the week’s events.
• Visit the Orchestra. Really. There’s a reason the richest people in the world shell out on tickets to the Orchestra – it’s awesome. As in you will be left full of awe, which is a pretty nice feeling. But before you sell all your worldly possessions and buy an opera box, why not stop by St Anne’s church (opposite the Students’ Union) on a Wednesday lunch time? The talented students from the Royal Northern College of Music perform free recitals there. And for the full orchestral shebang, visit the RNCM website to see the date of the next free performance in their Orchestral hall.
• Make some noise for Manchester's rowers. Manchester and Salford will go head-to-head in the 41st annual Two Cities Boat Race on Saturday 19 May. A series of nail biting races will begin at 12:30pm from Salford Watersports Centre and finish at the Lowry Bridge, Salford Quays. Cheer our teams on and let off some steam by taking a bus or tram to the Quays. This year the boat race will form part of a bigger celebration - 'Looping the Loop' - to welcome the start of the London 2012 Games in the Northwest, so there will be plenty going on.
• Keep up with your hobbies. Cutting out football practice, your usual Zumba class or weekly trip to the cinema might seem like a good idea to squeeze in an extra few hours of study, but you run the risk of burning out too quickly. Cutting out all the activities that make you happy is counter productive – reward yourself for your hard work, and stave off undue pressure by grounding yourself in your usual routines.
• Help others help you. If you feel like you aren’t coping, worrying that you are doing something wrong or could fail, then do something about it now. There is no point just going through the motions, coming out of an exam and saying “that went as badly as I thought it would”. It is not too late to get help.