Good Ol' Sadness || Cheering Up

We all feel sad. Some of us have depression, like me, where we find ourselves falling into our own dug graves so deep we sometimes lose hope that we won't ever get back out. I'm currently in this rut, I won't lie. By writing this post, I not only want this to build me a ladder of motivation to get out but I hope this will be a little helping hand for those of you who stumble across this - I know I have one or two new followers, so hello and welcome! 

Remember Your Responsibilities

Wait, what?! I can't just sit in my bed watching Netflix, crying and eating French Fries?! No, no you can't. I find this to be a common thing with me where, even just thinking about the things I need to do, I want to retreat back to my bed and ignore the world and pretend like they don't exist. The only problem is that they do, and the more you ignore them the more they build up and add to your existing current problems. Taking care of things like remembering to wash your dishes, pay your bills, and go to school/college/work when you need to will be a weight off your shoulders in the long run and will help you feel productive. It will even give you a focus point, if you drive a lot of energy into making sure you don't run behind with things that need to be done. 

Look After Yourself!

Unsurprisingly, when you feel like you're just waiting until the world ends, you often forget or lack the energy or the care beans to look after yourself. Showering everyday, sleeping at night, eating healthily and exercising, doing your work, taking any meds for your mental health or your physical health needs. I don't personally take medication, but I know so many people who do and just forget. Oh, and drinking plenty of water! Keeping the body of where the brain is stored healthy will eventually result in a little bit more spoons and a little bit more happiness. Eating nothing but Ben and Jerry's ice cream and slouching in your pyjamas on the sofa is going to do nothing but make you feel more crappy. Get into some goals and see this as an excellent opportunity to get healthier. 

Pursue/Find New Hobbies

Personally, I used to love to write and to read and to bake and to take walks and to spend time with animals at rescue centres via volunteer work, but all of this got clouded and when my life fell apart I realized all I really felt like I had left was Once Upon a Time: Season 3. I thought about how I used to have plenty of hobbies, and when I joined college and had a bit of a life change it got pushed to the side. You can always create hobbies if you've never really had any that you've always wanted to do but haven't had the time or the wants to, now is your chance! - learning to play an instrument, improving/learning how to draw, make a video, do something you've wanted to do for a long time. Stop making excuses. Yesterday, you said tomorrow. JUST DO IT!

Be a Positive Person 

I think a good example is Lilly Singh (iisuperwomanii from YouTube) or Emma Blackery, who stopped being involved in negative things like drama. By positive, I understand being depressed means you won't be positive - if you could do that, you wouldn't be depressed. What I mean is say positive things, be nice to people, talk about motivation and friendly quotes and just be so, so nice. Being a nice person will make you feel a little better about yourself. Trust me. Stop paying attention to negative things, stop replying to negative people and just do your thing. You'll thank me later.

Don't Force Yourself 

This doesn't apply to things that need to be done but if it's something like - in my case - completing a monthly reading goal, if you don't feel like picking up that book to read you can try it and if you're really just not into it, you don't have to. Make sure you're looking after yourself. 

I really hoped some of these helped you, they're helping me a little bit, and do let me know what little things you do to make yourself feel better when your life has fallen to shit.  

Exam stress? Here's useless advice!

So, the reason why you're stressed is probably this: you procrastinate and therefore you have not done enough work. Actually, right now, I have two essays to write that have to be done by tomorrow evening and instead of working on them, I am writing this. Even if you do a lot of work...do more. 

I know this is boring, but revising (or studying) every single day will help reduce your stress...by quite a lot. Not for long, just one or two hours and try to focus on the things that you don't actually know. The mistake I did an awful lot for my maths exams back in Year Nine/Year Ten (ages 13-16) was revising stuff I knew but didn't know that well and stuff I knew from the back of my hand and that's it. I didn't even bother trying to learn the 3D shape with the X and Y on it and...yeah, I hope you know that one, because I still don't have a clue.

This one is preached an awful lot, but drinking water and snacking on healthy food often will increase your brain's ability to do a better job, put simply. What's the point in revising a lot if you're not going to remember it, or you'll be so tired on the day of your exam that you just want to fall asleep on the desk rather then spend the little hour you have on that essay? Which is another thing, go to bed early and get at least eight hours rest everyday. Finding a place where you feel like you have the most sleep is best, but it's usually about eight. I think, don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure *nervous giggle*. 

I have also developed revision sheets (I may or may not show in a future post) that I find quite helpful. I, for background information, am re-sitting my A Level exams and coursework, and one of them is "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. The other thing we are doing is poetry by W.B.Yeats, which is...quite a lot of poems, at least ten I think. For poetry, I have created summary sheets quickly explaining what the poem is about, any context that goes with it, important quotes/verse form/words etc that would be useful in the exam, and a quote from another Yeats poem for a quick comparison between them, with the full poem attached to it just in case I want to look over it quickly. For "The Picture of Dorian Gray", I have created very similar profile sheets for each major character in the book, the same goes for themes, and also a couple of sheets each dedicated to critical opinion and context. 

Something I found really useful in my high school exams, too, was printing off past paper questions from online websites and just doing at least three or four per week and continuously improving them and improving them, because not only does this help you practice actual writing but as you do it, all the useful information you need will start to sink into your head. Do it in exam style conditions, which would only take an hour per essay for example if you're doing English Literature like me, or however long you'll think will be given per question if you're doing something like science or geography.

I never had any friends in school, so if you're like me on that front, don't worry about having someone there to ask questions to and have them tell you if you're right or wrong, you can do that yourself with study cards! You can get them in a variety of colours so they're pretty useful. Which reminds me, making things eye catching for you (it doesn't matter if they are to anyone else), that will help you take the information in, especially if you're a visual learner. 

Remember, the more work you do, the less stressed you get, I promise. It'll all be worth it in the end.

With that said, I wish you good luck on your upcoming exams and will see you for my next post!