Protect your wellbeing this winter

12 Spotlight t

Written by Lizzie Hayselden

What is Wellbeing?

To start us off, wellbeing is a general satisfaction with your quality of life. Often, it’s associated with our moods and emotions. Now, this spread has been created with the intention of empowering you to improve your own wellbeing. So, feel free to use the advice below however you want.

Life Habits

Sleep: Adults always stress the importance of getting 8 hours of sleep. But that isn’t always attainable. Instead, try this. We go through 90-minute sleep cycles and if we wake up between them (either at the end or beginning), we feel less groggy in the morning. So, if you’d like to make waking up less painful, try planning to fall asleep for 4,5, or 6 sleep cycles. Websites, like sleepyti.me, can work this out for you.

Work Ethic: It’s been said before but getting into the habit of completing work as soon as you get it makes life so much easier. Not only are you less stressed about deadlines, it frees up your weekend to do things you actually enjoy. Yes, it takes dedication but it’s worth it.

Work Environment: While boring at first, completing your work in silence or with non-distracting music can improve your focus and memory of revision. But, this all depends on how you work. You may find you focus better with piano in the background, film scores, or even foreign songs that you don’t know the words to.

Work Environment: If you find yourself heading home after your lessons and struggling to concentrate on your work, staying in college during your frees may help. For most working in the library is a lot easier as there’s far less distractions than at home.

Wellness Online

Many social media accounts promoting wellbeing, targeted at teens, talk about self-care all the time. What they tend to leave out is the difference between selfcare and self-soothing. First of all, self-soothing behaviour is any technique that you use to regulate your emotional state while selfcare is any technique you use to improve wellbeing, whether physical, mental, or emotional. An example of self-soothing behaviour could be listening to a certain song when you’re feeling quite anxious.

But, an example of self-care could be going for a run or doing some yoga. So, if you are in an emotional state and you are too anxious, stressed, or even angry, try practicing self-soothing behaviour that works for you. If you are in a rather calm state, try practicing self-care to improve your wellbeing in general. Essentially, noticing the difference between the two behaviours will enable you to self-regulate your emotions and improve your wellbeing in the long run.

Psychology says

Interestingly, psychologists have discovered that it’s quite natural for humans to procrastinate and put off difficult tasks that make us uncomfortable. We’re actually wired to take the path of least resistance, keeping us comfortable and safe. In essence, we’re lazy. There isn’t much we can do about this but become aware of our behaviour.

Try making the difficult tasks easier and the behaviour you want to stop harder. For example, break down difficult pieces of work into small, manageable chunks so you can attack it bit by bit, making the task less daunting so you’re more likely to do it. Another example is stopping behaviours you don’t want to do. If you find yourself aimlessly scrolling through social media and you’re tired of it, delete the app. You don’t have to delete your account but by making it harder to access social media, you’ll find yourself using it far less. Try it out if you’d like. Exam 101

Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge that both year 12 and year 13 have not sat official exams since Year 6. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re struggling with the concept of revising. I know I did in Year 12. But you need to remind yourself that mock exams are simply practice exercises. Mocks are not a measure of your self-worth or intelligence. Their only purpose is to test your ability to sit an exam at that point in time. So, no matter the result, you always have a chance to improve.

I’d like to wrap this up by reminding you that it’s okay to struggle sometimes. Besides, school is a continuous learning experience so no one will blame you if you aren’t perfect.

It’s important to realise that not all problems are solvable on your own and this is normal. If you feel you need to speak to someone, your progress mentors and teachers will be happy to talk.

If you wish to speak to a professional, we have 3 on-site counsellors who your progress mentors can refer you to. If you’d rather contact the counsellors yourself, email counselling@sjd. ac.uk and ask to see a counsellor. The process is entirely confidential as well. Even if you think your problem isn’t important enough, the counsellors are there to listen. WELLBEING