Recharging your mental batteries

As Emma pointed out in her last post, we’re now roughly at the half-way point of the semester, or perhaps just past it. Half way between the excitement of Freshers’ Week and the joy of Christmas, and it’s usually at this stage in the term where things start to lag a little bit mentally.

It’s perfectly natural to start to feel a little tired by this point; in fact, it’s highly likely that you will be, I know I am.

This doesn’t mean you’re bored, or you’re fed up; it just means that you’ve had a lot of fun, you’ve worked really hard, and now you’re more than welcome to take a few days or so to recharge that mental battery.

This won’t be true of everyone, obviously: we’re all different; beautiful and unique snowflakes as a strange, fictional philosopher once said. So if you’re not feeling the urge to slow down just yet, that’s perfectly fine too. The important thing though is that if you do find yourself losing the capacity to work or if you start to feel jaded at all with anything in any way, do allow yourself some time off. We’re all human, after all.

I say this now because just this past week, I took some time off myself to refresh and re-energise, re-evaluate my working mindset, and you know what? I’ve never felt better.

Part of this came from the fact that I happened to be graced with a reading week (basically, a week without lectures), and so, with so much extra time suddenly to myself I figured I would do something I’d never really done very much whilst here at the University: visit home.

My reasons for not doing so more often are pretty varied; from the fact that it’s quite a slog on the trains, and that I usually find myself too busy to make the trip, but this semester all the pieces just seemed to fall into place and so, I found myself Essex-bound for the first time in nearly two months.

I never thought I would miss this empty little train station back home 

Aside from the trip being a pleasant change of scenery, it also really helped me to kick into play what I just talked about: recharging those mental batteries. Again, it differs from person to person, but for me, home is very much one of the only places I can properly switch off my brain and just enjoy doing nothing of importance, so it was insanely lovely to spend a weekend doing so. With my deadlines pretty much out of the way for the time being, and a decent-sized gap before the next set, it was the perfect occasion to relax and regather some enthusiasm.

It’s safe to say that it definitely worked. After even just a few days in the comfort of home, away from producing radio shows and editing articles, I felt very much on top of things again; 100% ready to conquer whatever work awaited me back in Southampton. Even the journey back was more painless than ever as that good old positive mindset took over. There is really no match for being well-rested.

Catching the fireworks in my local park at home was a perfect way to end a relaxing few days away

So, the moral of today’s post is simply this: allow yourself the time to rest and recharge. Whether it’s a weekend away, an afternoon with Netflix or an hour spent power-napping, take care of yourself and all the wonders and challenges of university life seem to take significantly less effort to master.

Even if you can’t manage a trip home, there are plenty of ways to keep yourself smiling.

Ben