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Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)

 

It’s a challenging time as we all adjust to living our complete lives at home – including our study. We spoke to Carol Harmston-Dean, experienced mental health counsellor at JHD Counselling, to get her insight into strategies for staying – and studying – well during lockdown.
 

"If you cut your finger and needed stitches, you’d see the nurse right away. You wouldn’t wait for gangrene to set in," says Carol. "There are lots of resources available to aid mental health now. Asking for help early can make problems easier to repair. And if you’re a student, you may feel there’s extra strain on you. Here are some tips to get through this difficult time in good shape."

1. Keep connected

When you’re not busy studying, even though you can’t go out to socialise, you need to reserve some time to be with far-away friends or those in your household. Try technology like Zoom and Skype to connect ‘face-to-face’ with distant loved ones.

2. Stay positive

Aside from following government guidelines, what’s happening now is out of your control. If you find that juggling study with the rest of your life leaves you stressed, talk to people. Meditation is helpful to maintain your focus, and apps like Mindmatters help you see the positives.

3. Get your sleep

It’s very easy to tack your coursework on to the end of your regular day and go to bed late, especially when you’re staying at home 24/7. Try to build study into your daytime schedule and tire yourself out through the day so you can be well rested at night.

4. Maintain a routine

Don’t sit in your pyjamas at lunchtime; study in 90-minute bursts with breaks in-between. Give yourself an hour for lunch and take breaks in a different area from your desk. Finish at a reasonable time and use one break for exercise. If you have kids and need to concentrate on some reading or an assignment, set them a solo activity for an hour or so, and tell them that you’re working together but independently.

5. Do something just for you

Bake bread, read a book, take a bath, colour something in, put your make-up on… reserve 30 minutes to an hour that’s focused solely on your self-care and isn’t anything to do with your course.

6. Stay active

Even with a deadline looming, you need to get up and about at some point. Take the dog for a walk or go for a run but remember the need for social connection. Do online or TV exercise classes or another activity that connects you with the members of your household.

7. Set yourself a challenge

Targets are helpful to keep you moving forward. Perhaps aim to read 20 pages of a textbook or write 500 words for your essay in a set period.

8. Stay on top of things

Try not to put tasks off. Counter-intuitively, it can seem harder to motivate yourself to do your coursework when there’s nothing else to do. But delaying things can lead to anxiety and eventually, depression because you feel a failure for not having done what you think you should have.

9. Limit your news updates

A lot’s going on right now, but don’t keep refreshing the news. Concentrate fully on your studies and catch up with what’s going on by, for example, watching a single daily news programme. Otherwise, you’ll be consumed by the wrong focus.

And finally… Be kind to yourself

Under current circumstances, it’s unlikely that you will be able to complete all of these on a daily basis, especially if you’re balancing study, work, childcare and everything else. The most important thing is to not be too hard on yourself, and to do what works for you.

 

There is a lot of additional support and information about mental health available online. You may find it helpful to look at the MIND website and the University’s COVID-19 Wellbeing page, which has some links to widely available resources.

If you’d like to talk to someone about any of the issues raised here, Carol and her team offer remote consultations. Find details at www.jhdcounselling.co.uk. ICE students on undergraduate and postgraduate award-bearing courses can receive help to access these services. Please contact Dr Tom Monie, Deputy Director of Academic Services, confidentially, for more information.

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