Take. A. Breather.

Zoe Carr
Oct 26, 2017
2 min read

One bad habit that I have developed over the past couple of year is just constantly going. I never really stop to take a minute for myself or even do the suggest minute of breathing that my watch tells me to do...every. day. However, with my workload this semester, I decided that the best thing to do for myself would be to treat myself with a break every now and then or I was going to crash. Realizing that this has helped me so far, I decided to share some of my favorite, quick breathers with you in hopes to help.

Play a game
when studying I always will put my cellphone away to avoid any distractions, but sometimes I just need to pull it out and do something mindless. I usually avoid checking social media because it will only suck me in, so I ended up playing a game. Right now my go-to is Panda Pop, which, not officially, might end up causing me more stress in the end when I can't save the baby pandas. Another app I have is Peak, which gives the user five different games each day to test their mental and cognitive functions.
Watch a video
I love watching videos because they are one of the easiest ways to destress. Youtube is a great platform because there are literally videos on anything, so when I give myself a break I will usually end up watching something in relations to cats or makeup. However, one of my favorite channels with videos is TED, which has all of the TED Talks on them. I am a huge fan of TED Talks and love watching them and listening to the presenters stories. My favorite talk is the one by Maysoon Zayid, who is one of the funniest, nicest, and most relatable people I have ever listened to!
Answer messages
because I keep my phone put away and on do not disturb, my messages or notifications tend to accumulate. If I have more than a couple, I'll go through and answer them. I'll also check my email (which I only do about twice a day anyway) to see if there is anything imperative that needs answered at that point.
Read an article
my dad works for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and they came out with a new interactive app called PG NewsSlide, so naturally he made me download it. I ended up keeping it however because it actually is a really easy app to use and has great articles. If I want something to read that is not school related I will typically open that up and read two or three articles.
Take a walk
sometimes getting out of my room or the area that I am studying at really helps me clear my head and give me a fresh start, so I definitely take a walk if I feel like I really do need to reset. Whether it's to fill my water bottle up or check the mailbox, something as simple as that really helps me feel a lot better.