This last week I've been getting a little bit stressed.. exams are coming up and I'm realising that I don't know as much as I thought I did, and yet when it comes to studying, I have the same problem as the majority of other students, and I can't actually sit down and do the work. And that just stresses me out more! When I go to bed at night and think of how little work I've gotten through, I start to panic. And that's on top of having a crisis about my future too! I seem to over think things way too much, and it eventually gets too much for me.

A good technique my mum taught me is to "chunk things down", she says that when you look at the big picture, everything can seem overwhelming, but by breaking it down into small manageable chunks, everything seems much more do-able.

As well as this, I've been giving myself silly little treats, that are most likely meaningless to most people, but to me, they are enjoyable, and they help me get through the stressful patches in the day. And I thought I'd share some of the things that make me smile a little, and help to relax me, in the hopes that anyone else who is feeling like things are too much and impossible to manage, like I am, can find some comfort in the fact they are most definitely not alone, and can apply some of these things to their own life, in some way or another.

1. Spend time with my family. During the exam period at Christmas, I found it unbearable getting up, and revising from 9am-9pm, with only a couple of breaks and in total silence. Then when I finished, I'd go straight to bed. I found the days became monotonous and tiring, and I hated the routine. So for these exams that I'm about to sit, I decided to do my revision at home. I really think that this will suit me much better, because I'll be able to have small breaks to talk with my family, I'll be in the same environment that I did all my revision during school and I'll be able to take the evenings off to watch a film with them. Not only that, when I get stressed when the exams get a lot closer, I'll have my mum there to calm me down and help me with revision. So my family is the first thing that makes me happy, because I'm able to have a laugh with them and take time off to go out with them or something.
2. Play with my dog. I realise I'm one who talks about their dog A LOT, but I just can't help it. All I need is a cuddle from him, or 5 minutes throwing the ball for him, and I fell instantaneously better. He just has a face that you can't help smile at, and he's a really needy dog- he loves human contact, so he'll come and sit beside me as I work away, I love having him around. And he's so dopey at times that he always can make me laugh; the more people laugh around him, the more excitable he gets, so he really does help me relax.
3.  Going on a walk. The other day, I found even the thought of revision was stressing me out, so I decided to go on a walk and I find that it really helps to clear my mind. Just being out of the house and having time to think about things really helps to calm me down, and when I return I always feel more motivated to work, since I've organised all my thoughts in my head. 
4. Look up places to visit. I realise that this is quite an odd one, but I find that researching different places really relaxes me and I really enjoy it. Before going on holidays I always look up things to do in the area, and make a little travel brochure for our holiday. It has honestly been a dream of mine to work in a travel agency because I just love organising holidays. So my thing right now is researching areas of Turkey that I really want to visit, and places in Greece too. I plan to just travel straight away when I finish uni, the sooner the better, because nothing makes me happier than learning about the history and culture of a place. So right now if I've been stressed out, then I'll just look up a new city and find out everything there is to know about it, and it calms me down because I know that that is my goal- get through all the hard work of uni then just explore, and it makes this stress seem worthwhile.
5. Watch a Disney film. Being at home means I have access to tv, which is such a good feeling, but my favourite thing right now are all the Disney movies, which Sky has a whole bunch of. They are so easy going, you don't need to pay attention to the plot, and you can just laugh at them. I find them a nice treat during the day, to have a silly film on and to relax.
6. Listen to music. Since I got spotify, I've found that I've started listening to artists that I wouldn't have listened to usually, I just click on random playlists and I've actually discovered a few artists that I hadn't heard of before. I like to just sit back and have music playing that I can listen to and forget about everything else. And being at home means that I hear my dad's music a lot more, which I love, we were listening to Chas and Dave the other day, which I normally wouldn't listen to, but I love to sing along to all the songs. Apparently singing has been scientifically proved to help relax people, so I'd highly recommend belting your heart out, if not to relax you then to see the reactions of your family, because my family are never short of comments when I decide to have a good sing song.