Current research in Neuroscience has demonstrated how stress and anxiety can manifest in the brain and body, and how lifestyle factors can either increase or decrease stress in our lives. Therefore, we can be proactive about keeping our stress levels low if we address lifestyle factors which impact on how we feel during assessment and exam time.
- Consider the below areas of your life. You could rate each lifestyle factor from 1-5, depending on how much attention and care you feel this factor needs from you at the moment.
- Feeling a sense of safety in the relationships in your life with family members, friends, partners, and other support network people such teachers, mentors or coaches.
- Sleep and sleep hygiene play a huge role in mental health, maintain helpful memory processing, and depending of quality of sleep, can increase/decrease your productivity at school or uni. Sleep hygiene is all about how we prepare and wind down for sleep.
- We know that gut health and providing fuel for our brains, can decrease stress, and increase focus, productivity, and overall wellness.
- As anxiety is held in the body and the brain, it can be helpful to utilise strategies such as exercise to manage our stress.
- Being mindful of technology use is an important process of anxiety management. Overuse of screens and ‘mindless’ technology use can lead to addictive behaviours and avoidant patterns of coping with stress. Zoning out on technology frequently impacts on our connections with others, increases the risk of depression, stress symptoms, anxiety, and dysfunctional behaviours.
- Our external environment can impact on our stress levels and productivity. It is important to consider if our environment feels safe, uncluttered, and organised, rather than unsafe, choatic and disorganised. How does your current physical, social, and family environment feel?
