For me, the first few weeks of school—the liminal period of add-drop—are emotionally charged and stressful, demanding coordination and thorough planning. In this piece, I offer my internal monologue during add-drop, and some meagre advice on coming to terms with the schedule you end up with. Last fall, I wrote[Read More…]
Tag: stress
Ask Ainsley: Studying and self-care during finals
Dear Ainsley, During exam season, I’m a mess. I stay in my apartment all day trying to work, I spend hours scrolling through social media with increasing levels of stress, and my mind is a tangle of negative thoughts. I hate this. Please help. Freaking Out Over Finals (FOOF) Before[Read More…]
Reclaiming the value in being “undecided”
If you ask any of my friends at McGill, they would tell you that I have switched around my majors and minors eight times since the beginning of my degree. I started as an Environment & Development and International Development Studies (IDS) double major with a History minor. Throughout my[Read More…]
Comput-oga
Exam stress
Lessons from a fifth year: Fostering a healthier culture at McGill
Excitement and anxiety are the dominant emotions that I feel as I graduate this semester and prepare to begin graduate school in September 2020. Having spread my degree over five years, I have watched the McGill community grow and change over time, and there are a few things that I[Read More…]
Stress: A living nightmare
In Old English folklore, a ‘mare’ is a mythological demon that disturbs and haunts people while they sleep, giving them bad dreams. Adding the word ‘night’ before mare gave people further association of this phenomenon as occurring during sleep. Even the Universal Etymological English Dictionary, a text published throughout the[Read More…]
Innovating the way we meditate
Stress is a bitter antagonist that affects every student at some point in their studies, some more frequently than others. While a certain degree of stress is normal, over time, chronic stress can impede the immune system, which may contribute to a sleuth of other serious health problems such as[Read More…]
McGill Student Phobias
How students can use ASMR to decompress
Whispering, crumpling, tapping, and buzzing. These are among the most popular autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) techniques that millions enjoy over the internet. ASMR allows consumers to experience low levels of euphoria triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli. Though some people do not experience this phenomenon, it is a[Read More…]