Healthy Places to Channel That End of Semester Anxiety
by Lanie Brice ‘24
I’ve been very guilty lately of pouring my end of semester-graduation-moving anxiety into endless doom-scrolling. When you’re anxious, it can be hard to focus or find a sense of relief from your whirling thoughts. You can’t work on school projects or studying for all of your waking hours (or at least you shouldn’t), so here’s some inspiration for where to channel any finals stress and anxiety that you’re feeling as the end creeps up.
Baking
I am an infamous stress baker. I have been all throughout college. Case in point, in the last two weeks I’ve made: chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, chocolate pumpkin muffins, three batches of oatmeal breakfast cookies, pancakes, and banana muffins, all from scratch. If baking isn’t your thing, cooking elaborate meals (I spent a recent Saturday turning red lentils into pizza crust) can also scratch a similar itch.
Baking is the perfect stress reliever because it engages your body, and to a certain extent your brain, completely. You can put on music, a TV show, a podcast, or an audiobook in the background and get lost in a recipe or freestyling on a treat that’s all your own. I have a notebook where I keep my mom’s recipes as well as ones I’ve found online and loved so that I don’t have to fall down an online rabbit hole looking for inspiration.
I live alone, so a full batch is too much to finish on my own while they’re still at their best, but this isn’t a problem. You can bring treats to friends or classmates, or most un-iced baked goods like cookies, brownies, muffins, and pancakes freeze quite well. Pop it in the microwave for 30-45 seconds, and it’s like you have a treat fresh out of the oven.
Knitting or Crocheting
Whether you have any experience with yarn or not, now might be the time to pick up a new hobby. From making a simple scarf to embarking on a blanket, knitting and crocheting both offer similar benefits to baking. It engages your hands and mind away from your work. There’s actually a girl in my class who crochets during small group because it helps her focus on the lecture. At home, you can work your anxiety into a new sweater while watching a comfort movie. Having made something tangible can be quite gratifying too.
Reading
If you’re not too mentally or physically tired to focus, try reading for fun! I know that’s not super common in college, but escaping into a good book is a great way to have hours of your time disappear. Sometimes escapism is the best answer to getting through the tough final weeks of school.
Journaling
While most of these suggestions focus on escaping your thoughts, sometimes the best thing you can do is confront them. Pull out an old journal or notepad and free write out your thoughts. Don’t be prescriptive about what you have to write about or the quality of the sentences. This isn’t a school assignment! I’ve filled 16 journals since I was 12, and I keep up the consistent practice by just listing what happened in my day until I hit on a topic I want to dive into deeper. This can also be a great warm-up to get yourself in the headspace to do more academic writing for school.
Go Down a (Fun) Research Rabbit Hole
Is there a random, niche topic you’ve been wondering about? Fall down a research rabbit hole that has nothing to do with your studies by reading all the articles you can find about a particular topic. Similar to reading fiction for fun, this will sweep you into a new world. I spent a whole day learning about the online theory that Lorde and Jack Antonoff dated once and the viral powerpoint that explained the expansive “proof”. This is a bit more of a controlled, specific version of letting the TikTok algorithm take over your afternoon.
Cleaning
This is the last thing you want to hear, I know. But the thing is, when you want to procrastinate on a school task, it can feel incredible to devote yourself to deep cleaning. Lean into this impulse. Cleaning is also similar to baking in the sense that it engages your whole body in a somewhat meditative task, and it offers the satisfaction of a tangible end result.
Packing
It’s that time of year when, whether you’re graduating or not, that you might be getting ready to move. Even if it’s still a few weeks away, packing and moving is no joke. Can you start sorting through your wardrobe to see if there’s anything you want to sell or give away? Could you pack your winter clothes away? Do you need to list your furniture on Facebook Marketplace? Give yourself a head start by working through your move before school ends.
Walking/Exercising
Going for a walk or hitting the mat for a soothing yoga session can reset a frazzled mind in as little as fifteen minutes. Moving your body and really reconnecting with it after a long day of studying can help in the transition from study days to a solid night’s sleep, or it can be a great way to give yourself a break in the middle of the day. Getting outside or seeing a new environment can sparkideas for your projects, and simple movement like stretching can do wonders for how you feel after hours spent sitting or curled over a laptop or phone.
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