by Sophie Saunder, Residential Experience Coordinator
I’ve just recently started my new role at the University of Bristol, working as a Residential Experience Coordinator in Residential Life. It’s mine and my colleagues’ job to make sure that you have a great time in halls and that your JCRs are working as well as they can be! November the 3rd is Stress Awareness Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness of stress, and ways to combat it. In this blog, I’ll tell you a little bit about my background and ways you can manage stress and overwhelm.
Before I came to UoB I worked at Bath Mind, a local mental health charity that works to support the mental health and wellbeing of people living in Bath and North East Somerset. Prior to that, I studied German, Spanish and European Studies at the University of Bath so I’ve been in the wonderful South West for a while now!
At Bath Mind, I worked on a student mental health project called the Mentally Healthy Universities program, a project that provided preventative mental health training for students in the form of online workshops. Throughout this process, I learned a lot about various tools and techniques that can support your mental wellbeing on a daily basis.
One important topic that came up often in the workshops was stress. One way that we would imagine stress in the workshops is to imagine that all of your stresses collect into a ‘stress container’. Student life can throw a wide range of stresses at you, filling up the stress container: potentially living away from home for the first time, making friends, starting a new course, exams, essays and socialising can all add to stress levels. Sometimes, the stress container can overflow which can lead to overwhelm, burnout and low mood.
It’s useful to think about ways to empty or relieve your stress container. For Stress Awareness Day and beyond, the ResiLife team have put together a self-care package for you to use on the awareness day and beyond to empty your stress container. (more…)