Practicing self-care at Berkeley

Keep in mind that coffee is not a replacement for sleep

Sometimes it’s impossible to go two days at Berkeley without hearing someone say “I haven’t eaten since 2pm”, or, “I only got one hour of sleep”, or, “these tortilla chips are my dinner”. We’re all doing everything, all the time—except taking care of ourselves. Especially during the dreaded Finals Season.

After all—everyone around us is doing more. We wouldn’t want to be the only person who wasn’t doing anything interesting, who couldn’t handle the workload. We want to stack up against our peers, and a large part of that pressure is because we want to be competitive in the job market as well. Who will have the better resume, we ask ourselves, the person who did nothing, or the person who does twenty different things now but reaps the rewards later?

Pretty much everyone feels the competitive environment.

According to Kevin Luong, a junior CS major, “Taking care of yourself takes a lot of time. And if you take that time, you feel like you’re falling behind. It’s a vicious cycle.”

And that’s not to forget the number of people who can’t make their lives less busy—who absolutely need to work two or three jobs, but still don’t feel qualified enough, because they have to take jobs that pay instead of the unpaid internships in their field.

These problems get also compounded the less privilege you have, according to Sheelah Bearfoot, who graduated from Cal this past May with a degree in Genetics & Plant Biology:

“There is a feeling that we always have to prove that we belong here, that we weren’t some sob-story affirmative action acceptance. Many of us did come from less ‘college-ready’ backgrounds, so we already feel self-conscious and have may not have seen the material before in AP Calculus. The need to prove that we earned our spot here drives us to work unhealthily hard while juggling work, family responsibilities, and the string of extracurriculars and research that every Berkeley student is expected to have. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is ‘ethno-stress’ – stressors applicable more commonly to POC that are often overlooked as legit things to be stressed out over.”

This problem is probably even more pervasive at Berkeley than in a lot of places. We are, after all, a highly competitive university filled with ambitious people who are used to being one of the best. Studies have shown that people compare themselves not to the general population—but to those around them. At Berkeley, the bars for “involved” and “qualified” are a lot higher than they are in most places, which is probably part of why Cal is the 12th most sleep deprived campus in the country.

So how, then, to manage this stress? How to manage our health and attention to basic bodily functions where there are so many factors pushing us in the other direction?

Remember that you’re probably way ahead of where you think you are.

At Cal, you’re not comparing yourself to the general population—you’re comparing yourself to a very, very distorted sample. Plus, studies also show that people tend to only compare themselves to the good things they see other people doing—not how utterly stressed other people are.

And regardless of where you are, a list of accomplishments does not define your worth.

Get outside sometimes.

Nature is soothing—go do your reading by Strawberry Creek. There are benches and even an amphitheater along it. Because otherwise what’s the point of having a creek?

And if you’re a CS major—dear god get out of the basement of Soda for like, at least half an hour. Northside is pretty. Go for a walk. Get some exercise. Or, you know, coffee.

Control your finals—don’t let them control you.

No one can study non-stop for two weeks. And probably, no one should study non-stop for two weeks. Remember to take breaks. Hopefully you indulged in the traditional first-half-of-dead-week kickbacks, but remember to keep taking time for yourself (which, you will see, is a theme in this section).

Try not to procrastinate. I know, this is hard. But try writing up a schedule of how many hours you’re going to work on each final/paper each day, and when those hours are, and stick to that, so that outside of it you’re free of the constant stress of not studying when you could be.

Watch something on Netflix occasionally—although it might be better to stick to something that only comes in twenty minute episodes. And DON’T BINGE.

Group study sessions! There is nothing to relieve your stress about a paper like having someone else look at it and assure you that no, it isn’t terrible. Or having people to fill in the gaps in your notes. And more importantly, to commiserate with, and be in social space with.

Get some sleep! Most of us still have awhile to go till the end of finals; treat it as a marathon, not a sprint. And you’ll perform better on your finals if you’re not too sleep deprived to think straight.

Practice self-care.

Eat when you need to—even if you’re not hungry. Set phone reminders if you have to. Stay hydrated. And be willing to put sleep before everything else, sometimes. Including finals.

As Mythbusters has proven, getting six breaks of twenty minutes of sleeping (or even just lying down with your eyes closed) in a twenty four hour period will leave you twice as awake and unimpaired as staying up the entire time.

Be kind to yourself. Cut yourself some slack.

(Keep in mind that the Berkeley Student Food Cooperative on Bancroft has $1 coffee. Also keep in mind that coffee is not actually a replacement for sleep.)

Take advantage of the Tang Center’s walk-in counseling, or the Peer Health advising services in MLK. And remember, even if you’re in EECS or pre-Haas or pre-Med, there are things more important than your grades. Your mental health is one of them.

At Berkeley, there’s a lot of pressure to be all things at all times. But please, resist the need to pile more on your plate than you can possibly handle, and the need to feel guilty if you don’t. Let’s all try to stop being sleep-deprived, miserable Berkeley students and resume padders, and remember to take at least a little bit of time for ourselves.

And remember: winter break is almost here.

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