I usually know I'm stressed when I feel really
agitated, can't think clearly and things don't make
much sense it's just a cloud of worry all around me.
When I start to feel stress, I feel tension
in my body and I'll start to feel anxious,
which for me is a manifestation of stress.
Delayed sleep, frequent waking, frequent bowel movements
loose, sweatiness, eye twitch, muscle
twitch.
I know I'm stressed when I begin to procrastinate,
and I tend to get really distracted.
So I like to just write down how I'm feeling, and
then I try and identify a specific stressor
so that when I like see it on paper I can
kind of work around it.
To cope with that stress, I try to make checklists
so that I can check off things that I've done to feel more productive and get things off my mind
And also it helps me prioritize things so
that I'm not spreading myself as thin.
I’ll go back to the three basics, I'll ask
myself, am I eating well, am I sleeping well
and am I exercising enough?
If those three boxes are checked and I still continue to feel stress, I will reach out to friends,
I'll journal, I'll take a really uber long and hot shower. And I'll take up a hobby,
for me that's listening to music, making my own music, and listening to one of my favourite podcasts.
One thing that I like to do is some deep breathing, play guitar, sit on the porch.
When I'm feeling stressed the thing I usually
go to first is listening to soothing music,
removing myself from the stressful situation,
so that I can be in a quiet area
Also, making a list of things I need to do and breaking
it up into smaller chunks always helps.
And then lastly, doing exercise,
I find always relieves stress, especially if outside!
We are certainly living in unprecedented
times and starting University during a pandemic
is a very new experience for students, as
well as faculty and staff. When we think about
the shifts that we've had to make over the
last few months. It's been challenging at
times for many. Starting University is going
to be a new experience, we're gonna want to
think about a routine and what our routine
is going to look like. Just because we're
experiencing a pandemic and things
might look a little different than we had
anticipated doesn't mean that we can't still
develop some sort of routine or schedule,
that's something that I think is going to
be very important for students to consider
of what that's going to look like. Even though
you're not physically on campus, I think it's
going to be important to make a schedule or times
when you're going to be watching lectures for example
or setting aside time to do homework.
With libraries being closed we're gonna want
to consider how do we best study.
So thinking about things like Google meet
or zoom calls with other peers and students,
may be a way that we can kind of get that library
feel during pandemic times, we're going to
want to get creative with the way that we
study, with the way that we work, and with
the way that we schedule our time
So think about some of those things going forward,
and how you can sort of mimic what a university
schedule is going to look like without actually
being physically on campus.
Staying connected to friends and loved ones definitely helps especially when it's over video chat,
thinking about things I'm grateful for, writing them down,
keeping a schedule and trying to wake up at
a reasonable hour every day and not sleep
the day away, also doing things that give
me a sense of normality like working out, making
plans, and reading.
I like to use mindfulness to cope with the changes
that have come with the pandemic
in the sense that I do not judge my feelings surrounding everything going on.
I let myself have those feelings and I essentially
notice them. I feel like empathy is the best medicine
in the situation because just knowing that
your friends, family, and even strangers from
around the world are having a hard time coping
can feel very, very comforting and validating.
One thing that I've been really recommending to students
is to think of activities that they
can do in four different quadrants,
one bring an accomplishment activity, two being a mental health activity, three, being a physical activity
of some sort, and four being a pleasure or
joyful activity that they can do. So you want
to try and hit something, an activity,
from each of those four quadrants,
to provide us with some structure to our day
and to sort of give us back some of that schedule
that we that we really need and really crave.
To pass him at home, I like to read books, watch movies, hang out with my sister and FaceTime friends
you know, do things that I enjoy because despite contrary beliefs,
it is good to do things you like.
You don't always have to be productive, it's self care to
do things that help your mental health. <3
I haven't had any difficulties, I'm still working full time.
I have five kids, four of whom are at home off and on.
So passing time at home is not a difficulty.
We played a lot of ping pong. We enjoyed watching
the show The Flash. And a lot of times I'm
just puttering around the yard and garden.
Working out, doing free online courses,
check out www.coursera.org for more details on that,
online volunteering, cooking healthy recipes,
learning new skill that I've always wanted to try
organizing and decluttering because I love a clean space,
researching careers I might be interested in
in the future, and club opportunities at Mac
meditating, reading or watching TV
and of course talking to friends.
I like to do all my work during the assigned
time, so if I had a lecture at 3:30pm,
then by 3 pm, I would start getting all my work
together and just completing my work in like
the assigned time. And I think also having
like someone to hold you accountable, maybe like
a friend, you guys could check that you've
done all of your separate work and then maybe
you could call each other after and just like
have a little break.
I like to organize things and put like 
timestamps of when things are due,
or what's going to take longer, something
might be due quicker but it's easier to do
and something might be due later but it's
harder and takes more time so I like to give
priority to all the tasks I have to do.
You can use your calendar or apps to do that
and it really helps you stay on track.
I try to create a new schedule every night of what
I want to accomplish the next day.
Also keeping up a weekly schedule helps so
that you have all the major due dates that week,
which you'll obviously have to revamp every so often, update it.
Also having a visible calendar or note of all the major due dates is helpful
so it like triggers your memory,
watching lectures at designated times,
even if they're pre recorded, and of course
being active in discussion forums
such as looking at the questions
 other students are asking
and asking your own, forces you 
to stay on top of the content.
For me, one of the things is keeping the schedule,
starting the day with exercise, following
through on things that I need to do like keeping
them on the to do list and staying organized.
The easiest way for me to get motivated to do
my work at home is to start my work as soon
as possible, right after breakfast soon as
I can, the sooner the better because I can
do it right then when I have all the energy,
and then later I just get to relax.
I keep myself motivated by keeping lists, because
I like to cross off things when I'm done
 because it gives me that little push,
that sense of productiveness, and then 
boost my spirits to accomplish my next goal.
the code word for the raffle is: scischoolresources (look in the video description for the link to the form)
One, using different objects to keep your
hands engaged, especially if you're one to
get easily distracted or bored during lectures.
Two, doing eye exercises, so that you're avoiding
any headaches and eye strains. Three, creating a learning environment that is conducive to
your needs. Four, taking breaks in between, practicing
a 55-5 minute rule, so every 55 minutes
taking a 5 minute break can be very helpful.
Six, creating natural transitions such as getting up,
stretching, drinking a glass of water in
between lectures. And finally, trying some
destressing apps and exercises can be helpful as well.
Try to make your study space as much
of a study space as you possibly can. Like
for me, I'll try and reinforce myself and
change things up about my room, "okay this is not
a bedroom, this is your study room, it'll
be a bedroom later." Little changes to really make you feel like you're not at home, you're somewhere else
Also, I recommend changing
out of whatever you slept in so if it's like
PJs, then, when you get up, you just kind
of change to something that makes you feel
good that you're more motivated to study and
also to take breaks when you need to. You know
yourself best, so if you feel like you need to take a break, then you probably should.
My biggest tip around this to students is to be creative.
So there's no reason why we can't still study together
in many different facets so although we may
need to adhere to social distancing guidelines
and still remain safe, we want to think about
how we can actually, if we know that
we study best in the library, for example, or
study best in groups, we want to think of
creative ways of how we can study. That might be doing things on Google Hangout or having
zoom meetings where you're working alongside
each other and maybe not even talking but
just having that kind of library environment
or mimicking what you might have in a library
environment. If you know that you don't study
well in your bedroom and you get really distracted,
don't set up your study space there. You're
going to want to
think about what works best for you. And what
environments you've had success in and kind
of build upon that. That's going to be something
that's important come September, so really
develop sort of good routines and habits. It may be a period of trial and error before you
find out exactly what works for you. But as
sort of the semester moves on, you should
gain some momentum and have ideas of what
works best, and what is an environment that
provides a lot of distraction that might not
work as well for you.
Take advantage of every opportunity you have to make connections with
profs, TAs (teaching assistants), and other students such as through discussion forums and help sessions,
Zoom study groups are great.
Keep a realistic schedule for yourself,
designate study times and times of the day where
you're not studying. Also switch up your study methods.
Don't keep watching lectures back
to back because then you'll get bored. But
if you switch it up such as by talking to
a friend about a concept,
or writing notes, then watching videos and
then making a mind map, and stuff like
that, that can be a great way to keep it interesting.
Try and close down all unneeded
applications, if you can avoid screen reading,
and you can do it on paper, it's really helpful. Although I understand it's difficult.
Reducing the applications at least
helps keep you focused.
Reward yourself after you study for a little while. Do something fun.
Ergonomics is very important, design a
study space that works best for you, have snacks
and a cool glass of water and your hand's reach,
and have a favourite stuffed animal at your
desk to serve as moral support. <3
Some different campus resources that'll really help during this trying time is
SAS, Student Accessibility Services,
Academic Advising, so for Science, if you just
type in academic advising science, it's online
and it's drop-in, so you just create an account
and then you enter a lobby and then you can
speak with an advisor via chat or video call,
You can also called Good to Talk, I believe the number is 1-866-925-5454, if you want to talk to someone about your mental health
The third thing would be to look at a bunch
of MSU services such as MSU Spark, which is
completely for first years, they have a bunch
of resources that you can use about McMaster,
Hamilton, first year university life.
Also Student Success Center is a 
wonderful resource for
learning workshops, skill building, job searching
as well as career advising and counselling services.
I recently had a zoom call with
a career advisor and she was really great
at getting me to help I needed.
Campus resources with which I am most familiar, are the Student Wellness Centre.
I'm a psychologist at the Student Wellness Center (SWC). My name is Nathan Cooper.
You can access our resources online. You can also call (905-525-9140) Ext. 27700, and the reception
staff will guide you through whether it's more appropriate for you to see
a doctor, nurse, or counseling staff person, and we'll help you as best we can.
The Wellness Center has gone completely virtual
so students have the opportunity to access
all of the services that we offer online,
which is great. The best way to access services
is to go to wellness.mcmaster.ca and we have
a really easy to navigate website for students
to take a look at. There are all kinds of
available resources, websites, and my favorite
thing which is our group
programs that are offered. Counsellors offer
various programming throughout the year, and we
have all kinds of exciting and fun groups
that we're running come September.
I really encourage students to take a look at all of
the different group offerings, and to really
take advantage of this, we have everything
from anxiety groups to mood groups. We have
a group where you can walk in nature on your
own and then do a debrief during a zoom meeting
afterwards, which is awesome. We have a cooking
group, all kinds of different groups that
are available to students. I highly, highly
recommend taking advantage of these groups,
like I said you can head over to wellness.mcmaster.ca
to look at all of the group offerings,
you can click on a group that you're interested in,
read the description and underneath it will
tell you how to register. So often you will
need to just email the counsellor running
the group and they will send you all of the
details and information that you need to know.
Good luck everybody and all the best.
Thanks very much.
Thanks for watching.
