You sleep badly and wake early stressing about the upcoming exams. As you are coming round you notice the little toy on your bedside table that your friend gave you to remind you it’s all going to be ok. It makes you smile. You drag yourself out of bed (possibly after some nagging from your parents (or similar) who are only doing it because they really love you and want you to do your best).
You notice the sun is shining as you go downstairs which makes you feel good (until you remember you’ll be working at the dining room table all day and won’t get to enjoy it). Your friend messages you to share a similar sentiment and you feel that at least someone understands what you’re going through. You settle down to work, or try to, but can’t seem to focus. Then a friend messages to say they won’t be chatting for a while as they’ve got a new app which stops them going on their phone whilst they are working. You download the app too and enjoy selecting a tree which will grow while you study. Whilst you do check on the tree pretty regularly you don’t exit the app (which means your tree lives) for a whole hour and feel mighty proud of what you managed to do.
You have a snack then, and realise how awesome it is that there is food in the cupboard, and (as if by magic) it’s been stocked up since the last time you looked. Someone has remembered you favourite flavour of crisps and you appreciate it. With the help of your growing trees you struggle through a couple more hours of revision, but by the end notice your brain seems to be turning to mush. You decide to give it a rest for a while and watch random you tube videos for a while, marvelling at the connection speed because you’re not usually on the home wifi in the day time.
I could go on telling this story, and I hope there might be bits of your life that you recognise, if you are studying for exams or something similar this year. I can certainly remember going through it all, and I think at that time I wasn’t very good at savouring the little things. That skill is something I have learnt on my journey. Because nothing is ever all bad or all good (even when it feels like that). If we look hard enough we can find little things that we can be thankful or grateful for or just things which make the day a little more bearable. These might be standing at the back door and getting a few lungfulls of fresh air, or having quick chat with a friend. It doesn’t need to be much, it’s the noticing them that’s important. The other thing I’ve learnt on my journey is that things can seem really hard, and then you’ve just got to hang on in there (see my blog on this http://headspaceguildford.co.uk/crawl/). You are not alone, and you are doing something tough and most people will remember what that’s like. But you will get through it. Have hope that there is some sunshine to come.