Today I wanted to a Fit4Friday post all to do with stress. It may seem a bit odd that I'm incorporating a post on stress into this series, but I feel that it is relevant as mental health is just as important as physical health. If you didn't know, a week ago today I started my exams. I have by now completed 5 and have 16 to go. The thought of having to complete 7 next week in 5 days makes me want to crawl under my duvet and not come out for a month...I am exhausted and completely overwhelmed with the expectations from others and from myself.
So far, I have come out of every exam and haven't felt great about any one of them, truthfully I feel as if the most of them have gone terrible. I will admit, sometimes I think things have gone terrible when they have gone fine and I do regret wasting so much energy dwelling on it after, but I constantly think about silly mistakes that I've made like mixing up the name of something or forgetting an experiment or not finishing a sentence and it drives me absolutely crazy! This week I sat two Chemistry exams. I love Chemistry and I really studied for it before hand, the first paper went okay (on reflection I know I've made a few mistakes), but the second paper didn't go that well (didn't feel as if it has gone well), I am terrible because no matter how hard I try I can't help but be annoyed with myself for losing marks in things I normally would be able to answer. I think they key is: don't worry. It's so easy for someone to tell you not to worry and it's so hard to stop worrying, but put in in perspective:

• You don't know how much you've got.
• You haven't read the marking schemes.
• Even if you've got a few questions wrong there are still things you've done right.
• Worrying won't change what you've got, but I think that worry is a personal way of preparing for disappointment.
• If worse comes to worse, you can re-sit!

Remember: in the situation you did your best. It is natural to forget things in the heat of the moment, but you did your very best at the time. It is important that you focus on other things rather than analysing every question/answer in the paper because it won't do you any good.

So, if you're doing exams/course work/assignments etc at the minute I hope this post was useful. It was definitely helpful to put all my current feelings into a post.
Sorry for not posting on Wednesday, I have been so busy!

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