School to many people, is a place where students go to learn new skills and knowledge while also being able to socialize with other students and teachers, participate in extracurricular activities, join clubs, and many more. Students like myself enjoy the vast opportunities and experiences that high school has to offer. There are points where it can be stressful for students to manage their time with school work, social life, extracurricular activities, and even at-home responsibilities, which can lead to things such as a loss of motivation, burnout, and mental health issues. This is especially prevalent now during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stress builds up even more for students who are busy all the time. The pressure to keep up with schoolwork and other aspects of one’s life can be difficult to overcome, but how can someone as myself stay positive and have motivation when feeling overwhelmed with school?
After taking a look at this article from the ACMC, there are many ways to stay positive when feeling frustrated with your performance or general attitude in school. One way to stay positive that stood out is to think positively. This is something that students like myself struggled with before, but I’ve been able to practice this strategy, and my attitude towards school has been better. Positive thinking can help you if you put in the effort and attitude that is needed to be successful in both your studies and other areas of your life. Some phrases the article presents that you can use to utilize positive thinking include: “I can try” and “This teacher wants us to learn how to succeed” rather than “I give up” or “I’m sick and tired of all this work”. As I said, I’ve struggled with this strategy before, and I would think so for other students because it is difficult to think positively when you are overwhelmed and have a loss of motivation to do anything. I’ve experienced burnout on several occasions this year because I’ve struggled to stay positive and keep my mental health in check. Practicing this has helped me a lot in taking care of my mental health and motivation with my schoolwork.
Taking a look at another article by Bill Murphy Jr. from Inc.com, there are several other ways a student can do outside of the classroom when they’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed about school. One thing that the article mentions is to “Take an emotional and physical time out”. This essentially means to take some time and focus on yourself for a moment. Whether it’s reading a book, watching a movie, taking time to exercise, or doing some mindfulness exercises, all of these things can help you feel better about yourself and to give your mind some rest. Something else that you can do is take some time and phone a friend or talk with somebody. Sometimes it seems necessary to have some time to chat with someone you’re close to talking about whatever. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about personal problems. It could just be about common interests or current events.
These are some things I’ve been to taking advantage more of because through all the stressors that I face each day, I know I can talk with a couple of friends over social media services such as Discord and Snapchat, and taking time to get away from all my work for a brief moment to destress. I’ve felt significantly better these past couple of months just by. My ways of coping with a lack of positivity and feelings of overwhelmedness aren’t perfect, but it has become better over time with practice. Hopefully, you can take something from this and possibly incorporate it into your own life.
Hello, Ishmael. May I say, this is a very good, timely post to make, not only because of COVID and whatever mental health issues that may arise from isolation, but in Utah’s battle for mental health awareness. I like how you address one way to curtail any feelings of despair and loathing, “One way to stay positive that stood out is to think positively.” It’s so simple, yet so difficult to properly follow through. You mention how you have struggled in the past to do this, yet I wonder what those times were like? If that’s not too personal, of course. Anyhow, I found this article that goes a bit more into ways someone can think positively (https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-think-positive#tips). I would most certainly come back to read more if you were to perhaps show some more on ways on how to be positive and mentally healthy.
Ishmael,
When looking through the posts, your title very well caught my attention because I think it is very relatable to high school students everywhere in the world. The first paragraph of your post is what I like best. For me, I have always wanted to participate in things so that I can have the best high school experience possible, but with online schooling and not being able to participate in many school activities, I feel like this year has been wasted. As a fellow senior I am sure you can agree that it has been sad not being able to participate in many senior activities but as you stated, “there are many ways to stay positive when feeling frustrated with your performance or general attitude in school”.