Life as a college student quickly becomes busy and overwhelming with deadlines, meetings and projects all flooding your planner and taking over your calendar. With responsibilities pilling up like your laundry basket, time for yourself can easily be swept away into a thing of the past. Searching for a remedy to destress from the pressures of a school week definitely can become a challenge in itself. To help alleviate some of that stress, VALLEY went ahead and tested out a guided meditation app—Headspace—for a week to show you what we learned.
Monday
Monday is the first day of the school week, signaling the end of a two day break from the stresses—also known as the weekend. In an attempt to get ahead of the impending stress, meditation started today. Headspace offers a multitude of meditation guides, including different packs that are complete with 10 separate sessions or single packs, for a one time use. To start off the week, we chose a single session dedicated to reseting oneself. A soothing voice immediately instructed you to ease your breath and gently close your eyes on your own time. The person’s relaxing words and soft music put the mind to rest, leaving any stress at the door.
Tuesday
The quiet ease of the mind and peace found on Monday using the app, made the second day of meditation far from an inconvenience. Continuing with the trend set on Monday, another single session was used but this time we chose the–End of Day option for winding down. Another soothing voice, followed by soft music swept us away from the thoughts of school and into a peaceful state of mind.
Wednesday
A busier-than-normal day, Wednesday offered less time than usual for relaxation. This difficulty was easily solved with Headspace’s easy and short exercises one can do on the go when busy schedules take over. Breathing exercises on the way to class helped to minimize the pressures of a college school week and still helped us to stay on track for a week of meditation.
Thursday
Nearing the end of the week, but not of the workload, Headspace became an incentive to work hard during the day, so a meditation session could occur later at night. To explore all the options Headspace offers, we chose to start a work and performance session pack. Selecting the productivity pack, made homework much easier to complete. The overwhelming feeling to complete the long lists of assignments was slowly diminished through soft music and comforting words.
Friday
The end of the school week has finally arrived and with it, so has the stress. To finish out the week of meditation, we chose the happiness pack session and focused on the appreciation aspect of it. The school week of a college student rightfully earns the reputation of being hectic, but it’s without a doubt still important to appreciate the wonderful opportunity right in front of us—the ability to further our education and one that just happens to be located in the happiest of valleys.
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