Fatigue and self-care

The semester has been extremely busy so far and it's only week 4!! I feel so bogged down - I'm not sure if it's because I just haven't been this busy at uni before, or if it's because I care more about staying on top of my workload now than I used to, or whether it's because while I was working and studying I made it such a good habit of mine to stay ahead and hand in assignments way earlier, and now the gap between how things were then and now is just making me stressed.

No matter how much I do, it feels like there is still SO MUCH MORE.

I'm still trying to take breaks though - because I just can't keep my brain turned on for so long without absolutely dying (mentally).

So - what have I been doing during time off? Regrettably I've stopped reading so much other stuff in order to fit in the inordinate amount of curricular reading I have to do. Most economics subjects don't have reading, but then I decided to do an economic history subject so here we are.

I have been watching:

• Umbrella Academy (still cringing at Luther every now and again), 
• Handmaid's Tale season 3 (although it's been about a week since I last watched it)
• Buffy (when I forgot that I had already started Handmaid's Tale, had some time before bed, and just wanted to watch something)
• Sabrina - the chilling adventures of (although for some reason I can't get over its use of vignettes and how everything is blurred at the edges).

And I really want to watch Boys State (I have a 1-year subscription to Apple TV that came with the new macbook I bought at the start of the year - woohoo).

I have also been learning a lot about skincare. Piling nice-smelling stuff on my face is, I suppose, my equivalent of a stress-relieving bubble bath? I don't know. But I'm sure we all have relaxing activities that help us get over the stress/ennui/loneliness of everyday life in lockdown and for me the million assessments I have going on. Of course I am also not so rushed in the mornings so that helps. Old me used to just cleanse and moisturise and that was it. Now I exfoliate every now and again, have a separate eye cream and some serums.

Do you really need all that stuff on your face? I don't know. To each their own I guess. I used to have dry flaky skin, but then super oily, gunky pores on my nose and I think that the acid exfoliation has actually helped in that regard. And of course, cracked lips is just bad and it hurts - so I've gotten better at taking care of that. At the end of the day though, I find the best thing for skin is water, sleep and no stress. So I'm losing on the 'no stress' count. But also, who sleeps more as they get older? WHO? I mean I do right now because I'm on a uni schedule, but I imagine the general trend across the average person's lifetime is downwards sloping.

It's nice when your skin feels nice, just like how it feels nice to wrap yourself in cashmere, sing to your favourite song, drink some wine at the end of a long day, or put your feet up and get cozy on the sofa under a throw - all of which I've done recently (except for the cashmere part!). 

I've also been trying to take better care of my hair. Now that I have more of it (no haircut since around April) I can't just hide behind snipping off all my dead frizzy ends. My hair in general has been quite dry so I've reduced how often I wash it (once every two days sounds too much when I'm barely going out and getting dirty - lol), and started using hair oil after washing my hair. It made such a huge difference that I wondered if I'd been doing it wrong all these years. Now my hair is actually soft like you would expect normal hair to be.