For me, it’s audition season. For others, it’s coming close to midterms, along with exams, assignments, projects, and your personal life. It’s a stressful time, and sometimes we feel so overwhelmed that we almost physically combust just thinking about it.

Life is an incredibly stressful thing, and we always forget to just sit back and enjoy it. So, to help you get through whatever stressful event is filling your head, here are five ways to de-stress during a crazy time:

1. Breathing

I know this one sounds silly, but breathing techniques are extremely helpful when you’re sitting waiting for a job interview, audition, or big presentation. I often take a deep breath in through my nose, and out through my mouth to relax right before a stressful situation. Believe it or not, it helps tremendously, so I highly recommend practicing it whenever you need.

2. Meditation or Stretching

This one is also a little over said, but meditation is an incredibly helpful way to destress in the long run. The same thing goes for stretching: sometimes 10 minutes in the morning could improve your day, and even wake you up a little. Going to yoga classes or practicing meditation could be an oasis away from the stress of everyday life.

3. Eating Healthy

This is actually something I’ve discovered about myself recently: when I become super stressed out, I crave junk food and stress eat. It makes me feel so sick and bloated every time I stress eat, so I started changing my eating habits to having a salad with dinner, or eating an apple as a snack instead of chips, and I’ve noticed a huge difference in the way my body feels. When I’m stressed now, I crave fruits and vegetables, not junk food snacks. So, switching up eating habits could help your body detox during your stressful times.

4. Exercising

Hitting the gym after a long day, or going to an intense workout class is one of the best ways to let out stress. Exercising tires your body out almost immediately, so less brainpower is used to focus on things that are stressing you out. So, even if you feel tired, rundown, stressed, go to the gym and at least get a little bit of a workout in. It will make you feel so much better.

5. Dedicating Time to Yourself

This, in my opinion, is one of the hardest things to do, and something we rarely find ourselves doing. But sometimes, we need to just take a day to ourselves to enjoy our favorite movie, go to lunch with a close friend, see a show, or take a nice warm bath. Whatever makes you feel the best, do it. Taking time to relax and destress doing what makes us feel happiest is the best kind of medicine.

Stress is not something we can get rid of. It’s not something meditating every day, stretching, and going to the gym will “fix.” It’s a natural, human emotion to feel stressed or pressured while trying to pursue an education, a career, a goal, etc.

Hopefully, these five methods will be there as a reminder that stress should not consume your life to the point where you can’t have fun, or you can’t dedicate a day to making yourself happy. Self-preservation and self-care are extremely important. Whatever you’re doing that’s stressing you out, remember that it’s not forever, and you’ll get through it!