When I was in high school, I would often find myself baking cookies or brownies with my mom instead of working on homework assignments that were stressing me out. I always joked with my friends that it was dangerous because I was a stress-eater and my mom was a stress-baker. I came to a new realization when I got to college: the thing I missed the most wasn’t the cookies or the brownies, but the mixer my mom and I would use to make cookie dough or brownie batter. I missed the act of baking. Of course, I continued to stress-eat, but if anything, it only made my stress worse. I needed to be able to bake. So as we come back from spring break and begin to stress out over midterms and finals, let me share some advice with you.
When you’re stressed, try to stay active. I don’t mean to say that you need to be spending three hours at the gym every day, but you should keep your body moving. If you’re sitting in front of your computer, then staring at an empty word document, and you’re getting frustrated, do not get on Facebook and do not go to your snack drawer and sulk. Get up and go for a walk or go to the grocery store and get ingredients for cookies! I have found that actually doing something active with your time, even if it's not necessarily what you should be doing (I’m talking about that essay you’ve got due next week) can give you a boost of productivity that can carry over to when you get back to work.
If you’re the type of person who sometimes convinces themselves that an assignment is absolutely impossible to complete, then I highly recommend baking because when you bake you’re creating something delicious all by yourself. You don’t need to bake anything fancy, just something to remind yourself that you are capable of doing whatever you put your mind to. Not to mention it requires a fair amount of attention, so you can give your brain a break from the assignment that’s getting you down.
Of course, when your cookies are done and ready to be eaten, you can eat them, which is still kind of stress-eating, but better because you made the snack yourself. This is also a good time to invite your house mates or section mates to come share the snack with you. It will make them feel better too, and there’s nothing quite like doing something that makes everyone feel better during a stressful time.
If you are an unfortunate Whittie who doesn’t always have access to a kitchen, then I would like to remind you that the GAC has a wonderful kitchen that you can reserve at almost any time. You can make a night of it with some friends where you cook dinner, make dessert, talk, laugh and have a grand old time, before you lock yourself in a library study room for the rest of the week.
