As Americans, "busy" is engrained in our brains.

We're always running around, doing tasks and have endless amounts of work. It's just part our lifestyle. I'm one of those kinds of people who needs to stay busy. Otherwise, I get incredibly bored or just plain lazy. However, whenever school starts I begin a cycle of being perpetually busy and never really knowing how to cope with my stress.

The balance of being busy is one that is hard to find.

As students, we are overloaded with work, social activities, and daily tasks. If you're anything like me, you feel like you barely even have a moment to breathe. So, I guess this article is to go against everything I have been doing my entire life as I say this: you're allowed to take time to do nothing, and you're allowed to take time for yourself.

You may be thinking, " seriously, I don't have time for that." However, in the smallest of ways, taking time for yourself will help your overall stress levels so maybe you'll have less of a full-on meltdown come the rough days. It could be simple. For example, watching an episode of HGTV just to get your mind off of things. Maybe you like to work out, so do that for a bit just to balance yourself out. No matter how busy you truly are, you can take the time out of your day- even just for 15 minutes- to help yourself relax and stay calm.

As someone who is constantly stressed out, I know this is easier said than done. However, it's now had to become part of my life. I am trying to improve in the ways that I organize my time, and I really have found that taking a few minutes each day for myself- even when I am the busiest- has been incredibly beneficial to my stress, relationships with other people, and even my own studying and task completion.