Healthy back to school habits

By: Claire Roth

Pulling yourself out from your winter pile of blankets with the words back to school ringing in your ears can be difficult. The vision of the never-ending staircase of Founders Hall you’ll have to climb to get to class can be daunting after a month of collegiate downtime. It could start you off on the wrong foot for the spring semester. The Lumberjack has compiled a short list of healthy, back-on-your-feet habits to take up so you can get back into the academic swing of things.

1. Eat Breakfast – Sound familiar? You’ve likely been told this all of your life, but now that you’re getting your body back on track to learn it’s especially important. Fruits like apples and bananas can be the difference between getting that extra boost of energy or becoming ‘that’ person who falls asleep in class on the first day.
2. Make a Calendar – Time seems more relative when you have a monthly calendar staring right at you. Stay on top of assignments for your new classes by taking some time to write all big deadlines down such as essays and exams.
3. Get Moving – If you’re in a class longer than 50 minutes you may have noticed a tingling feeling in your legs after about an hour: this is your body telling you that it’s time to get up and moving. Sitting down, in class or out, for more than an hour can be detrimental to various parts of your body. It always pays to take a short stroll down the hallway before returning to your studies.
4. Pace Yourself – Allowing yourself the time to reset and check in with how you are doing is one of the most important, yet least practiced, self-care tactics out there. Simple actions such as stopping what you’re doing, closing your eyes, and taking three slow breaths could help you clear your head and stay on the track for success.
5. Find Some Nature – There’s a reason that the phrase nature deficit disorder exists these days; we simply do not find the time to place ourselves in natural settings. HSU’s campus is fortunate enough to be situated next to a serene redwood forest with a babbling creek and chirping birds, the perfect playlist for a healthier train of thought.