{"id":11176,"date":"2020-04-18T13:23:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T13:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/?p=11176"},"modified":"2020-11-24T14:57:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T14:57:41","slug":"the-importance-of-taking-me-moments-at-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/the-importance-of-taking-me-moments-at-university\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Taking &#8216;Me&#8217; Moments at University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">University is intense, there\u2019s no denying that. It is full of socialising, events and studying. Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming and that is perfectly normal. Living in a flat of 4-8 people means that you often are in the company of at least one other person all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&nbsp;can&nbsp;also&nbsp;be&nbsp;pressure from others to always be in&nbsp;someone&#8217;s&nbsp;company&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;their&nbsp;Snapchat stories always seem to suggest that they\u2019re having the time of their life with their friends while you\u2019re stuck at home.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;you force yourself&nbsp;to be in&nbsp;other people\u2019s company.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"570\" height=\"321\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen.jpg 570w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen-170x96.jpg 170w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen-250x141.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen-70x40.jpg 70w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen-270x152.jpg 270w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Kitchen-370x208.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><figcaption>Cardiff University Accommodation &#8211; Talybont Court<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trick to&nbsp;happiness,&nbsp;my friend,&nbsp;is learning when to say no. You need to be comfortable in your own presence before you can truly enjoy being in the company of others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may even think that being by yourself is scary,&nbsp;but&nbsp;this is&nbsp;something&nbsp;you need to overcome. It is&nbsp;surprisingly&nbsp;easy when you&nbsp;try&nbsp;and&nbsp;I know from experience.&nbsp;In first&nbsp;year,&nbsp;I was very caught up in always being in&nbsp;<em>someone\u2019s&nbsp;<\/em>company and it drained me. Being an only child means that I have always been used to my own company, so university was a shock to the&nbsp;system,&nbsp;and I&nbsp;was catapulted into a social world I had never experienced before.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trick of&nbsp;enjoying&nbsp;your own company is simple:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>If you find being in your own company hard, do short amounts of time every day until you can build&nbsp;up&nbsp;to&nbsp;an hour or two.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Find a hobby you like \u2013 be that drawing or painting, listening to music, reading or even creating music.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Don\u2019t be scared- often the reason people can\u2019t be by themselves is because of the things that start going on in their mind when they are not distracted. Whatever it is that is stressing you out,&nbsp;breathe&nbsp;deeply and maybe try writing out everything that stresses you out. This makes it easy to visualise your stress and understand that it is not as bad as you may think. The university also has counselling services so if there is anything pressing on you make sure you utilise the services at hand.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Social Media is not a true representation of people&#8217;s lives &#8211; people only post social media stories when they\u2019re with people, that doesn\u2019t mean that they always are. They may seem to post everyday but hey, they may have seen that person for no more than half an hour.&nbsp;Everyone\u2019s lives are different and feeling FOMO (fear of missing out) is perfectly natural. You just&nbsp;have to&nbsp;understand the baseless anxiety that is derived from it, once you get your head around this you can see social media for what it is. Hopefully doing this will remove the anxiety you get from&nbsp;thinking that everyone is having fun without you.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Close your door \u2013 this means that flat\/house mates are less likely to barge into your room and disrupt your peace. The physical act of shutting your door also helps to create a sense of solitude, cut off from the distractions of life.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Turn off your phone \u2013&nbsp;in this day and age&nbsp;modern technology makes it nearly impossible to be truly alone. The pinging of your phone distracts and intrudes on your mind all day. Turning it off for a short amount of time every day allows your brain a little down time, enough to&nbsp;recuperate.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"570\" height=\"321\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Talybont-South.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Talybont-South.jpg 570w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Talybont-South-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Talybont-South-70x40.jpg 70w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Talybont-South-170x96.jpg 170w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Talybont-South-270x152.jpg 270w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/04\/Talybont-South-370x208.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><figcaption>Talybont South &#8211; Cardiff University <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Science has proven that spending time alone allows you to unwind and relax, something very important to cope with the stresses of University. It is also said to help boost creativity and productivity, which can only be a good thing for students. Not only this, but solitude also promotes deep thinking and&nbsp;improved social relationships.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, even if you\u2019re a social butterfly, learn to pause and enjoy your own company. Take time to yourself and&nbsp;appreciate yourself. It will&nbsp;be worth it, I promise.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"University is intense, there\u2019s no denying that. It is full of socialising, events and studying. Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming and that is perfectly normal. Living in a [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1772,"featured_media":11177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[696,6,7,10,15,694,692],"tags":[358,1022,645,151],"class_list":["post-11176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice-for-students","category-halls-of-residence","category-housemates","category-living-away-from-home","category-settling-in","category-student-life","category-top-tips","tag-advice","tag-overwhelmed","tag-student-accommodation","tag-student-life"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12314,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11176\/revisions\/12314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}