University

Going back to school can bring on hundreds of different emotions at the best of times, let alone with everything else that is going on at the moment. Whether you are starting school, going back to school or moving away to University, each situation can bring it's own different issue.

How can we cope with such overwhelming changes?

We may have things that we have no control over, but the best way of combating any anxiousness that can be thrown up from all the changes, is by taking control of the things we can. We will be discussing University students as their change is the most extreme at the minute and probably the furthest away from what they have been imagining for the past few years.

Living away with new people can bring it's own challenges. Here are a few of these listed below:

Cleaning: Making sure all communal areas are kept to a standard of cleaning that you are all happy with
Food/Drink: Having boundaries with sharing food and drink
Home Sickness: Missing the comforts of living at home

Friendships: Missing the closeness of the friendships and relationships you have built up over the years
Education: The amount of work and own responsibility for completing it all
Financial: Budgeting your money and needing a job to up to maintain your lifestyle
Relationships: Finding a new partner/partners and dealing with the emotional and physical effects of this.

Cleaning

Living with new people can be extremely challenging. Behaviour that one person may see as disrespectful another may see as the normal, so its incredible important to have open and honest conversations and soon as you can about what both parties expect and try and provide compromises on both sides to create a happy and harmonious environment.

By setting house rules and a cleaning rota, you can have a clear definite expectation of what is expected of each other to maintain the communal areas of your living spaces. For example, after food is prepared and eaten, the washing up should be completed straight away and all surfaces should be anti-bac'd and wiped down ready for the next person. What will the rule be for taking the rubbish out? ETC.

We have popped a printable below that will allow for you to write the house rules and divvy up the different areas on different days to make it balanced and make sure everyone knows and agrees on the outcomes.

Note: Be as clear as you can with all of the instructions, so it doesn't allow for any different interpretations

Food and Drink

Why not make a bit of joke out of the food and drink in the cupboard, but setting your stall out with not allowing people to take your things straight away.

There is research that proves that a pair of eyes actually can deter people from doing something morally wrong. Why not purchase a pack of googly eyes and pop them on your pint of milk, bar of chocolate or the ten portions of spaghetti bologna that you have prepared! We've made some labels for you to pop onto your food and drink.

Home Sickness

It's easy to list the reasons of why you can't wait to move out; independence, privacy, new experiences ETC. but sometimes we don't think about the things that we will miss. It could be someone bringing you a cup of tea in the morning, or even missing fighting for the remote with the family. We've put together a mind map sheet, where you can list the things that you may miss and come up with ideas on how to combat this. E.G. Family chats = family Whatsapp, friendship groups = scheduled zoom chat.

Education

There can be an awful lot of deadlines that seem to creep up on you from nowhere. Our advice would be to plot all of your due date's on a calendar that you have on a wall and can see each day. That way you can manage your time and make sure nothing is missed. We've popped a monthly calendar with tags to plot your work below.

Finances

Money isn't the be all and end all, but not having enough to cover the things you need can create more stress to worry about on top of everything else. The best thing would be to figure out exactly how much money you have to play around with each month and not get yourself into a situation where you can't pay the bills that are essential. Click below for the budget planner.

Relationships

Making sure that you always work on your most important relationship is essential. How you behave towards yourself and treat yourself shows other how you are willing to be treated. Use kind and loving words to yourself, we always use the rule if you wouldn't say it to your best friend then don't say it yourself. We've compiled some websites and numbers that you make need when you are looking at relationships.

And if it all comes too much, head to our urgent help tab for some supportive organisations that can help you through.