When Emotions Invade Our Mind And Studying Is Impossible

Of efforts and sacrifices

When we think about them, questions about time and effort often come to mind: study hours, preparing for exams, keeping notes up to date, going to class every morning…; Although the real sacrifice is to reconcile all this with emotional issues when those emotions overwhelm us.

Students are used to certain levels of stress. Sometimes we manage them better and sometimes worse. Sometimes (especially in exam season or when important assignments such as the internship report, the TFG or the TFM have to be handed in), the degree of stress we end up with is so high that, if it were not temporary, it would kill us. Literally. But what if to those times of extremely high stress we also add a parallel emotional alteration? Here is the crux of the matter: how to make both things compatible and not develop post-traumatic stress syndrome later.

When I grow up, I want to be a robot

Sometimes it is love, sometimes heartbreak. It can be a betrayal, an intense argument with our parents or siblings, a lost job that allowed us to survive, a friend who fails us seriously or something even more serious: the illness of a loved one or even a death in the family.

And if all these emotions are already difficult to reconcile with the day to day, even more so when we are caught in the middle of those horrible moments of extremely high academic stress.

To explain a little better what thing, we can do to try to fulfill our academic obligations (and we already warn that there is no single magic solution and that a great personal effort will have to be made), we are going to take a moment to make a distinction important between negative emotions and love (damn love).

Knowing how to manage a positive emotion is not something as simple as it may seem a priori and, as when negative emotions affect us, the problem is not in the emotion itself, but in its intensity.

Long live love (or may it not live)

Love is a wonderful feeling; It magnifies us, opens our minds, gives us unique experiences; But we will agree that it is not as disturbing to love when we have been doing it for a while as when we have just fallen in love.

And yes, love is great, but that the beginning of falling in love or the vital anguish of not being reciprocated with a season of exams or with the delivery of an important work coincides with us, it is not wonderful at all. Rather the opposite.

The truth is that love makes us totally stupid. Our body is filled with chemicals that are produced in the cerebral cortex (such as dopamine, oxytocin and phenyl ethylamine, although in a proportion 7000 times higher than normal. Yes, you read that correctly, 7000) and that make us beings absurd that do not stop looking at the phone in case another WhatsApp has arrived or to reread the previous ones or to tell a friend with a lot of stamina what he put in those messages. We review photos, send memes, songs and other nonsense non-stop, our hearts beat as if we have chronic cardiac arrhythmia, we sleep badly, we are constantly sexually aroused and we feel what they call “butterflies in the stomach.” If we had all these feelings without being in love, we would be admitted to the emergency room.

Combining this mental cocktail with studies and that our grades do not drop will be complicated, but it can be done with an iron will and, if possible, with a partner who understands what we are going through and does not alter us by sending us love songs every 10 minutes. There is no other option but to talk it over with her and organize it.

We will have to set a schedule for using the mobile so that we know that there will be no messages until the agreed time and avoid daydreams as much as possible. If we see that our heads are going to how well we had yesterday, we must stop as soon as possible and return to concentration.

Here there is only one thing to understand: if we want to get the same grades as before meeting the love of our life of the month, we have to take more hours. Point. So if exam time is approaching and we see that we are in a foolish plan, it is better to start studying beforehand. There’s no more.

Another thing is that we are lucky that the object (subject) of our desires goes to our same class. Then it is better that we go together to the library and that we ask each other the agenda while we cuddle. Thus we remove the part of longing and we do teamwork.

When trouble comes

As for negative emotions, there is everything, but they can also achieve, depending on their intensity, that we do not concentrate easily or that we feel emotional pain so strong that it directly knocks us out.

The same is absurd to specify this because it is common sense, but in case the flies and before entering how to study when we have an emotional problem, it is important to say that in the face of the loss or serious illness of a close relative, in the face of an emotional impact of these characteristics, each one will see how it is handled, but losing an evaluation or even a complete course is not the end of the world and, also, if we talk to the professional ghostwriters and teachers about our situation, they will surely be happy to postpone the exam. Adding more stress and anguish by adding examinations to what is happening to us is not advisable (unless, instead of stressing us, it serves as an escape route to disconnect from the pain).

As for the problems that occur of less extreme nature but that reduce our concentration, the desire to live (metaphorically speaking) and distress us, we can do several things:

Losing a couple of hours in finding a possible solution: If we have argued with our partner, with a close friend or with our parents, the first order of the day is to see if we can do something to solve it and avoid spending the rest of the day thinking about it. affair. We are still angry, sad or very worried, but our studies come first, and that is why it is time to lower the fumes and find a solution. In interpersonal problems, dialogue is the key; so we should try to fix things using social skills such as the ability to negotiate, assertiveness and empathy. If it doesn’t work, we can also say, “This is important to me and it affects me as much as it does you, but right now I am in exams and I cannot cope with the emotions it produces. I want you to know that I know you are having a hard time too and that matters to me, but I have no choice but to postpone this discussion. On the X I finish the exams and I would love if we could talk about it then. Also, this way we let this cool down and it will be easier for us to find solutions. It is done. Now we just have to think about it as little as possible and start studying.
When things have no solution: There are people who repeat the absurd saying of “if something has a solution, why bother? And if you don’t have it, why bother? ». We do not know if these people live on Mars, if they have some kind of sociopathy or if they have reached nirvana and nothing affects them anymore, but for normal people who have feelings, these self-help nonsenses for memos are useless. It is true that we must try to relativize problems and put things in their place trying not to magnify them, but emotions are emotions and we cannot and should not avoid feeling them. The only advantage here is that we have known ourselves for a lifetime and we know what can help us or what things we could start practicing to improve control over our emotions.

Some ideas to regain focus

There are people who find it useful to meditate and they could do it for a few minutes before starting to study or when they see obsessive thoughts appear that deconcentrate them.
Playing sports will also help us. If we are overwhelmed and we do not know what we read, it is a good time to stop and go for a 15-minute run.
Starting the day studying the hardest and leaving what we like for later will allow us to stay focused longer.
Another thing that works but requires some training time is to avoid thinking about problems when we are in our study place. If we see that we start to hit the coconut, we have to get out of there and choose another room to spend some time whipping ourselves. In this way we will end up associating that there are areas of the house that are to study and others that are to think about and, since our brain is very stupid at heart, it will end up getting used to not bothering us when it shouldn’t.
It is important to avoid obsessive thoughts as much as possible. We have a problem, it is true, but now is not the time to think about it, but to study; So, if we see that we begin to lose focus, let’s change the subject and the study technique. If we always read and then summarize, let’s switch to reciting aloud and making mind maps. By changing the routine, we will make an extra effort that will get our brain to work on what it should.
Even though we are suffering, it is important to maintain the routines: even if the body asks us to stay in bed crying or watch series without stopping, we must get up, shower and eat properly and keep a schedule. This way we will feel less miserable and little by little we will pick up the rhythm.

Life is like this: unpleasant things happen that we do not deserve and that never catch us in a good time, but learning to compartmentalize our mind a bit and stay functional despite adversity is also part of growing up and becoming an adult.

Much encouragement.