How To Decompress After An Overwhelming Week

We’ve all been there. The work week just felt like it was dragging on, and the chores at home seem to be endless. As a graduate student with a full-time job, I am constantly overwhelmed between work, homework, chores, maintaining a social life, and trying to squeeze in some self-care time. Once you hit your weekend you feel completely beat; then next thing you know your week is starting again, and you are still overwhelmed from last week. This exact scenario has happened to me way to many times, but I have found some things that work for me.

First, do not look at anything related to work on Friday night. That is the night you come home and forget you even have that job. When I get home from work on Friday’s I kick my shoes off and lay on the couch and immediately start watching a guilty pleasure show, currently it is Pretty Little Liars. The best advice I can give you for Friday nights is to do something that just makes you forget that the world exists. This can be watching your favorite movie or tv show for the millionth time, starting a new tv show, reading a book, going out to get drinks with friends, or playing video games.

I like to completely ditch my alarm clock on the weekends, especially after having an extremely overwhelming week. For a while I used to think that I had to be just as productive over the weekend as I was during the week, but that is not the case. We all need to take some time to relax and not doing anything. I had a friend tell me that relaxing and letting go of your stress from the week is productive, and I learned that he is right. So what I want you to take away from this is that rest and relaxation is productive and 100% needed after an overwhelming week.

Disconnecting from the world for even just a couple of hours is something that helps me decompress from an overwhelming week. I like to put my phone away from me on silent. During this time I like to stretch, meditate, do a bit of yoga, or watch tv or read uninterrupted. This gives me time to just focus on taking care of myself.

These are the things that work for me when I have an overwhelming week. We all process things differently, so what works for me may not work for you. This life comes with many ups and downs, and some weeks are just so jam packed that by the time you hit Friday night you feel extremely overwhelmed. The best advice I can give you is to find what things you can do that take you away from the world for a bit. Being able to step away from life can be that decompress we need to be our best selves for the next week.