How to overcome stress?

STRESS!!

It is so common nowadays that we feel stress of our daily routine, jobs, or other causes. Some problems are there without we are asking for. Feeling stress is common for most people but you must be aware if you are getting too down or when you are over thinking problems. Why??What will happen if we cannot overcome stress? well, the worst impact will contribute to our psychology, mind, and soul (high level of anxiety-->CRAZY). 

So, what is stress actually?

Stress is when you feel depressed, threatened or uneasy feeling which impacts to your body's way to respond these feeling.  It may impact to someone's anxiety level, depression, and health issue. 

How to relieve stress and anxiety??

So, based on tips from experts and personal experience. These are how we can overcome stress and anxiety: 

1.  Adequate sleep

Inadequate or poor-quality sleep can negatively affect your mood, mental alertness, energy level, and physical health.

2.  Be Social

Connect with others by taking a class, joining an organization, or participating in a support group.

3.  Improve time-management skill

The more efficiently you can juggle work and family demands, the lower your stress level.

4.  Take a deep breath and don’t complicate things

Problem itself is complex. Do not make it more complicated by over-thinking it. It is good that when you think you face a problem, try to take a deep breath and focus on solution, do not focus on the problem

5.  Pamper yourself

Treat yourself to a massage, go to saloon, take a spa and cream bath, go to music concert, or simply as take a bath with your favourite aromatherapy

6.  Consult with others

Don't be afraid to talk with others, share your problems to those who you trust most. If stress and anxiety persist, talk to your doctor or psychiatric.

7.  Learn relaxation techniques

Meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, deep breathing exercises, and yoga are powerful stress-busters.

8.  Do healthy life-style and exercise

Even if you are not a sport addict or healthy junkie, try getting use to healthy habit. Start signing up in gym, or do jogging every morning, in the weekend, and control your diet.

9.  Be sincere and let God decides

After all these efforts, the best thing we can do is to be tawakal (let God decides), trust that everything in this world happens with his will and there is always positive side of everything. Don’t lose hope and don’t forget to pray. In my belief, I trust that every obstacle that we face is a way to step further in our life, it is what makes us tougher, it is what makes us stronger.

Considering master program or working after graduate ??

Hiii

This time, I would like to share my past experience which can be related to others who have doubts whether should continue master program or working directly after completing my degree. You know that every fresh graduate will have high aim, good dream that they will get their dream jobs in no time, or at least not long after graduation. However, you will start to be worry when after the first few months you don't get any that even near your expectation, or even worse you just don't get any. For those who will enter this phase, yeah, face it dear ;)

So, the story began, After graduating on December 2012, My parents ask me to continue my postgraduate study in Malaysia. But, I argued that nowadays job experience is far more important and if I continue master program directly, I will not be competitive in job market and will be difficult to decide the salary base (in my opinion). So, after long hours of debate, they finally agreed and let me decide whatever I wanted. I was pleased, yet in reality finding your dream job was not as easy as you thought. You will go through lot of applications, reviewing CVs and cover letter, interviews, tests, and so on. And at the end ,in my case, I landed my first job after graduation as sales superintendent at one of biggest bookstore chain in Indonesia. (Guess you know it ;)). I was quite satisfied as I like books, I like reading, and The store was near my house (which is cost effective hehe). I learned a lot here about sales, communication, book logistic, and so on. Though, I felt that I should get more than this. I was in the phase that I feel I should get better job and so on, or whether it is the suitable career path or not. Right when I felt these doubts, my parents discussed again about continuing study. I felt this was my chance to grow more. I said yes, I will try searching for universities and so on. So, while still working, I was secretly taking Ielts  preparation course and preparing all documents. Why secret? Well, I was new at the company ? I started switching my mind to university after 5 months working. So, I prepared for 3 months regarding IELTS and other documents, and I resigned after 8 months working. However, it was still good experience. I had no regret as Working there developed my skills and experiences too.

Ok, back to my decision on continuing my master. At first, my parents asked me just continue to study in Malaysia as I was taking my first degree there. It was close to Indonesia as well, my parents said. Yet,I don't think the same.I have spent my last three years there and I felt that I wanted to try something new which will challenge my limit (actually just want to explore new city :p). So,I started on searching which universities that suits me most in terms of course, reputation, job prospects, as well as living cost.

My first tips for those who wants to study abroad: those mentioned above are relevant prior to picking up university to choose. There are many websites that you can look up :the official britishcouncil and idp website.com,thecompleteuniversityguide.com,Topuniversities.com or simply  ask education consultants in idp (Australie) or british council (uk) offices. Or, now there are many blogs or vlogs or books sharing experience about it as well. You can google and find yourself. 

My second tips is trying contacting if you have friend, relative, or find Indonesian association of your destined city because they will help you to answer your doubt and share their experience about living and stidying there. In my case, I was contacting International student offier at my campus and ask if the know any Indonesian studying at Hull University. For me, it is just assuring if I have friend from the same country. From there, I was invited to facebook group of Indonesians living At Hull. Then, I met another friend and arranged to share our accomodation. I know some of you will doubt this as you think it is better to explore your network by living with foreigners. Fyi, I live at shared house of 5 people, and 2 of us are Indonesian. So, we still have foreigners around while having fun together cooking Indonesian food and chit chatting about hot issues in Indonesia hehe ;). Lucky for me, I met good housemates.

My third tips is don't bring too many clothes, as you can find lot of really nice clothes with affordable price there (in my case, Hull). And also, if you shopping, do not always convert the price to rupiah. You will stressed out if you covert it too much. Just start to consider it is as your new currency, start budgeting use this new currency insted of always coverting it.

My fourth tips, regarding study is always listen to your lecturer's advise. I had one lecturer told me you should act like a consultant when facing a lecturer if you want to get high mark. Every lecturer has his/her expectation towards the assignments or exam and we, as a student, should be aware and custom with their expectation. So, in my case, by following this strategy, I was able to obtain distinction in every subject and obtained recognitiom by being the top scorer in my class.

My fifth tips, regarding finding job, in my case I was getting an internship and distinction project with UK companies (charity service and energy company). In order to secure it, it is necessary to keep updated with career service, job boards, ask friends and lecturers, and also ask advise from others regrding your Cv. As we come from different country, the CV format may be different. For instance, in Indonesia people tend to put more personl information, photograph, and usually more than 2 pages of Cv. While in UK, they want you to put all necessary information no more than 2 pages and it is better not putting too much personl information like gender, religion, marital status, etc.

So, I think it is all end of this blog. I will keep posting and hope it will be useful for all :)
Thanks for reading ;)

Life as international student at Hull University

This is my first blog, which I'd like to share my experience about being an International student at Hull University. I know it is too late to post experience after more than a year leaving UK. Though, I think the memory still remains :)

HULL, it is a small town yet peaceful and quiet for student life. The night I came to Hull, I was shocked seeing how quiet the city was. My hometown, Samarinda, which is located in East Borneo, is a small city too yet I found it even busier than Hull. Most of the streets in Hull when I came was dimly lit, and not many people were around. Right at the first night I know I felt homesick already. However, the next day I started to feel excited to do the campus tour and city tour ;).

Well, not much different as the view at night, Hull was still really peaceful at day, low pollution, and has Lot of friendly people. At first, I was a bit scary to live in Hull since most review from the net are never that good, and some even stated it was a bad place to live (OMG) !! Yet,after going around Hull for few weeks, all those reviews from Internet are not proven :D . One thing that I like most there was there was no discrimination or racism here, at least to me. I never had any bad experience with local or foreigner in hull. There were also a lot of muslims here, and we had one small mosque in University which really beneficial and convenience. Thus, for those who plan to study or move to Hull, its a great choice. It has nice environment, fresh air, and lower cost compared to other cities in UK.

However, hull has only few choices for entertainment i guess. There are plenty of bars here, but I am not that type who into bar. For those who like history, Hull is a great place as it has numerous museums to visit, art gallery, and also fish trail for those who prefer adventure trip.

Regarding to shopping, hmm, there are some shopping centre that I would like to recommend such as St.Stephens, Prospect Centre, and Debenhams. Those three are the biggest shopping centre in Hull. Yet, there are also small shops near city centre or in newland avenue which located near university, and there are so many charity shops who sell books, clothes and others.

Then, regarding to food, there are a lot of choice for foods. And especially for muslims, there are lot of muslims restaurants here, and they provide delivery service. You should try justeat.co.uk, it is very convenient. One of my favourite restaurant in Hull for arabic food is kurdistan restaurant. The food is nice and served in a very big portion. It is located in the middle between university and city centre.

Even, for Those who prefer to cook at home, there are a lot of grocery stores with a lot of variety, provide spices for Halal and Asian food.

Finally, I would finish it by saying thanks for reading my first blog ^.^ I hope enjoy it, and please feel free to ask me about Hull :D