Winter Wellbeing Guide

The importance of looking after our wellbeing has been brought to the forefront of conversations in schools and workplaces over the recent years, however, it’s still often unclear what is meant when people say, ‘look after your wellbeing.” While it is well-meaning to say that looking after your wellbeing is having a bubble bath or putting your feet up with a cuppa, there really is more to it than that. In this blog we will be exploring what practical wellbeing can look like and how it can help students get through the cold, dark, winter nights.

Wellbeing can be thought of as being in a state of positive feelings, being content, healthy and able to meet your full potential in the world. (1) Being behind in school work or homework can cause stress and anxiety, and though it might be tempting to keep putting work off, the best solution is to get it done. When students get to their GCSE and A-level years, workloads increase and it can be difficult for them to stay on top of it. How can this be avoided? By prioritising and allocating time for doing homework, but leaving time for socialising and downtime too. If your child isn’t sure how to prioritise, a Cardiff & Vale Tutor can certainly help with this!

Winter is a tough time for a lot of people. The days are shorter and much colder. While exercising isn’t something that might seem very appealing, just doing half an hour or so, a few times a week could be a game changer. It could help students feeling more energised and able to retain information better. Whether it’s a short walk in the park, or a longer day trip out into nature, it can boost wellbeing and help to clear the mind.

Getting enough sleep and eating a healthy balanced diet is also going to go a long way in terms of helping with students’ wellbeing. During this part of the school term, a lot of students are exhausted and try to get away with sitting at their school desks with their heads down. Being strict with bedtimes of students, perhaps especially teenagers, is really important. Over the winter school holidays a lot of routines go right out the window! This not only makes it more difficult when students get back to school in January, but it also means that their two weeks off is spent on staying up all night and sleeping all day. This means they will miss out on daytime sunshine – which is rare anyway during a UK winter – and can find it hard to stay awake during the day in January.

To summarise, in order to truly look after wellbeing, it isn’t enough to once in a while treat yourself to something nice. It is something that needs to be worked on every day: through exercise, healthy eating, sleeping enough and getting the things that you need to do done before it becomes stressful and overwhelming.

We wish all those celebrating a holiday this winter season a wonderful time and a happy new year!

Sources

• A critical review of the definition of ‘wellbeing’ for doctors and their patients in a post Covid-19 era – PMC (nih.gov)