Utilizing Strategies
MIT students share the strategies they have used to cope with difficult situations. While there are many routes to overcoming challenges and no single strategy will work for everyone, listening to others’ strategies might help you reframe your own struggles and cope more easily.
Filtered by
Strategy Area
Learning more effectively, setting priorities, and exploring academic interests
Recognizing unhelpful ways of thinking and gaining new perspectives
Building healthy habits, supportive relationships, and joy
Cultivating awareness of thoughts and emotions and focusing on the present
Reaching out to others to gain perspective and access support
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Read more: Coping with Anxiety
Strategy
Coping with Anxiety
View all clips: Coping with AnxietyMIT students share strategies they used to calm their nerves before stressful situations.
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Read more: Cultivating Awareness
Strategy
Cultivating Awareness
View all clips: Cultivating AwarenessMIT students describe how making deliberate efforts to recognize and attend to their emotions as well as their bodies has helped them cope.
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Read more: Exploring Interests and Values
Strategy
Exploring Interests and Values
View all clips: Exploring Interests and ValuesMIT students share how exploring their interests, engaging in co-curricular activities, and reflecting on their values helped them clarify their paths and find more joy in their daily routines.
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Read more: Feedback
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Feedback
View all clips: FeedbackAsking for feedback can be difficult. Hear how MIT students have used feedback to identify areas for improvement as well as for bolstering their confidence.
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Read more: Finding Perspective
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Finding Perspective
View all clips: Finding PerspectiveMIT students discuss how stepping back and looking at their situations objectively helped them to put their struggles in a broader context and realize that it’s going to be okay.
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Read more: Gratitude
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Gratitude
View all clips: GratitudeMIT students talk about ways to reflect and remain grateful for the small things, in order to remain positive in difficult times.
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Read more: Growth Mindset
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Growth Mindset
View all clips: Growth MindsetMIT students share how shifting to a growth mindset has helped them see their struggle as a learning experience and feel less like an impostor.
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Read more: Meditation
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Meditation
View all clips: MeditationMIT students discuss meditation practice and how it helped them shift their perspectives to gain mental clarity, feel more compassion, and lessen rumination.
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Read more: Mental Health Support
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Mental Health Support
View all clips: Mental Health SupportMIT students talk about how reaching out for support from mental health counselors and friends helped them reframe negative thoughts.
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Read more: Not Comparing Yourself to Others
Strategy
Not Comparing Yourself to Others
View all clips: Not Comparing Yourself to OthersWhen facing difficult experiences, it is natural to draw comparisons to peers and doubt your own abilities. MIT students reflect on insights gained about who they are and what they are capable of when they learned to stop comparing themselves to others.
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Read more: Overcoming Perfectionism
Strategy
Overcoming Perfectionism
View all clips: Overcoming PerfectionismMIT students describe strategies they use to make progress when they feel stuck due to their own unrealistic expectations.
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Read more: Practicing Acceptance
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Practicing Acceptance
View all clips: Practicing AcceptanceMIT students share how they overcame resistance to challenging situations and emotions to practice self-compassion and accept situations they cannot change.
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Read more: Prioritizing Well-being
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Prioritizing Well-being
View all clips: Prioritizing Well-beingMIT students describe how they create space to be mentally and physically healthy while tackling difficult challenges.
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Read more: Reframing Destructive Thoughts
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Reframing Destructive Thoughts
View all clips: Reframing Destructive ThoughtsMIT students share how they learn to recognize and revise problematic thought patterns that often result when confronted by challenging academic situations.
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Read more: Setting Goals and Prioritizing
Strategy
Setting Goals and Prioritizing
View all clips: Setting Goals and PrioritizingMIT students talk about setting goals and prioritizing their time to deal with challenges such as test anxiety, work overload, and making progress on their academic work.
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Read more: Sleep
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Sleep
View all clips: SleepHear strategies for getting enough sleep and how sleep has positively impacted MIT students’ overall performance.
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Read more: Social Connections
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Social Connections
View all clips: Social ConnectionsHear MIT students discuss how giving and receiving support from peers has helped them stick to their study plans, prevent overload, and keep them energized.
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Read more: Study Strategies
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Study Strategies
View all clips: Study StrategiesHear how MIT students have fine tuned problem solving and note taking strategies and have utilized office hours when struggling with academic performance.
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Read more: Talking to Mentors
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Talking to Mentors
View all clips: Talking to MentorsMIT students talk about the valuable conversations they had with their mentors: conversations that led to different perspectives on personal struggles and personal strengths; and clarification of goals and advice on how to achieve them.
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Read more: Utilizing Resources
Strategy
Utilizing Resources
View all clips: Utilizing ResourcesMIT students describe how they use the myriad academic and wellness resources available on campus.