c/o Sophie Griffin, Arts & Culture Editor

Welcome to Ask The Argus, a column brought to you by the Features section! Each week, we give you the hottest advice from your wonderful, trusty, seasoned editors. Are you having trouble making friends? Is your relationship falling apart? Regretting your choice of major? Struggling with time management? Don’t fret: We’ve been there and are here to help. 

How can I incorporate exercise into my schedule?

There are so many amazing options at Wesleyan for exercise! One of the most special things offered here for staying healthy are the WesBAM (Wesleyan Body and Mind) classes. They offer free classes 6 days a week: Zumba, HIIT training, aerobics, or yoga. And, lucky for us, the classes are finally back in person again! The instructors are Wesleyan students and are trained and certified to teach, so you get a real workout in. If you haven’t tried Zumba or even heard about it, we’d particularly recommend that you give it a shot! It is not only a great workout to get you sweating, but it’s also a fun way to dance and let loose. You can find even more information about class times and locations on their website.

If classes aren’t your jam though, the Freeman Athletic Center has a really great gym that is open 7 days a week to all Wesleyan students. Yes, it can feel scary to go there, and sometimes it can be awkward, but if you pop in some headphones and go about your workout, it feels like your own space. We promise no one is actually staring at you, even if it feels like you stick out. A gym is a great place to start incorporating more exercise into your schedule because you are in complete control of your own workout. No amount of exercise is too little. Also, the more you go the more comfortable you will feel!

Hiking, dancing with friends, and at-home workout YouTube videos are all other great options to exercise if neither a gym nor classes sound appealing. The CDC recommends 150 minutes of exercising each week, which sounds daunting, but if you break it up into 30 minutes only five days a week, it doesn’t sound as bad, right? You can always start smaller and work your way up, too. Find a time that doesn’t affect your work schedule where you truly want to exercise. If you have a time of day where you just can’t seem to focus on your homework, treat working out as a study break to jog your motivation. 

I signed up for way too many things this semester, and I’m feeling extremely overwhelmed and drained at the end of every day. Should I quit something or stick it out through the rest of the semester?

What a classic Wesleyan conundrum, and it’s called “spreading yourself too thin.” It’s important to remember that we’re still in a pandemic and the feelings of stress you may be experiencing are also probably related to the world’s general dysfunction at the moment. So, take a break! As a child, a lot of us internalized that quitting is a bad thing, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes quitting one thing means that you have more time, energy, and enthusiasm for another thing, which yields a net good. Quitting is not always “giving up” or “losing.” Quitting can mean the prioritization of your wellbeing. 

Make a list of all the activities you’re involved in—classes, extracurriculars, jobs. Try to rank them in terms of importance to you, and then look at what’s at the bottom of your list. Some things are easier to quit (quitting classes isn’t really an option, for example). But can you work fewer hours at your job? Can you step back from your responsibilities in a certain extracurricular? Can you talk to a professor and tell them that you need extra support? (It could be as simple as asking for a few extensions.)

Above all, though, go with your intuition. Is there one activity that always makes your head hurt when you think about it? Is that activity quittable? If you answered yes to these questions, it might be time to put it on the chopping block. We promise you’ll feel lighter after you do it.

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