Dealing with stress during medical school and residency?Advice from someone who's been through it.

It feels like you're stuck into a routine. Wake up, work, study, cook, clean, exercise, relax, repeat. Sometimes it begins to feel daunting how many years you have to do this in order to finish all your goals and become an attending.

The thought process shouldn't be "oh when I become an attending, I'll finally be able to do x,y, and z!" Rather it should be focused on the day you experience today, this moment, right now. Why? Because tomorrow is never promised to anyone.

Having this in mind, try to do things every day that make you go to sleep with no regrets.

Take a little bit of time and reach out to your friends, siblings, parents. They are probably thinking about you and will be there when you need them most, so it is critically important to keep those relationships strong.

Spend time doing something new. Find a new hobby and keep doing it until you get good at it. Try snowboarding, learn a new musical instrument, take salsa dancing lessons.

Cook! Few skills will make you more happy than this. Check out my personal instagram @foodieprescription for recipes.

Exercise. Make a goal - lose 5 lb, 10 lb, get ripped out of your mind, and tell everyone you know about your goal to make yourself accountable. I recommend asking a friend to do a weight loss competition, whoever loses 10lb first gets a free dinner from the loser at the restaurant of choice.

Eat clean. What you put into your mouth has a huge bearing on how you feel and think. You can actually improve your grades and academics by having a sharper mind from eliminating junk food.

Listen to good music. Turn on that discover mode in spotify, stop listening to the same 5 songs you always do (which I'm guilty of!).

Find a new TV show or cool Youtube channels. Watch the news.

Give to charity or volunteer. Odds are that if you're reading this, you have it better than most people in this world who do not have access to the internet or clean water. There is so much to be grateful for!

Read a book. Walk into a library and pick up something on a topic you're interested in. If you're totally stumped, check out Great Expectations by Dickens.

I can sit here and type up a laundry list of things to do. Ultimately it all boils down to you being efficient with your time. Set aside a time to study when you get home, a time to do your housework, a time to cook, and most importantly, a time where you just relax and do nothing related to work/housework/studying.

And lastly... dont forget to sleep! You should be getting a minimum of 6 hrs of sleep a day.

Good luck!

-Dr Shay