Summer is a great time to shed the pressure of juggling exams, work and sports. Even if you have a summer job, there’s more time to hit the beach, sleep in and chill with friends.

It’s also a great moment to build resilience to stress. Just as an athlete spends summer gearing up for fall soccer season, if you get into a stress-free lifestyle now it will prevent the craziness once school starts.

  1. Journal. Writing down your hopes, fears, and desires can help you unwind and find solutions to tricky relationship problems, according to PsychCentral.com.
  2. Exercise. Plan to work out three times a week for a stress-busting routine. Get into the habit of meeting your friends at the gym or the pool now and it will be easier to stick with it once school starts.
  3. Meditate. The Transcendental Meditation technique helps teens in two ways: First, it melts deep-rooted stresses that cause anxiety, depression and poor sleep. Second, once stress is less, you’ll find yourself more resilient to new stress. Have you found that when you’re rested and relaxed, the small things don’t bother you as much? That’s what it’s like to practise TM twice a day—it makes you feel like you’re on vacation even when your schedule is jammed.

And with less stress, your brain simply works better. Scientists think that’s why kids who practise TM find their grades going up without extra effort.

“I looked at my transcript for the last three years and it had all Cs and Ds all across it,” said Kyle, a grade 12 student.. “Now I’m getting As and Bs and I’m really proud of myself. The only thing that changed is that I started TM.”