Taking time away from your research, courses and other work related activiteis may seem counterintuitive - but it is often the direct opposite.

• Short, effective breaks that reset your mind
  Take a 5–10 minute walk outside to reduce cognitive fatigue and increase motivation to return to work. 
• Step away from your desk and stretch your neck, back, arms and wrists to lower physical tension caused by prolonged sitting. [health.cornell.edu]
  Do 2–5 minutes of deep breathing or a mini‑meditation to calm your nervous system and restore focus. 
• Active breaks that improve resilience and cognitive performance
  Do light physical activity (e.g., a few minutes of movement, yoga, or simple exercises) to boost psychological resilience and decision‑making ability. 
• Use an “active break” during long writing sessions to enhance cognitive flexibility and stress regulation (supported by measurable improvements in HRV). 
• Breaks that support emotional wellbeing
  Spend 15–30 minutes away from your work to reduce stress accumulation and return with more energy and focus. 
• Go somewhere calm or outdoors to re-establish emotional balance and prevent irritability or frustration from escalating. (General academic mental health findings)
• Laugh with a friend or talk briefly with someone supportive to release stress and reset your mood. 
• Breaks that help prevent long-term stress and burnout
  Use intentional pauses during difficult phases of your PhD to maintain clarity and avoid “tunnel vision” in your research process. 
• Practice short “approach-based coping strategies” (e.g., walking, re‑organizing your workspace, taking a proper pause) to reduce the risk of depression during stressful project periods. 
• Give yourself permission to take distance from tasks you cannot solve immediately — it increases your ability to solve them once your mind has recovered. 

As always we recommend to include your PhD colleagues, research group and other colleagues into these activities. Creating a community that understands and supports wellbeing will make a vast impact.

Studies have shown that exercising can be more effective at reducing elements such as anxiety than medication.

As a low-cost accessible thing it is easy to implement in your daily routine as a fixed element or something to pick up when you can feel that something is bothering you. 

Social mechanisms significantly contribute to mental well‑being and reduce the isolation that many PhD students experience.

In short: A healthier body helps regulate your stress systems, gives you more mental energy, expands your coping capacity, and helps you build meaningful connections.

Why Doing Activities With Others Makes an Even Bigger Difference

Physical activity is powerful on its own, but research highlights that shared physical activities amplify the mental health benefits. When you exercise with peers, you naturally:

• Build social support networks, which buffer stress
• Strengthen your sense of belonging to an academic community
• Increase motivation and accountability
• Reduce feelings of isolation
• Improve both mental and social well‑being through shared experience.
• These effects reflect known social‑psychological mediators in the relationship between physical activity and mental health.

For PhD students—who often work independently—these social benefits are particularly valuable.

 
Examples of Activities You Can Do

Light & Accessible Activities
Great for quick mental resets or for beginners:

• Short walks between work sessions (outdoor walking is known to improve mood)
• Stretching routines
• Light yoga (effective for stress reduction and body awareness) 
• Cycling to and from campus
• Moderate Physical Activities

Ideal for sustained well‑being benefits:

• Pilates or dance (shown to reduce stress and improve mental health) [academic.oup.com]
• Jogging or trail running
• Group fitness classes
• Strength‑Focused Activities

Powerful for improving resilience and mood:

• Resistance training (effective for reducing anxiety and depression) [frontiersin.org]
• Body‑weight exercise routines
• Strength sessions with a peer or small group

Imposter syndrome is well described and well known amongst young researchers across the world. This does however not mean that it has  become less relevant to present and discuss in the context of wellbeing.

What is it and how does it feel?

Imposter syndrome can make you feel like a fraud and unworthy, despite there being no link between these feelings and your actual abilities.
 Interestingly, it's often highly capable individuals who experience these feelings the most. It's crucial to recognize that imposter syndrome is rooted in our thoughts and doesn't reflect our true capabilities. However, it can have significant impacts by draining your confidence, energy, and focus, which in turn can reduce your productivity and willingness to seize opportunities. This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

How to counter it!

One of the ways to counteract imposter syndrome is to build and recognise your own mastery. In other words, making explicit, focused efforts to develop your skills and to take the time to recognise and mark your own development. The more you are able to demonstrate your own understanding, knowledge and ability to yourself, the more confident you can feel. Be practical about it - write, talk and discuss with peers, family and the like.

Utilizing offers from AAU PhD suchs as the DISC profiling can also be an effective tool in relation to beeing aware of your own skills and competences.

Be aware that imposter syndrome will often make our abilities invisible to us – we normalise what we’re good at and assume everyone knows that or everyone can do that. This is why it is important to take control of this, recognising your own development and progress. You can do this each week as a task, making a list or drawing of what you have achieved, what you have learned and where you have improved. 

If you wish to know more about the imposter syndrome a paper can be found here: IJDS - PhD Imposter Syndrome: Exploring Antecedents, Consequences, and Implications for Doctoral Well-Being 

A nationwide study from DM & PAND done in 2022 showed that more than 50% of all PhD students experiences stress and the sensation of beeing drained during their PhD. Now in 2025 there are several tools that you can use a PhD student to counter the sense of beeing stressed or even to avoid it completely.

Potential Stress Factor for PhD Students

A local AAU study found that the primary causes for stress amongst PhD students at the Technical Faculty of IT & Design was based around the following elements:

• Insecurity in relation to the scope of the project.
• Future career 
• Collaboration or lack of with the supervisor team
• Implicit expectations in relation working hours, tasks and related elements

Strategies for Dealing with and Preventing Stress

There are several efforts that you can put into play when it comes to dealing with and even preventing stress. 

Proven techniques on a short term scale can include elements such as :

• Breathwork - are you breathing properly? Be conscious about breathing fully in (take all the air in that you can - and then a little more) through your nose and out through your mouth.
• Tighten up to relax - working with what is known as progressive muscle relaxation where you tighten specific muscle groups and then relax afterwards.
• Use the support around you - Talk to someone. You could talk to your friends, family, supervisors or support services from AAU. It may help you to think of something you may not have considered or help you to regain perspective. Sometimes just sharing a problem with someone else can help you to feel more supported and appreciated and this can help lower your stress.
• Face the Workload and Prioritize it - Ensuring that you prioritze your tasks (before they might overwhelm you) can be a key element in a busy everyday life. Simply writing down the tasks of the day and putting them into one of the 4 follwing categories can be big help:
  • Urgent and very important
  • Important but not urgent
  • Urgent but not important
  • Neither urgent nor important

Always reach out if you think you are experiencing stress, prolonged symptoms or just need to talk.