Before coming to LSE, I’d never lived in a city before, let alone a place the size of London. To put the change into perspective, I’m fairly positive there are more people within 5 square kilometers of me here than there are in my entire 55,000 square kilometer Canadian home province of Nova Scotia. It’s pretty mad to try and conceptualize it that way.

Although London is an incredible city to live in with endless things to do, as I’ve discussed in many of my other blogs, it can also be incredibly overwhelming. There is always more, and I mean always. There is never not something you can be doing.

Back in September, the fact there were endless things to do was exactly what I needed, but my bar was set low. Doing anything relatively new was more than I was doing before. Fast-forward to the second term and things had changed slightly.

The thing about city life is it can be incredibly difficult to disconnect and relax, especially now with social media where you’re able to see what everyone else is doing, always. It’s so easy to constantly compare yourself to others and slip into the fear of missing out (FOMO) trap. Whenever I was sitting at home alone on a weekend night, or even some weeknights where I wasn’t doing work, I would find it so hard to relax simply because I knew there was so much I could be doing. Even if I went for a walk, I would see hundreds or even thousands of people out socializing, just further reinforcing what I was missing out on. Yet, what I didn’t realize, is that there were probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of other people in the city doing the same thing as me – they just weren’t sharing it on Instagram.

I’d find myself sitting there thinking, “I’m in a city of 10 million people and here I am watching TV in my room alone”; I’ve almost had to relearn how to chill out and relax. Not to pretend to be a philosopher or that I have anything about life figured out, but if there’s one thing London’s taught me it’s this: more most definitely isn’t better. The times when I was doing the most are usually when I felt the worst when I got home at the end of the day – it’s weird, but my guess is that it has something to do with overstimulation. Your brain can only process so much.

I found that in times where I was always concerned with doing something, each individual occasion lost a bit of its spark. It took more and more for me to go “wow!”. If doing something “cool” becomes normal, then you need to do more than that for things to feel “cool” again, if that makes any sense – that’s how the more, more, more cycle works, and it makes doing nothing feel even worse. It’s kind of like an addiction.

It’s taken a while, but I’ve learned the importance of getting away and escaping the overwhelming city life. I’m beginning to understand that I need those times alone to truly appreciate all that London has to offer as a city. When you’re concerned with constantly doing, it’s really difficult to truly appreciate the moment and where you are, and the last thing I want is to take this experience for granted. Whether it’s closing my blinds, putting in my headphones, and pretending like I’m somewhere else, or hopping on the tube for 30 minutes to somewhere like Hampstead where it feels like a completely different part of the country, the mental clarity has been a breath of fresh air.

Again, by no means am I a perfect human nor have I discovered the secrets of the universe, but for anyone who is in a similar situation, it’s okay to say no and be alone, but do remember to say yes every once in a while too. As per usual, it always comes back to one word: balance.