Dutch University Offers Students Grave To Lie In To Cope With Exam Stress

Stress is a given and there are only so many things in this world that can help ease it down to the roots.

As such, people have come up with extremely creative and unusual ways of coping with stress… Like laughter yoga.

After all, what is stress relief without a handful of quirkiness?

The internet lives and breathes for the silliest of antics. Nothing really surpasses the maximum capacity of strange anymore. Hear this one out:

Students from the Dutch university, Radboud University have come up with what might be one of the strangest ways to cope with exam stress.

According to The Mirror, the students lie in a grave on campus to de-stress.

you might think UK unis offering therapy dogs instead of counseling is bad, but at my uni they have this thing where they will let you lie in a grave for a while and think about life. its called the purification grave and you're not allowed to take phones or books in it with you pic.twitter.com/rsYt3CxVtZ

— twink batman (@SPYKlDS2) October 13, 2019

That brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “rest in peace”

People Are Dying to Get in It

The open grave, located behind the campus chapel, is very much high in demand amongst the university’s students. They call it the purification grave. The students have shared that because of the project’s popularity, they have had to be put on a waiting list.

Picture this: a yoga mat, a pillow, and a blanket that’s screaming at you to stay weird. A great combo if you ask me.

The grave experience comes at a minimum of 30 minutes. With some sessions lasting for up to three hours!

According to a report by Pedestrian, phones and books are prohibited from the grave. That’s right, three whole hours with nothing but you, your thoughts, and nature.

You can watch a video of the odd relaxation method here.

Now that is ultimate relaxation at its peak.

Making Students Appreciate Their Time on Earth

What better way to nurture a greater sense of appreciation towards life than to pretend to be dead for three hours?

As absurd as it is, the project’s founder, John Hacking, did say, “The end of life, death, is a taboo, difficult for students… Death is very difficult to talk about, especially when you are 18, 19, 20 years old.”

The following programme is marketed throughout the campus by posters which say, “remember you will die,” in Latin.

Sounds a lot like a plan that’s worth your five stars on Yelp. I can’t be the only one who thinks we need more of this. Not exactly graves but movements that focus on our students’ mental well-being. A grave would be cool though.

Weird, but cool.