Hello again. I’ve been contemplating about what to blog about and I wanted to explore a new topic aside from food and eating habit. So, as you all probably have noticed, it’s coming towards the middle of the semester when midterms and projects are stacking up! To me, and everyone else, this means STRESS and lots of it! It’s already beginning to hit me. What does stress feels like for me? It feels like my brain is overloaded with an infinite number of tasks to complete, far beyond feeling exhausted–basically feels like a mental break down; I am not exaggerating (or maybe I’m just a worry-wart when it comes to school). And when I feel stressed, this feeling also comes with late nights of sleeping (or lack of sleep I should say), easily irritated, no free time for anything–not even naps or time to eat! Because of this, I want to explore ways of dealing with stress.
First off, I want to start off with reflecting on how I’ve tried to deal with my stress before I let you in on my discoveries from online sources. Number one: avoid procrastination (this probably applies to every college student as well!) I always tell myself not to procrastinate and try to start my studying earlier, but this always fails. Why does this fail? This leads to my second method: have better time management. My motto for school has always been “If you can manage your time better then you will be able to keep up with school work, have time for yourself, and succeed” but this never works out because I always get side-tracked with random things. And lastly I’ve always tried sleep earlier because that seems to be the biggest factor to my cause of stress, however, I never succeed because I of procrastination.This really sucks because everything I’ve tried seems to be going nowhere, but in a circle: lack of sleep because of procrastination, and procrastination because of lack of time management.
From what I learned, the first step to dealing with stress is to recognize that you’re undergoing stress such as if you’re experiencing tiredness, headaches, sleeplessness, frustration, and even loss of appetite. When you find yourself in some of these situations especially a combination of them, it’s not a good sign. To deal with this, see if there’s anything you can change to better control the situation. It’s important that you are able to control yourself. Or you can take a short break from the stressful situation, or take things slowly by handling tasks one at a time, prioritize your tasks. And what I found that I think will be most helpful is to clear your mind from the stress such as meditating, doing breathing exercises, or maybe even jogging or other types of physical activity. I actually tried going jogging when I’m stressed, and let me tell you, it really takes your mind away from all the stress! Also, something else that I found and really like is to be optimistic; try to think positive! Don’t think of all the negative things such as, when stressing for a test, you should have faith in yourself that you will do well, and that everything will all end successfully; take it easy! I really like this one because I’m really an optimistic person and this helps me realize that I need to not to let stress get the best of me.
Oh, I came upon a fascinating quote upon looking at an online site about study strategies, “Stress can actually help memory, provided it is short-term and not too severe. Stress causes more glucose to be delivered to the brain, which makes more energy available to neurons. This, in turn, enhances memory formation and retrieval. On the other hand, if stress is prolonged, it can impede the glucose delivery and disrupt memory.” All Stressed Up, St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, p. 8B, Monday, November 30, 1998. Interesting, a bit contrary to my knowledge of stress because I never knew that stress can be actually a good thing; I mean a little of it is actually considered unharmful. I guess this depends on how much stress you experience and I guess it’s okay to experience a little bit of stress and I know some people who are actually more on top of their work when they’re stressed out. BUT it’s important not to be overly stressed, and not to experience chronic stress as I’ve learned that they can increase blood pressure which is a factor for cardiovascular diseases!
I will try some of these coping methods, and see how it works out for me. I’m curious, how do you guys cope with stress, and what works out?
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Thats some good advice to take into consideration. Whenever I am stressed exercise has always helped me I also tend to avoid junk food to not feel sluggish. Sometimes when your stressed you just need to laugh to relax try watching a funny show or youtube video it always helps me
Taking the time and BREATHE works for me during midterms and finals. I think time management has a lot of influence over student stress levels, espeically when students are taking on a heavy course load. Time management and stress mangement are difficult to did with, but with proper education will create a better understanding on how to handle it.
Ahh stress. I`ve been stressing at such a young age, I grew white hair! I didn`t like stressing because of that so I tried anyway possible to be less. As I grew, I learned to love myself and stress just built. Being so productive and doing things for school. after school sports, multiple organizations and clubs just build up. I must admit being stressful gives me the push to do more for others and help them. I rather be stressed than not but then again it’s stressful (haha)! I just don`t like the pounding and headaches, they hurt. But yes being stressed is horrible it can lead to high blood pressure and may pop a vein in your head :/ as I heard.
Wow that makes me a little worried.. haha. I don’t want to stress for too long that it interrupts my memory. The way that I cope with stress is when I’m studying and getting frustrated; I take a short break and I do something such as talk to someone about something that won’t stress me out. I don’t really have a set thing that I do when I’m stressed because I do something different every time.