Stress Management

First Your Must Recognize Stress:

Stress symptoms include mental, social, and physical manifestations. These include exhaustion, loss of/increased appetite, headaches, crying, sleeplessness, and oversleeping. Escape through alcohol, drugs, or other compulsive behavior are often indications. Feelings of alarm, frustration, or apathy may accompany stress.

If you feel that stress is affecting your studies, a first option is to seek help through your educational counseling center.

Managing Stress:

Look around See if there really is something you can change or

control in the situation.

Remove yourself from the stressful situation Give yourself a break

if only for a few moments daily.

Don't sweat the small stuff Try to prioritize a few truly important

things and let the rest slide.

Selectively change the way you react, but not too much at one time.

Focus on one troublesome thing and manage your reactions to it/him/her.

Avoid extreme reactions; Why hate when a little dislike will do?

Why generate anxiety when you can be nervous? Why rage when anger will do the job? Why be depressed when you can just be sad?

Get enough sleep Lack of rest just aggravates stress.

Avoid self-medication or escape Alcohol and drugs can mask stress.

They don't help deal with the problems.

Try to "use" stress If you can't fight what's bothering you and you

can't flee from it, flow with it and try to use it in a productive way.

Learn how to best relax yourself Meditation and breathing exercises

have been proven to be very effective in controlling stress. Practice clearing your mind of disturbing thoughts.

Set realistic goals for yourself Reduce the number of events going

on in your life and you may reduce the circuit overload.

Don't overwhelm yourself by fretting about your entire workload.

Handle each task as it comes, or selectively deal with matters in some priority.

Change the way you see things Learn to recognize stress for what it

is. Increase your body's feedback and make stress self-regulating.

Do something for others to help get your mind off your self.

Work off stress with physical activity, whether it's jogging, tennis,

gardening.

Develop a thick skin The bottom line of stress management is "I

upset myself".

Try to be positive!

Give yourself messages as to how well you can cope rather than how horrible everything is going to be. "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

Most importantly, if stress is putting you in an unmanageable state or interfering with your schoolwork, social and/or work life, seek professional help at your school counseling center

Useful Link:

Stress Quiz: How stressed are you?

First Your Must Recognize Stress:

Managing Stress:

Try to be positive!

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