Everyone experiences stressful situations, and college students are no exception. In fact, college life is full of stress caused by strict deadlines and an overwhelming number of assignments. Freshmen are expected to quickly adapt to a completely new pace of life while also demonstrating good academic performance. Students have to attend classes, write countless assignments, and participate in extracurricular activities. Thus, the lack of time is the most common reason why students get stressed out.
Not only do most students experience a constant lack of time, but they also feel intense pressure associated with their academic performance. To stay productive and focused, students often try to ignore the symptoms of stress and push themselves to the limit. Therefore, their symptoms often get worse with time. For example, stress may lead to increased blood pressure or heart rate, fatigue, headaches, as well as to many other physical and behavioral symptoms.
In this article, we will help you with some useful tips that can help you reduce stress and improve your productivity. First of all, let’s figure out what stress is and how to deal with it.
What You Should Know About Stress
Stress is a state of your body that occurs as a response to unexpected situations and can include a variety of symptoms, both emotional and physical. There are many events that can cause stress, from a low exam score to an overwhelming schedule. The main thing you should know is that stress can be either temporary or permanent. Temporary stress is not as dangerous as permanent. It’s a natural response of your body so it’s used to dealing with such a state. However, permanent stress can lead to very serious consequences.
For instance, the most common symptoms of permanent stress are physical or emotional exhaustion and burnout. However, according to Heart.org, effects of prolonged stress may also include racing heart, headaches, insomnia, diarrhea, sexual problems, indigestion, trembling, etc. Prolonged stress can affect many areas of a student’s life, including relationships with others, sleep patterns, and food cravings.
Stress can be caused by some significant events in an individual’s life, but students may also experience stress because of various subtle factors. For example, college students often get stressed out when they need to deliver speeches or feel exhausted because of their workload. Quite often, stress leads to inadequate reactions to unexpected events and aggressive behavior. It’s very important to know how to deal with stress so that temporary stress won’t become prolonged, damaging a student’s performance and personal life.
Proven Methods to Reduce Stress
1. Exercise Regularly
Exercising can help you fight stress because it improves your overall health. Besides, stress often causes overeating and exercising will help you stay in shape. Exercising will improve your mood and give you more energy. It will also help you if you have a hard time trying to sleep. Hit the gym or simply try jogging.
A great advantage of college life is that you have access to various activities, such as football or martial arts. You can also try yoga, which is a fun way to relax and renew energy after a difficult day. We also recommend that you walk as much as you can. For example, if you want to visit your friend who lives close to you, just take a walk instead of driving.
2. Stay Organized
Many students experience stress in college because they cannot rely on their parents anymore. If parents used to help you maintain self-discipline and schedule your daily activities, now you need to do it yourself.
Besides, a structure of classes in college is different from that in high school and students often spend too much time partying with their new friends. “When students fail to stay organized, they often end up writing their assignments in a hurry, prepare for exams at the very last moment and searching for essay writing services online,” said Adam Simon, blogger and reviewer at LegitWritingServices.com, who helps students improve grades and consolidate academic skills.
We recommend that you schedule all of your activities so that you can effectively manage your schedule and have enough time for studying. Your goal is to get work done on time, with no need to rush. You may also want to find the right place for studying where you can focus. For example, if you have a noisy roommate who’s always present, you can study in the library or a coffee shop.
3. Maintain a Positive Mindset
First of all, don’t stress out because of feeling stressed. When you’re feeling stressed, you may start thinking that you’re on the edge and things are getting out of control. Stay positive and don’t focus on stress. No matter what happens, you can handle it.
We also recommend that you try to make studying more fun. If you don’t enjoy the process, it will be harder for you to achieve any good results. If you need to write a difficult assignment, you can work on it with your classmates. Just gather together and ask each other questions while studying. Help each other, order pizza, or listen to some nice music.
Don’t interpret difficult situations negatively. Don’t focus on the worst-case scenario and try to imagine the best-case scenario instead. If you realize that you start thinking negatively, just take a break and think of the possible positive outcome.
4. Socialize
If you’ve been working on your assignment for a few days, the chances are that you’re exhausted and don’t even understand what you’re writing anymore. Everyone needs to take a break from time to time, and everyone needs to socialize. Meet with your friends or relatives, forget about your assignments for a while and just allow yourself to have a good time.
5. Stay Healthy
To fight stress, you need to take care of your body. If you only eat fast food and don’t get enough sleep, these factors will only increase the level of stress. You should sleep for seven to eight hours so that your brain can take a break and your body can renew energy.
It’s also important to eat healthy food because your body needs vitamins and nutrients. Make sure that your meals are well-balanced, eat more veggies and fruits, don’t drink alcohol, and avoid drinking too much coffee.
Although students’ lives are full of stress, you can reduce stress if you follow our simple tips. Maintain a positive mindset, exercise, and get enough sleep, and you will feel more energized, being able to deal with stress more effectively. When studying, take a break every once in a while, and don’t forget to socialize.
