5 Simple Ways to Successfully Manage Stress

The Science Behind Stress

Ways to deal with stress

• Take good care of your mental and physical well being: As students, it can be challenging to take time off for self care, but any attempt to implement small changes within your daily routine can have huge and positive impacts. For example, taking a few minutes to read a book, watch a movie, or just practice some deep breathing exercises can improve your mood and allow you to feel a bit calmer—even if it’s only for a moment. Take a break!

• Don't hesitate to seek help from others: If you feel overwhelmed by stress, remember that you can always reach out to friends or a family member for support. Additionally, you can always turn to a trusted adult, such as your school counselor, for resources and advice to manage your stress.

• Talk kindly to yourself: With all honesty, we all talk to ourselves at one point or another. It could be out loud or through writing, but most of the time is in our heads. However, the way we talk to ourselves has a much bigger impact on our well-being than we think. Taking kindly to yourself self-validation is the best way to keep ourselves hyped up and away from unnecessary negative thinking. Just by simply saying “I can do this!”, “I believe in myself”, or “I am going to do my best, regardless of what that looks like”, we can see an improvement in our mental state.

• Get enough sleep: As cliché as it sounds, sleep is a key factor in helping our bodies cope and regulate stress. Ensuring you give yourself the time to rest will help you feel energized for the day, have enough energy to deal with challenges, and help your brain process emotional responses.

• Drink more water: Did you know that the human brain and heart are over 73% water? (Probably. Buzzfeed likes to throw that fact around—but it’s true!) Water is necessary for metabolic processes in your body, including ones that relate to managing stress. Not to mention, drinking enough sleep is linked to improving one’s state of mind and better performance academically, emotionally, and physically.

We ask students from different schools to share some of their ideas with the school communities (and obviously with you, our dear reader). In this entry, we asked five questions:

• What do you think when you hear the word stress?

• When do you think you have stress?

• How does it make you feel?

• Do you think you cope well with stress?

• Do you think you have the appropriate resources available to help you with stress?
  

Responses:

• "A negative feeling that makes one very nervous about a specific situation they find themselves in. As I said for 1., nervous. It also comes with an uncomfortable feeling in my gut, making it a dead give away when I have it. It’s an overall unpleasant experience that I always want over as soon as possible. I at least like to think that I cope well with stress. Whenever I have it I do my best to convince myself that everything is fine, and try to remember that stress can be a good thing. However, it never really goes away until I deal with the thing I’m stressed about, for example, finishing a test I’m nervous about. Or, if the situation changes to something less stressful, such as questions becoming easier as I go on. I hope so. I am generally able to deal with stress by myself, so I’m not sure how well the schools resources for it work. Considering how much there is here though, I think assuming the school has good resources is a fair bet."
  

• “Overwhelmed, tired, overworked, sad. It's a feeling of being overworked, and an endless cycle of ups and downs. Overthinking. Tired, when I'm stressed I feel tired; sad, when I know, is when I can't keep up with my work. I feel unaccomplished, my heart starts to race, and I feel a panic attack coming. I can’t sleep because I’m upset with how behind I am with what I have to do. Honestly I feel like I'm in between, sometimes I realize that I’m stressed and I need a break so I take a minute to breathe, think, and do something I enjoy. But other times I forget and I overwork myself and feel [exhausted] or at the end of it, I would recommend myself to always start mindful of myself and not overdo it. Kind of but personally I haven't been to them, I would rather cope on my own. Some people just don’t know what to say and don’t help. My stress is on my own accord not others."
  

• "When I hear the word ‘stressed’ , I think of feeling overwhelmed and anxious. To the point of making myself sick to the feeling of not having certain tasks or chores done. Feeling stressed makes me want to almost stop everything that I was doing and focus on my mental health. I notice when I start to feel stressed, that I see my school work piling up because I have not finished certain assignments beforehand or hearing about a certain type of news about my family members or community. I think I usually cope well when I am feeling stressed. I begin to manage my time more and really focus on getting late assignments in. As well as I like to talk to my peers about what is bothering me or stressing me out. I find with communicating about my mental state or feelings, I start to take action from what is most important and what issues I need to resolve for myself. I do feel my high school has many mental health resources for their students. But I have felt that maybe certain problems or feelings that I may go through aren’t very important for me to need to talk to a councilor or therapy in the school."

Stress. Mental Health Foundation. (2021, November 11). Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/s/stress

7 Steps to Manage Stress and Build Resilience | Office of Research on Women’s Health. Retrieved May 11, 2022 from https://orwh.od.nih.gov/in-the-spotlight/all-articles/7-steps-manage-stress-and-build-resilience

Reduce Stress and Improve Your Life With Positive Self Talk, Verywell Mind. (2020, July 20). https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-use-positive-self-talk-for-stress-relief-3144816