Introduction
Students experience stress during their studies, affecting their happiness, health, mental peace, and relationship. Young adults and teenagers experience stress levels that exceed their capacity to cope effectively. This article describes ways and techniques for students to cope with their stress.
What Are the Causes of Stress in Students?
High school and college students must handle intense competition, such as participating in competitive exams, impressive extracurriculars, and acing college placement tests and projects, to excel in performance for future career prospects. Simultaneously they have to sink into the social challenges inherent to the high school and college experience. Stress is sometimes an unavoidable phenomenon in life. Young adult stress can include handling a challenging workload, feeling pressured to succeed, and navigating ways for a financially independent life. All these factors add to the challenges faced by the student. Stressful situations may be like competing for admissions, covering huge tasks quickly, and making decisions about their careers and academic life.
How Does Stress Affect the Students?
Stress can sometimes be good because it motivates people to push beyond limits to achieve more significant tasks or positively impact life. Pressure can be dangerous when prolonged for too long (chronic). Chronic stress has adverse effects on the body. It can cause major health issues such as anxiety, depression, inability to concentrate, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. The following are the typical stress encountered by the students:
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Financial Stress - These students are concerned about the finances they need to pay for school or college, repaying loans, and feeling guilty about spending their parent’s money. Financial debt can cause stress about what kind of job they get after college.
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Academic Stress - Lots of homework apart from college timings can be stressful. Some of it can be poor time management skills.
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Job Outlook Stress - Stress comes when they repay loans for their school or college fees. Hunting for a job in such circumstances can be stressful because thousands of applicants chase a small resource.
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Lack Of Organizational Skills - Students with poor organizational skills have stress because they need to prepare better for understanding or the tools required for learning. If their organizational skills improve, they continue to succeed, leading to more frustration.
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Poor Sleep Schedule - Students needing more sleep make concentrating easier. Students who do not get sleep for 8 to 10 hours suffer from stress, according to studies.
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Challenging Subject or Hard Classes - As students progress to more advanced classes, the increased difficulty causes stress. As the types get hard, the child will have challenges to address. For example, a heavy workload is stressful because students start making post-secondary plans during high school.
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Transition to a New Environment - The shift from school to college can be stressful for many students because of the new place, new teachers, and new routines, and they will take time to adjust.
What Are the Simple Destressing Activities That Help Students?
The simple techniques are as follows:
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Getting Enough Sleep - Scientists and studies suggest that sleep deprivation has a higher risk of academic failure. A sleep schedule ranging from seven to eight hours is mandatory for a healthy life. Students can take power naps in between.
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Guided Imagery - Guided imagery is a tool used for healing and relaxation. In this technique, someone will read a script to help the person build imaginary scenes according to their thoughts where the smell, temperature, sound, and beauty are comfortable and relaxing. It helps to heal soon and decreases anxiety and stress levels.
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Practice Deep Belly Breathing - The student can sit comfortably with both feet on the floor and one on the abdomen. Deep breathing through the nose can help reduce stress. The student is asked to hold their breath for a few seconds and then allowed to exhale slowly through the mouth. This pattern of breathing is repeated for five minutes.
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Participating in Regular Physical Activities - Daily sports and exercises help reduce stress. The student can be encouraged to join an activity, sport, or exercise. Research shows that some games and activities help the calm mind and relax.
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Pushing Through Procrastination - Overcoming the habit of procrastinating can save time for essential tasks. A plan or chart of daily tasks can be noted to prevent procrastination. The daily goals can be updated and checked in a worksheet. Learning positive self-talk after the accomplishment of the plans can greatly help.
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Avoid Overloading Works - Overloading oneself can lead to poor academic performance. The student experience psychosomatic illness. An effective way to address this problem is to avoid over-committing to academic tasks. The student has to become in charge of their time. They can use this opportunity to care for themselves by creating more time to study, rest and relax.
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Getting Emotional Support - It is better to seek professional help or personal help for emotional support. A strong-knit family that shares great values can improve the child’s ability to cope with stress. Studies suggest that kids who get proper emotional support from families perform well academically. In addition, emotional support from parents, siblings, and friends benefits a student’s overall performance. In case of no help from family members, the child can seek professional help from an in-house advisor or trusted practitioners.
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Following a Healthy Diet - Students develop unhealthy eating habits from exam tension. Breakfast is the critical meal of the day. Unfortunately, students usually skip breakfast due to their emergency to attend classes. As a result, they get used to junk foods, unhealthy snacking, and convenience high-calorie snacking.
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Maintaining a Positive Attitude - The stress from negative thoughts can be very damaging and is linked to heart disease. Maintaining positivity helps to reduce stress and enhance positive health outcomes.
Conclusion
School and college offer many opportunities and transform a person’s life. So the journey has to be endured with courage and perseverance. Negative thoughts and stress must be avoided. College stress and academics can be handled easily if one follows the steps mentioned above. These stress management techniques can help one discover that school and college can offer the most memorable moments to any young adult.
