Tips to maintaining your calm through stressful situations
Everywhere you look around campus there are signs of the change. The library is becoming more and more full.
The weekends seem like more of a relief, and a time to catch up rather than a time to have fun.
It’s officially crunch time here at Keene State College.
Professors are starting to really pile on the work, exams are looming overhead, and move-out is starting to become a close thing to worry about.
It’s enough to make anyone want to lose their mind.
All these things can add up to one of the worst possible things for any college student – stress.
College is already pretty stressful throughout the year, and the end of the semester is just the cap of it.
For me, stress has been a severely featured topic since elementary school.
In every health class it seemed that we were focused on just how bad stress is for a person.
The health class for my high school which was mandatory for everyone senior year was completely devoted to stress we would encounter our freshman year of college.
One topic brought up was the end of the semester.
Little did I know just how much that foreshadowed.
The campus is swept up in the frenzy everywhere I look.
People are working themselves every minute to prepare for finals and any last minute projects they have been given.
Despite the overwhelming workload facing everyone, it is important to remember that overstressing yourself can have really serious consequences.
The counseling center at Tennessee Tech University reported that at the end of the semester there is a huge influx of students coming in because they are unable to sleep or have just collapsed mentally due to the stress.
This isn’t unheard of, or even uncommon across the country.
At the end of the semester, it’s normal to be feeling some of the stress.
It’s unhealthy however to let the stress consume you and to let yourself fall into bad habits such as all-nighters to study, or abusing stimulants such as Adderall or Ritalin.
To cope with the amount of stress, a few things are recommended by Health Psychologist Lynn Rossy.
Every two hours, take a break from studying for about five minutes.
Your studying is not as effective if you just sit down for four or so hours looking at the books you need. The human mind is not meant to stand that much focus at one time nonstop.
Another recommendation is to avoid drinking caffeine in general.
Coffee and energy drinks produce an unrealistic “energy high,” which makes you crash after a short while.
This reduces the amount of effort and focus you can put into studying which stresses you out more.
By making sure not to drive yourself into any more stress than is already given from class and work, you can make it through the semester while still maintaining your calm.
Pay attention to your calm as it is necessary to do well on the swamp of finals and projects that lay ahead.
David Padrazo can be contacted at
dpadrazo@keene-equinox.com