The Guide: Staying stress-free when the PRESSURE is on
Bills, work, tests, quizzes, group projects, research papers, getting to class on time …
It can just build up and lead to major stress issues.
Lesley Sheppard, the lecturer of the Excellence in Teaching department, gave a speech on Tuesday about the effects of stress on students and faculty, and how to relieve the symptoms.
Sheppard explained that when a person feels threatened, their body naturally reacts by channeling resources for strength and speed. When somebody feels threatened all of the time, the body stays in that reaction mode and that is stress.
Day-to-day stress relief methods
- Emulate naturally stress-resistance people. They tend to respond well to stressful events. They also believe that problems are temporary and specific.
- Use meditation and massage therapy. Practice sitting or lying quietly and relaxing one muscle at a time until you’ve relaxed all muscles. It helps lower heart rate and blood pressure. Massage has been shown to improve health and even improved math scores for people who had ten bi-weekly massages.
- Get some exercise. In a clinical test, men had 25 percent lower scores on anxiety tests after running on a treadmill for half an hour.
- Use relaxation techniques. Listen to music, go to support groups and write about stressful events. Also, having a pet can greatly reduce stress when petting them.
- Plan properly. Make sure you are doing everything as efficiently as possible. Learn to communicate well and it will help control your personal power. Properly managing paperwork or homework and email will reduce stress.
- Reading helps reduce stress. Try reading some, preferably non-fiction, every day.
If your stress gets too much to bear, seek counseling. UNR has a counseling service for students. They are located in Thompson Building or call 775-784-1110 to make an appointment. They are on staff to help students who need it.
Symptoms of Stress
Brown out
- Honeymoon — Starting new classes or job, everything is fine.
- Fuel Shortage — Pressure starts to build, hard to start work, lack of motivation, anxiety.
- Chronic Symptoms — Stress begins to affect the body’s immune system, brain and heart. Feeling sick all of the time, headaches tiredness, high blood pressure, weight gain, cognitive skills start slipping.
- Crisis — Not doing what you need to do, skipping work or class to avoid the problem.
Burn out
- Hit the wall — Stress causes a heart attack, stroke, or even a car accident.
What to do to relieve stress right away
- Determine your stress threshold and raise it. What is making you stressed right now. Think about something that is far worse than what is going on.
- Forgive yourself and look at yourself with love and compassion.
- Take 10-15 deep breaths. Doing this changes your blood chemistry and reduces your blood pressure.
What others students do to relieve their stress
“I like to draw really. Whenever I’m angry, I just draw and it just goes away. It’s a good way to express myself.”
— Travis Chambers
“I go for walks. It’s doing something productive with my time besides studying.”
— Rachael Stathes
“I like to read and scrapbook. Doing (those things) gets my mind off of other things.”
— Kristie Kirkeride
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on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 1:42 am and is filed under News, The Guide.
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