22 November 2019 By Student Health ...
This blog post is by Jaelene Chavez, a member of OSBHA Student Health Advocates.
A few tips to help you manage stress
As us students make our way through the school year, we know it can get tough, especially during these next few months. Seniors have many college
applications and scholarship deadlines approaching soon, juniors have begun taking the SAT, sophomores need to start directing their schedules to their desired careers, and the freshman preparing for the first semester finals. All of these are causing many students our age to have multiple mental breakdowns. School causes stress, we all are aware. If we aren’t doing anything to help cope with our stress, it could lead to many disasters. Here are a few tips on how to manage stress and stay on top of your game!
1. Maintain a healthy diet and be active!
By establishing a healthy diet, you can naturally help your body de-stress. This helps with reducing oxidation and inflammation. Fruits and vegetables are very important because they provide the body with vitamins that support your immune system. Along with a healthy diet, exercise is also beneficial to reducing stress. Exercise releases endorphins which make you feel better. Joining a team sport can also help improve your mood, helping the stress because you are interacting with others.
2. Get a planner!
“The most important way to manage stress is to prevent it from ever occurring.” Having a planner will help you manage your time effectively and avoid all the stress. It has been proven that by being able to plan ahead will make you happier. According to psychologist, Robert Epstein, 25% of our happiness is based off of our ability to manage stress. This process will not only help you make your schedules easier, but it will increase your happiness as well. A step to get started is by planning the next day. As you become more comfortable, increase to planning your week. Eventually you’ll be able to plan out an entire month in advance.
3. Listen to music!
This tip is a great one for destressing! Listening to music can calm you down and put you in a better mood also. Whenever you’re working on an assignment, project, or any type of work related activity, blast the vibey tunes to help you concentrate. According to researchers at Stanford University, they have done studies to show that listening to music is able to “change brain functioning to the same extent as medication.” Music is super easy to access as well!
4. Take a nap!
If you are stressed, it is even harder to get a good night's sleep because you are more worried about the upcoming events and deadlines you have going on. Getting poor sleep has shown to actually increase stress levels and affects your immune system negatively. People have found out that taking a 20 minute nap can help increase productivity. Sorbonne University have concluded from a study that “data suggests a 30-minute nap can reverse the hormonal impact of a night of poor sleep” and it “could restore biomarkers of neuroendocrine and immune health to normal levels”
