{"id":2760,"date":"2024-12-02T14:16:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T19:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2024-12-02T14:16:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T19:16:41","slug":"managing-college-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/managing-college-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing College Stress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Stress can motivate or overwhelm you<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though stress is a necessary part of life, first-year students are not always aware when it escalates beyond a normal level.\u00a0 Here are a few indicators:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Physical:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 fatigue, loss of appetite, insomnia, headaches, muscle tension, and adrenalin rushes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Psychological:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> memory problems, irritability, poor concentration, lower self-esteem, panic, and high anxiety<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Behavioral:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> procrastination or avoidance, skipping meals and exercise, and excessive socializing\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What you can do to minimize stress<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Avoid catastrophizing (e.g., if I fail this exam I may flunk out of school), be aware of your stressors, focus on what you can control in the present, and incorporate some of the following activities and strategies into a stress-management plan for finals week:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Self-Awareness and Mindfulness<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Practice relaxation techniques, such as slow diaphragmatic (or deep) breathing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Avoid stressful situations or stressors\u2014e.g., people who are overly tense, anxious, or stressed about final exams.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schedule 30 minutes of daily quiet time in an environment free of ambient noise and distractions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Create or revise a positive final exam script with you taking responsibility for your success.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Studying<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prioritize studying time based on exam dates and assignment deadlines, percent or weight of final exams, importance of courses (e.g., major courses), or other factors.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Develop a final exam study schedule.\u00a0 Estimate the amount of study time required for each exam or end-of-semester project, and divide each day into periods with specific goals or outcomes in mind, and avoid \u201ccramming\u201d or \u201call-nighters.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Study with friends who are committed to academics.\u00a0 This means minimizing your interaction with roommates and friends who are more interested in socializing than studying.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take a 10 or 15 minute break for each 60 to 90 minutes of studying.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Personal Health or Well-Being<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sleep a minimum of seven hour a night.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eat regular meals and healthy foods\u2014Fruit and vegetables and high-protein foods (e.g., eggs, peanut butter, cheese, nuts, or meat), not high-carbohydrate \u201cstress\u201d food (e.g., chips, chocolate, crackers, or cookies).\u00a0 And avoid too much SECs\u2014soda, energy drinks, and coffee.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maintain exercise regime before, throughout, and after finals weeks.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good luck with your upcoming exams, and enjoy the upcoming winter break and we look forward to seeing you back on campus in January!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stress can motivate or overwhelm you Though stress is a necessary part of life, first-year students are not always aware when it escalates beyond a normal level.\u00a0 Here are a few indicators: Physical:\u00a0 fatigue, loss of appetite, insomnia, headaches, muscle tension, and adrenalin rushes Psychological: memory problems, irritability, poor concentration, lower self-esteem, panic, and high [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skills-for-academic-success"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/836"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2761,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions\/2761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/newatowu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}