Stressful Thinking

Why stress is bad for your health and ways to avoid it

It is inevitable: you cannot escape stress. And, that in itself, is stressful.

Chronic stress can cause additional anxiety and that will lead to depression. Stress also causes insomnia and other critical conditions.

Being a student, anxiety, depression and insomnia are not the best things for you. Not only will you be crabby, but you will not be able to focus in your classes.

Instead of worrying so much, why not take a breath, a break? Not everything needs to be as stressful as your body makes it out to be.

Take everything one step at a time and do not lose focus of that. One thing most people do is think of everything as a whole. When they do that, people get intimidated by thinking they have to do it all at once. Slow down, take a breath and just focus on one thing at a time.

Set clear boundaries for your day. Do not pick up more things to do just because you can and because you feel like you need to. Stick to what you want to accomplish for the day. This way you will not take on more than you can handle.

Get a good night’s rest. Having energy is vital for getting things done and is needed to stay focused. Make sure you get, at least, six hours of sleep. The ideal number of hours a student needs to sleep is eight, but sometimes, you might not be able to do that. Sometimes you will have too much work. If you shoot for six hours, you will most likely feel better the next day.

Eat healthy. Stress eating – especially with junk food – is not ideal for your body. If you need to eat something because of your stress, eat something that will do your body good. Stick to foods that are both healthy and filling, like eggs, Greek yogurt, quinoa, and nuts.

Be organized. One thing that really sets people back is their failure to find something that is time-sensitive, much like a paper or homework for a class. Being organized will almost eliminate stress. You will not have to go looking for what is needed; you will know where it is, getting rid of the panic of not having whatever it is.

There are many ways to deal/help with stress and most of them involve your environment and your workload. Keep it simple and with minimal distractions.