Ways to Cope with Stress

The reason learning how to cope with stress is essential is because it can help your mental, emotional, and social health, as well as improve your actual academic performance. Letting your stress get worse can also lead to more significant problems like anxiety, depression, and other issues. Stress can be hard to cope with and can make you feel like it’s taking over your body and mind at times. However, there are methods to try and beat the stress or help it go away in the moment. 

The first thing that you can do if your stress is coming from a final or a big test is just study and be prepared. Having a study guide or a review paper/document can help you feel ready for the test and can help take off the pressure of getting a good grade. Some helpful tips for studying are sectioning off the work into parts. For example, if there are five units on your final, then take a quick break from studying after one or two units and then continue studying. Another tip is to have a productive working environment and routine. Sophomore Hannah O’Conner said, “I study with music and without people around and I have to limit time on my phone so I can focus on the work.” Music can be a controversial topic for studying because some people find it distracting, while some find it helpful and it can help them concentrate. It is important to discover what works for you when it comes to your studying environment and what happens in the background. Having people talking, music, or a TV show playing in the background can help some people focus on their work, while others wouldn’t be able to focus. As well as the background sounds, finding the right place to study can make a huge difference. Some places for people who like a quieter environment can be a library, a coffee shop, a park depending on the weather, and possibly a bedroom. Another way to create a quiet environment is by wearing headphones if that works for you.

The second way to cope with stress is exercise. Taking some time for yourself to go on a run or a walk can help manage stress by calming down your body and taking your mind off of the test. Besides running and walking, you can also play a sport, do yoga, or any physical activity that distracts you from the stress. Sophomore Mayuri Anna said, “When I am stressed I get frustrated and mad, so during workouts like volleyball or lifting, I push myself to my limits which helps me get better overall as an athlete and helps reduce my stress.” Along with exercise, you can also do different breathing exercises to help calm down your nervous system which can relax your body. Some breathing exercises you can do are deep breathing, which can slow your heart rate, calm your mind, and trick your brain into thinking you’re relaxed even if you’re not. You can also do a method of breathing called box breathing. Box breathing is inhaling for a count of four, holding for a count of four, exhaling for a count of four, holding again for a count of four, and repeating. This is also supposed to slow your heart rate and focus your mind more on your breathing rather than the stress you’re feeling.

The third thing you can do depending on your interests is read. The reason reading will help you cope with your stress more than you may think is that it can reduce your heart rate by calming down muscle tension. Similarly to exercise, reading can help make you feel like you’re escaping from the real world. One important tip for reading is to find a genre of book that keeps you engaged. If you are uninterested in the book, then you will feel obligated to stop reading and your stress won’t go away. Sophomore Hannah O’Conner said, “Reading helps me cope with stress because it calms me down. I like reading romance and suspense novels because they keep me interested for long periods of time.”

Another activity you can do is writing. First of all, writing can be a great way to express your feelings if you don’t want to talk about it. You can just write all of your emotions and escape from what you’re feeling by letting it all out. For this, you could have a journal or a Google document, depending if you like to write by hand or by an electronic device. The next way writing can help you is by using your creativity to stay engaged in what you’re writing about. You can write about your emotions, but you can also write a short story, poetry, scripts, speeches, research papers, articles, letters, and many other things that you are interested in. Personally, writing helps calm me down and is a great way to distract my mind from stress. There are many more ways writing can help reduce stress but one more is list making. Some different types of lists you can make are a grocery list, a list of goals, to-do lists, a wish list, movies/series you want to watch, etc. This helps reduce stress by making you feel more organized. A to-do list with a set of goals you want to accomplish during finals week or before a big test can also help you feel prepared for your final test.

A few more things that might work for coping with your stress consist of, coloring, drawing, good sleep, a healthy diet, connecting with others, self-care, clay/pottery, cleaning, knitting, listening to music or a podcast, and more. These are just some of the many things you can do to help maintain a healthy and stress-free lifestyle. Sophomore Raegan Gozalka said, “When I am stressed I normally take a break from what’s stressing me out and talk to my friends or go on my phone for a while to calm down my nerves”. Everyone is different and discovering what works best for you is important for your mental health. So, try new things and do what you can to help the stress stay away.

Graphic by Tori Bohnenkamp