Stress Management at University
It's normal for university students to experience daily stress due to the unique demands of this time. Balancing a heavy course load, studying for tests, and participating in group projects, all while managing broader life responsibilities like family obligations, financial pressures, and basic needs, can be overwhelming! For many, university is the first time navigating such extensive personal, academic, and social challenges. It’s no surprise that when you ask a fellow student how they're doing, you'll often hear, "stressed."
Some stress is a good thing, it helps keep us motivated, but too much stress can lead to feeling overwhelmed, anxiety and burn out and this can impact our performance, but also lead to other health concerns. Stress can result from many different elements of life - and some we have a say over, such as the stress leading up to an important sports game. With this, it is important to acknowledge that many of our most immense life stressors stem from elements that are not avoidable. While we cannot evade these aspects of life we can learn to manage the stress surrounding them.
How do I manage stress?
Stress can be viewed as an imbalance between demands and resources available to tackle them. As we externally face stressors like a big upcoming exam, an upcoming credit card bill, and a fight with our partner, our brain is internally sizing up these stressors and attempting to determine how much work is needed to cope with these demands. Our bodies are primed to support us in coping with challenges, therefore, we try to match the amount of internal resources and efforts with all the demands at hand. When we are constantly offering immense amounts of internal energies towards stressors without receiving any replenishment through things like proper sleep and nutrition we gradually have less and less to give towards demands. We can’t keep up. Stress feels unmanageable.
It’s important to develop and maintain practices that replenish our internal resources to cope with stress. This can vary for each student, but generally, incorporating daily activities that support adequate sleep, good nutrition, social connection, and movement can help us stay resilient against the demands of university life. We won’t always be perfect, and that’s okay! The key is to do something each day, even when it feels like less of a priority.
Ideas to manage stress
- Schedule activities that support your wellness into your calendar like you would a course. Treat these times like non-negotiables.
- Maintain your social connections with your friends, family and community . Incorporate 10 minute phone calls with loved ones into your study breaks.
- Find a movement practice that feels joyful to you and engage in it regularly. Some students find it helpful to join a regularly occurring exercise group to keep consistent.
- Find a place that feels safe for you to let out all the worries and stresses you are carrying. Some folks find it helpful to use a journal, the notes app, making voice memos or talking with a loved one, counselor, or religious leader.
- Reframe sleep from something you can skip to a valuable resource for managing the stress of student life. Just as you wouldn't expect your laptop to function without a charge, don't expect yourself to perform well without proper rest
- Be realistic about what sorts of demands you have the internal resources to make. While we cannot avoid many of the student stressors there are some situations where we can utilize self awareness and boundaries to prevent life overwhelm. Before taking on that extra volunteer commitment or agreeing to that extra responsibility at work assess your current capacity.
- Some students find meditation or breathwork as an easy, and accessible way to replenish some of our internal resources. Youtube can be a great resource for finding quick tutorials.