Students blog

As the semester ends it means finals are slowly approaching, and there's something everyone shares from this: stress, anxiety, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Everyone should be learning to de-stress from the finals, take a step back and breathe. It's important to remember that it's completely natural to feel stress and anxiety in ourselves but those shouldn’t stop us from obtaining peace. It can all start with taking breaks from social media, taking care of your body, taking some time to unwind and relax, and connecting with friends and family.

Like you, I also become overwhelmed with stress when finals approach; it leaves me restless and unable to properly focus. I've realized now though that taking some time to destress isn’t a bad thing. Here are three techniques I do when I'm filled with anxiety.

Meditate

First and most importantly, maintaining a clear and calm mindset can get you up and going and could help you finish strong. It could start with you in your room. Set up your space to be clean and peaceful. Ordering your surroundings can help order your mind. Adding plants to your space can help decrease stress and promote a more meditative environment. Meditation is a common practice along with yoga and prayer that can help your mind and body.

Get Moving

Another approach you can attempt is exercise, staying fit and being active can let you destress, it can also apply to taking a walk, jog or quick run. Eating well and getting enough sleep helps maintain the best health. A healthy body promotes a healthy mind too.

Unplug

Unplugging from social media could be one of the best escapes to destress, even if it's for a short period of time. You can listen to music or spend time on one of your hobbies. Try something new. One thing about social media is the novelty it brings. Our brain craves that. If we give it novelty outside of social media, we can still satisfy that while experiencing new things.

These are just suggestions; you can change it to fit your liking. But remember – stress only happens when you feel you must figure everything out at once. Just take a deep breath and move forward. For more tips on how to handle anxiety and stress, visit this blog.

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Stress is not inherently a bad thing. Stress can be a good motivator and can help you be productive. No one lives a completely stress-free life. The important thing to recognize is when your stress begins to take over everyday tasks and becomes counter-productive. If your stress begins to impinge on your ability to complete daily tasks or if it becomes debilitating, it’s well past the point of you having to talk to someone. Here are four things students can do to manage stress.

Evaluate The Semester

First, understand that semesters are variable and can range from overwhelming to easy. It is not forever, even though it may seem that way, and you will get through it. Lowering your expectations for school and concentrating more on improving your life balance to improve your stress will work wonders for your mental well-being.

If you are working while also enrolled in school, try to see if you can reduce your work hours for your busiest school weeks or around big projects. Go over your semester with your boss and see if you can work around difficult weeks. Perhaps you can drop a shift here or there or take a few fewer hours and make up for it later. Trying to balance too many things at once is one of the leading causes of stress and the simplest solution is almost always the best: do less!

Have a Game Plan

Maximizing your available time is another key tip in reducing the stress you feel when your plate is full. Getting a scheduler and planning out your week, hour by hour or day by day can help you feel more in control of your life. You can see what you must complete and can more easily schedule more downtime. That could mean you take a half-hour/hour each day to go for a walk or run, read, hang out with friends, go to the gym, watch tv, or just zone out. Make sure you are actively scheduling your time!

Use Your Resources

One of the hardest things to do when you are feeling overwhelmed is to reach out for help. This means going to your professor's office hours when you don't understand a concept in class. This means heading over to your wellness center and talking to a counselor about your stress. This means participating in campus activities or club events. This means seeking out workshops dedicated to making you a better student. Utilize the resources on your campus that are there to make your life easier!

Study for Mastery

Lastly, studying more efficiently can reduce the amount of time it feels like you’re spending on tasks. Don't spend 4 hours studying what could be learned in 20 min. One of the worst ways that you can study is simply by re-reading the material. Instead, try writing out your notes again or writing them in a different format; even better yet, explain your notes to a friend! Mastery of a subject comes when you can explain it to someone else. For math or science-heavy subjects, the only way to study is by practicing questions repeatedly, so get extra questions from your professor or online.

Putting these tips into practice can be much harder than just reading about them. It is important to take small, incremental steps and make sure you aren’t overwhelming yourself all at once.

Do you have a compelling story or student success tips you’d like to see published on the Pearson Students blog?  If you are a college student and interested in writing for us – click here to pitch your idea and get started! 

It is easy for college students to feel overwhelmed while juggling classes, study sessions, a job, and a social life, not to mention preparing for a future after college. But it can also be an incredibly exciting and wonderful time! Prioritizing mental health is so important for college students. Finding ways to help manage stress and relieve anxiety will have such a healthy impact on your overall health and wellness, and it will make your college experience all the better.

One easy way that you can improve your mental health and wellbeing is caring for a houseplant. There are many ways that plants can better your overall health and wellbeing. Owning a plant has been shown to:

• lower stress and anxiety
• improve mood
• give you a greater sense of purpose and responsibility
• improve productivity
• increase attention span
• and improve air quality!

Reduce Stress Levels

How can one plant do all of this? Well to start, having plants around you makes you feel more relaxed, comfortable, and can reduce your physiological and psychological stress. Researchers found that students in a computer lab who were surrounded by plants had lower blood pressure than those who had no plants. Plants can make you feel less stressed, happier, and more optimistic. Watching a plant grow and admiring its beauty will instantly improve your mood.

Increase Brain Function

Studies have also shown that plants improve productivity and increase attention span, two things that all college students want in their life! Houseplants engage your senses, decreasing cortisol levels and increasing productivity. In one specific study, brain scans of students in a classroom showed that students who studied with real plants in the classroom were more attentive and concentrated better than those who did not have plants around them. Having a plant in your room allows for studying better and longer.

Become a Plant Parent

If you’re new to plant ownership, look for plants that need little maintenance, such as aloe vera, spider or snake plants, and succulents. Caring for a plant will give you a sense of responsibility and will improve your overall confidence. It strengthens your bond with nature and gives you a stronger sense of purpose.

It may be intimidating at first to be in charge of keeping a plant alive, but it is way easier than you might have thought. Once your plant starts growing and flourishing it will encourage you to continue the pattern of caring and helping it grow. And the wonderful thing is that the plant gives back by improving your air quality. It does so by removing carbon dioxide from the air and replacing it with oxygen. Having a plant allows you to gain a greater sense of purpose as well as cleaner air to breathe.

There are many things you can do to benefit your mental health, and owning a plant is just one of them. Even if you live in a small dorm or apartment, all you need is a little bit of sunlight and a small plant that doesn’t take up a lot of space. It is that simple! You can visit a local nursery or any home improvement store and find a plant for less than $10. You are one small action away from becoming a plant parent and a happier college student. Stress less and own a plant!

Do you have a compelling story or student success tips you’d like to see published on the Pearson Students blog?  If you are a college student and interested in writing for us – click here to pitch your idea and get started! 

As the Spring semester gets into full swing, stress and anxiety can begin to creep into every college student’s day-to-day life. Here are ten simple ways to help you shift your mindset, feel relaxed & have better outcomes.

1. Spend a quick minute saying gratitude statements for all you currently have. 
2. Keep a journal to help you process anxious feelings. It doesn’t have to be lengthy; even setting aside 3-5 minutes to write each day can be beneficial.
3. Try meditation and mindful breathing to help rejuvenate and refresh your outlook. There are many free apps that can help guide you through this process. If you have very little space in your day, try doing it when you first wake up or as the last thing you do before you go to bed. 
4. Reframe how you talk to yourself. Your words have energy so telling yourself, “I can’t do it” will negatively affect your motivation and performance. Say instead, “I can do it, I am here to try...” to help bring about a positive change to your attitude.
5. Big exams can bring about big stress levels. Along with studying ahead of time, be prepared to combat text anxiety on exam day. Get plenty of rest and have some relaxation exercises at the ready, such as deep breathing.
6. Take a hot shower to help you to feel relaxed.
7. Reward yourself when you accomplish short goals. Treat yourself with a favorite snack after a study session or build in time to socialize with friends after finishing a big assignment.
8. Reach out to friends or mentors. Staying connected to others either through a virtual chat or getting together in person can boost your mood and renew your motivation.
9. Remember that tomorrow is a new day. Don’t waste your energy worrying about what you did not do. Look ahead and vow to try your best going forward.
10. Be thankful that each day is a new opportunity.

Finally, keep in mind that college students face daily stressors and academic demands that can potentially aggravate mental health issues. Don’t be afraid to seek a therapist to talk with and help you find useful tools to use when you are not in your comfort zone. Contact your campus health services to find out what resources are offered.

Do you have a compelling story or student success tips you’d like to see published on the Pearson Students blog?  If you are a college student and interested in writing for us – click here to pitch your idea and get started!