Managing Stress as a Student

With everything on your plate and having to balance school and your social life as a student, it can get overwhelming. In this blog post, let’s outline how you can manage stress and feelings of overwhelm as a student. Be sure to share these tips if it helped you as it might be able to help your peers as well. 

1- Practising mindfulness:  Our past blog posts have outlined the importance of mindfulness and how to implement them into your daily routine so feel free to look through our post. Essentially, mindfulness is the practice of maintaining an awareness of each moment and the environment within which we are in. If at any point you feel as though you are getting overwhelmed, take a step back and take in a few deep breaths and notice your breath. This will help ground you and allow you to gather your thoughts. It is a simple yet powerful practice, next time you feel yourself starting to panic or get overwhelmed, it is worth giving a try. Mindfulness is more than just deep breaths, it is a state of being and takes practice and isn’t only for when you feel overwhelmed, it can be implemented and practised at any point in time!

2-  Name the feeling: Try to label your feelings and figure out which feelings you are continuously experiencing. Is it sadness, fear, loneliness, joy, anger? Getting into this habit allows you to understand how often and what it is that is making you feel this way, therefore giving you a better way of addressing such feelings. It has been found that when individuals don’t acknowledge and label their feelings, they experience feelings of lower well-being and more physical symptoms that may manifest according to research. Try labelling your emotions with accurate vocabulary. This will allow you to address them and figure out the root cause. 

3- Noticing the signs: When stress starts to build up, it is possible that your body expresses this stress sooner than you might realise. Sometimes you will have trouble concentrating, feel more tired, experience negative thoughts, or have a faster heartbeat, or have trouble sleeping to name a few. If at any point the feelings or experiences  become too overwhelming to deal with on your own, do not be afraid to reach out to someone! Let it be someone you can trust such as a friend or family member, but don’t forget that your school also has counsellors you can reach out to who are happy to listen and help. You are not alone and there are people who can help you navigate!

Use these tips to navigate your feelings, but remember that mental health is a serious topic. Remember that there is always someone willing to listen and help. If this post helped you or can help your peers or someone you know, don’t forget to share it.