Finals week is fastly approaching, and with finals come stress, like a lot of stress. High levels of stress have been known to disrupt nearly every system in your body. From suppressing your immune system (I mean, who needs that in college), to upsetting your digestive system, stress is just bad all around. For that reason, I've dug up some of my favorite stress busters for finals week!
1. Don't let your stress spiral.
It's easy to let small things snowball into an actual breakdown because of built up stress. This is especially true during stressful times, like finals week, when you have way too many things going on. The best way to prevent this from happening is to take small, frequent breaks where you let your body relax for a moment.
2. Exercise.
Exercise is something I bring up a lot, simply because it has so many benefits. The bottom line is that it actually makes you feel better via the chemicals our brains release when we work out.
3. Fix your posture.
Amy Cuddy tells us about how body language can change the way that we see ourselves. Standing in a posture that creates confidence (such as the "Superman pose"), even when you don't feel confident, can actually boost your feeling of confidence after only 2 minutes in the pose.
For more info about Amy Cuddy and her story, you can watch her Youtube Ted talk here.
4. Eat.
I'm not telling you to stress-binge an entire box of Dunkin, but many people get so busy that they forget to eat. If you're like me, you may even get hangry. It's important in times of stress to remember to take care of yourself, and a big part of this is eating.
5. Turn off your phone.
The constant buzzing or ringing of your phone is distracting. Having that constant distraction will pull your focus away from your assignments, making them harder to complete. This also adds time to the assignment. You have to refocus every time you take your attention away.
6. Breathe slowly and deliberately or meditate.
Stress often works us up, meaning that we start typing faster, pull our shoulders up higher, or physically wind ourselves up. Stopping for a minute to let your body relax will immediately take a little bit of that weight off your shoulders. When you go back into work mode, you will be more focused and relaxed.
7. Speak slower.
You'll find that when you speak more slowly, you give yourself time to be more clear and reasonable, which will help you react more reasonably. Generally speaking, someone who is stressed will speak very fast, almost out of breath. By slowing down, you'll also seem less anxious to other people.
8. Plan a reward at the end of the stressful day.
It's hard to come out of stressful situations if you have no positive aspect in your day. During things like finals week, or even just one stressful day, I like to end it with something positive like an hour at the dog park, or my favorite food. You'll find that it brings your day full circle, back to positivity since the stress is seemingly over.
