Stress. We all know what it is. We've all been stressed out. In fact, I would bet that many of us have no idea what it's like to not be stressed out on a daily basis. Not all stress is bad, it can be used as a motivator to work harder for that A grade or that promotion at the office. It can also help you stay alert in unusual or uncommon situations where your safety is a concern.
Unfortunately, the negative impact of stress carries dire consequences. According to WebMD, left unchecked, stress can cause a multitude of physical ailments including headaches, upset stomach, high blood pressure and trouble sleeping.
We are almost five weeks into the spring term and the assignments are starting to pile up. It's natural to get stressed when the demands of class start taxing your time. If you work, are married, have children or an active social life, that compounds the stress as more and more outside demands are put on you.
Like everyone else, I am no stranger to stress. However, I am lucky in that I am only taking one class this semester. Unluckily, it is my first graduate level course and I work full-time Monday through Friday. So, my one class makes for a very long day right in the middle of the week. It didn't take long for the signs of stress to show up, after the first night of class, I came home and found it difficult to fall asleep. My normal bedtime surpassed by two and a half hours because my mind was racing. I shrugged it off, thinking it was the after effects of excitement from my first day back in class after a few years. Unfortunately, it occurred the next week, and then again the week after. It became progressively worse as ripple effects impacted my work life due to irritability caused by lack of sleep and the knowledge that not only was I using all my free time reading my assigned books, an upcoming assignment was due soon and I had no idea what I was going to do, or when I was going to get it done.
Clearly, this is all a part of life. There is no way to decrease the amount of work required to achieve your goal, regardless of whether those goals center around an academic environment or a professional one, or both. Hard work—and by extension, stress—is part of life. The key is to find ways to de-stress in a safe and effective manner.
There are good ways and bad ways to deal with stress. Some people turn to vices such as eating, smoking or drinking to deal with their stress. Unfortunately, those choices usually increase stress levels and cause great bodily harm as well. Ask any health professional and they will tell you that the preferred method of dealing with stress is to increase physical activity and practice deep breathing exercises. Harvard Medical School claims that deep breathing helps increase concentration and can help disengage you from distractions. Additionally, exercises like Yoga and Tai Chi can help you improve your deep breathing technique while working core muscles.
Lacking the ability to sign up for the next yoga class I could find, I did a quick search in my app store for deep breathing and a number of apps came up, many were free, some were not. I downloaded the first one that I found and used it a few times and though I can't say that my stress is gone, when I took 5 minutes to do some deep breathing before bed last week, it helped quiet my brain enough that I fell asleep more quickly, and felt much better the following morning.
How do you deal with your stress?
