Don't Stress it if You Can Help it

Waking up and realizing I had so many assignments due on top of that having to work really did cause so much stress in my time going to school. Having to deal with unnecessary stress and having your mind running all the time can literally make you go insane and can cause major issues with your own mental state of health. Although, some stress is very healthy to have sometimes it is best to take a breather and stand back and tell yourself everything will work out. The key to having healthy stress is eliminating the bad stress. There are so many tactics in helping yourself destress and it is so important to be able to incorporate some skills in your daily routine whether it be for everyday or even once a week. Here some of my suggestions for de-stressing from life's headaches.

Stressed by Sodanie Chea, Creative Commons 2.0

1. What makes you stressed? - A lot of the the times there is a specific pattern for why you end up getting overly stressed out. Taking a step back looking at what causes this issue can help you change the way you approach stressful situations. Take a breather and eliminate those habits that lead to your own demise. Do not ever put your own self last and really take care of yourself. I understand it is really easy to just brush off your own needs in order to get other task done but I found that prioritizing task such as these do help.
• Healthy eating
• Being regularly active 
• Having a set schedule to upkeep your social setting
• Getting plenty of rest
2. How high are you expectations? - I understand it is so hard to not want the best for yourself and when it came to my own grades I was always so hard on myself for low achieving on certain assignments. This would cause even extra stress on every other one of my classes because I wanted to do so well and it would always do more damage to me then actually helping me in the end. Remember to give yourself a reality check and go over these few rules
• Breathe and remember everything will workout.
• Look over the assignments you didn't do well on and think what can "I" do to improve
• Don't be afraid to contact professors, professors actually want you to do well and  succeed in their class and will offer great study tips and suggestions
3. Are you regularly going to class? - Thinking about this question can be brushed off so easily but in reality this might be the cause of your own stress. It is so easy to not want to show up to class because you feel as if you do not need the lecture or other activities you may be involved in may get in the way.  When it came down to trying to get notes for class that I skipped was always the worst because I still wouldn't fully understand the chapter but it ultimately would be my own fault no one else's.
• Going to class allows you to take adequate notes
• You will feel well prepared for any upcoming assignments
• Going to class allows you to be able to ask questions 
• Saves you from feeling ill prepared overall  
4. Reach out to someone - Having so many feelings and emotions that come from stress can be so hard when you have them bottled up. Most of the time to destress I would call my best friend because she totally understood where I was coming from being that she is a college student herself. We would talk for hours about what was going on in our lives negative or positive we would talk about other things too just to get our minds off of our own daily stress.  I would always feel so much better talking to someone because it help me keep my mind from thinking about the stress from school.
• Talk to someone your close to whether that be a parent, aunt or uncle, siblings, a really good friend someone you trust
• Vent to them tell them about whats going on and how you feel. Majority of the time they will totally understand where you are coming from
• Don't hesitate to reach out these individual may even have great tips on how to manage your stress  

College life is hard and stressful and I know that by first hand experience. Looking back I am glad I was able to understand and identify the causes and or issues that stirred up my stress. Being able to pin point my faults made a huge impact of being able to get back on track in the right direction. Sometimes things come up that we really can not control and some stress is healthy to have but having it reoccur regularly is not. So let's figure out the main issues of unnecessary stress and defeat this cycle. 

Question: What are some of your daily stressors that can be easily eliminated?