It may sound a little bit strange, but students face stress more often than they think. Stress is any change to which people have to adapt. These changes may be positive or negative, physical or mental, and the crucial point concerning stress is what everyone does in order to overcome it. Being in a stressful situation is a typical practice for student life. Exams, lections, paper writing, everyday worries, unexpected challenges, and difficulties with socialization – we called only a few items on the list. Depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, aggression and poor concentration are the first indications that student need some help.
If you feel that something similar is happening in your life, in that case there are no doubts you should read this article. Experts in the stress management talk about different techniques and ways of behavior intended to reduce the impact of stress on the body and the psyche of students. First of all, let’s talk about general principles you should follow in your everyday life in order to prevent nervous breakdown:
- Eating healthy food including a lot of fruits and vegetables;
- Get enough healthy sleep;
- Keep balance between working and rest;
- Exclude alcohol, smoking and drugs;
- Control the amount of caffeine you consume;
- Don’t humiliate yourself, think positively and avoid negative self-talking;
- Communicate with positive people who make you feel happy;
- Exercise regularly.
If it occurs that your emotions prevail over you and it’s hard to calm down, you should learn some relaxation techniques. This is pretty good and, what is more important, effective way to cool down and let all negative feelings and emotions go. We present the list of easy and clear techniques, which don’t require additional materials.
Deep Breathing or Belly Breathing is one of the most popular practices of stress reduction. You can use it to overcome the stress in the present moment or to cope up with future impact. Stand straight up, put your feet shoulder-width apart, relax body and close eyes. Then focus on lower part of your belly (you can also put your hand over the lower abdomen to be sure you breathe properly) and imagine you have a balloon in it. Start breathing in slowly and deeply through nostrils, fill your inner balloon, make it growing and hold 2-5 seconds. After that deflate the balloon exhaling through the mouth, imagine you are blowing out a candle. Repeat it at least 10 times and you will feel the difference.
Meditation is a widely practiced activity that aims to make your mind be free of all thoughts and focus on one single object. We offer a simple meditation; you can do the exercise sitting in a chair or on the floor. The first part of the simple meditation is warming-up. You need to sit comfortably and relaxed, then start belly breathing. Make a few deep breaths and slowly rotate the head in one and then in another direction, after that pull your chin up and down. Drop the arms and hands to the side and shake them carefully. The next step is to raise your feet and gently shake the knees. During the meditation keep your spine straight. The second part is practice. The main condition is to be silent. Close eyes and relax your mind, forget about your thoughts, then open your eyes. Repeat this activity two times; keep your eyes closed for two minutes.
Deep Muscle Relaxation is another activity you can use to reduce stress. Frankly speaking, it is very easy activity; the most important point is to remember the order of instructions, hold every instruction for 5 seconds and relax after that. Raise the eyebrows and wrinkle the forehead, imagine you want to touch your hair with the eyebrows. Then frown for 5 seconds and relax. Open your eyes and mouth very wide. Stretch your arms out in front of your body, close the fists tightly. Stretch your arms out to the sides, as you try to push invisible walls around you. Bend your elbows like a bodybuilder and make a muscle in your upper arm. Try to touch your ears with your shoulders. Raise your back off the floor or chair and bend it like an arc. Tighten your stomach muscles, then your hip and buttock muscles. Press your legs together and tighten your thigh muscles. Bend your ankles tin one line with your body. Curl your toes under. Tighten all the muscles of the body.
