According to ACHA or American College Health Association statistics, approximately 44% of students experience some kind of stress, while 12% experience overwhelming pressure daily.
So, what causes all this stress? Usually, the leading causes are living away from home, being out of one’s comfort zone, financial struggles, academic pressure, peer pressure, relationships, post-graduation plans, etc. Many other personal things can cause stress too!
If you are suffering from stress, it is crucial to manage it! Feeling stressed out too often can lead to many physical and mental problems. Thus, do everything in your power to learn how to handle it! You can, for instance, consider trying our seven ways to manage stress while in college.
1. Sleep and Rest
Being a college student is an exciting period – for the first time in your life, you will be able to do whatever you want. You will stay up late, go to parties, spend your nights talking with your roommates, etc. Then, when the examination period comes, you will spend your entire nights studying and gulping that coffee to keep you awake until morning.
Nothing will happen when you spend a couple of nights in this way. But, if you spend weeks, months, or even years doing this, you will start to feel stressed out. This is because your body is suffering – it needs to sleep and rest.
So, allow it! Allow yourself to have eight hours of good night’s sleep. To do that, try to make your dorm room more relaxing, turn off your phone, and tell your roommate not to disturb you.
2. Focus on Your Health
College students are known for forgetting everything their parents taught them in their first couple of years of college. This is because, just as previously mentioned, they are given freedom – the freedom to eat whatever they want, devour snacks and drinks like there is no tomorrow, stop exercising, etc.
All of this leads to gaining weight. And, weight causes stress to both body and mind.
Thus, to manage stress while in college, one of the best stress management tips we can give you is to focus on your health. Having nutritious and balanced meals every day and exercising a couple of days a week will save your body and mind from all the unnecessary stress.
3. Socialize
Moving to a new place, leaving your parent’s home and all your comfort zones, being surrounded by new faces, etc., can be very stressful. It can be stressful even if you are the most extroverted person. This is entirely understandable.
And, this stress-related problem is one of the easiest to deal with! Just find someone you can talk to – that is, find and make friends after the move to college.
Having somebody by your side to whom you can turn whenever necessary is crucial for us humans! Humans are social beings! We need to feel like we are a part of a group.
4. Have a Stress Outlet
It is not always easy to have time for hobbies and pastime activities if you are going to a college that requires a lot of in-class and after-class studying. But, you must have some time for yourself during the week! If you don’t – make it! Make time for your stress outlet.
That is, make time to do something that makes you feel happy and that makes you feel relaxed. That can be anything – doing a sport, going for a cup of coffee with a dear friend, walking, watching a movie, etc.
Moreover, you should also have a stress outlet for the days you feel really stressed out. Find something that works best on days when you feel really frazzled. That can be any of the things mentioned above or some other personal thing you enjoy doing.
5. Practice Self-Care
There is nothing more stress-relieving than practicing self-care. And, let us tell you something right from the start – you don’t have to go to the spa to have the ultimate self-care day. You can plan a perfect self-care day right there in your dorm room.
For instance, when your roommate is busy somewhere else, lock the door, put your feet in some basin filled with bath salt, put a face mask on, slice cucumber and put slices on your eyes, etc.
Or, have a self-care day any way you like it. Spend a day reading a book you always wanted. Go to the cinema and watch that new movie. Hike a bit. Do whatever relaxes you!
6. Manage Your Time Well
Unfortunately, students are the kings and queens of procrastination! Yes, they will do anything to postpone their tasks.
Of course, they will spend that time doing fun things, but when that last minute arrives (the minute you have to finish all of your tasks), you will be more stressed out than ever. You will be stressed out even after that task passes as you will not do it well.
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Again, there is an easy solution for this – manage your time. Have your days planned and avoid procrastination at all costs. This won’t be easy to achieve at first, but trust your power of will. Push yourself for the first couple of weeks, and then this lifestyle will become your habit.
7. Seek Help If Necessary
It is important to know that seeking help for whatever problem you have is not bad. Quite the contrary – it is encouraged. Why would you suffer in silence when there are trained and experienced people who can help you out? Thus, if you experience any kind of a problem, stress-related or not, seek professional help!
As you have seen, there are many ways to manage stress while in college. We mentioned some of the easiest and the most effective ones, so give them a go. If you don’t like them, that is okay too. But, make sure to find something you enjoy doing that will help you release that stress.
Image Credit: ways to manage stresss while in college by envato.com
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