STRESS MANAGEMENT 1A03
by BUSHRA HABIB, MACINSIDERS
As October comes to an end, many first years are breathing sighs of relief after surviving their first round of midterms. However, while the October set is done, the November’s are far away, and we’ll be arriving at finals before we can blink.
While people handle stress in several different ways, two seem more predominant than most others:
1. Never forgetting you have midterms and muttering VSEPR theory in your sleep
2. Cramming.
Continual Overdrive:
Most students believe that studying all the time, every moment is beneficial but it ends up being more detrimental to your health than you might imagine. To elaborate with an example, you may feel surprised when 20 hours of Stats work doesn’t result in exactly the grade you wanted but a lower one. This may not have to do with the amount you’re working, but how you are.
Food, Snooze and Time Outs
Your body needs nutrition, sleep and a break in order to absorb all the information you’re pouring into it on a constant basis. A very relevant analogy can be found when considering printers or laptops. Even heavy duty computers and their accessories when assigned hundreds and thousands of jobs per day, can run the risk of overheating and need to be switched off for the machinery and finer components to cool down. Our bodies are no different.
When your eyes are drooping shut involuntarily, getting an hour of sleep may seem foolish (You’ve got to study! Psych won’t memorize itself!!), this is a much better option when compared to the possibility of falling asleep during the exam itself.
A lack of sleep, an improper diet and continuous work will force you into a state of overdrive, and result in more stress than you’d like because you simply don’t have the physical resources needed to prepare your body and mind for the tasks they face.
Stop, Drop and Break.
Another important point that should be emphasized is that taking a break, means taking a complete break. Chemistry with your cereal is not part of a healthy breakfast – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Separating work and daily functioning is integral to maintaining a balanced lifestyle and that does mean that you shouldn’t be memorizing the derivatives of trigonometric functions while in the shower. Clearing your mind during these brief, yet frequent activities that occur throughout the day will provide you with much needed downtime sessions without causing you to feel that you’ve “wasted” your time.
Treats aren’t just for Halloween.
Rewards are also a good way to minimize stress. If you’ve finished 50 Statistics problems consider watching a half hour of The Office, or better yet, going for a 15 minute run. These bonuses will motivate you to do better, help clear your head and prevent your mind from shutting off when you really really need it.
Loose lips do sink ships.
Sometimes the best thing to do is to stop talking and worrying about things you cannot control. The first midterms may not have gone that well but once you’ve identified your mistakes and determined strategies to do better, do your best to focus on what’s ahead, rather than worrying about the past. As well, don’t spend every waking moment talking about courses with the people in your life. Again, it prevents your mind from moving off its track onto other subjects and it introduces an element of perpetual worry, nervousness and anxiety especially when the people you’re worrying with are worrying even worse than yourself.
If you find stress management impossible, remember that there are several options available to you, especially at the Centre for Student Development located in the MUSC (More detailed information can be discovered here:
http://csd.mcmaster.ca/)
Cramming
While overdoing it is not healthy, neither is underdoing it. Crammers also experience high levels of stress (while many might claim they do not), but in a different way than their polar opposites. When you attempt to fit in 2 months worth of Economics into one night – you’re setting up a high pressure situation which requires a great amount of time and extra resources (food, sleep and calming down) to recuperate from.
You may not have been a crammer before university began and suddenly find yourself faced with 50 pages of content regarding evolution the night before the midterm. This is a common phenomenon and the best way to handle it is to ensure you have a day planner that allows you to allot time for all the necessary tasks for reasonable time periods and keep track of upcoming events.
Don’t feel confined to your schedule and ensure it allows flexibility to prevent stressing out when things don’t go as planned, however, do your best to use it as a guide and a helpful reminder of what must be done and when.
Also, it may help to know that cramming isn’t necessarily superb from a psychological perspective as your short term memory can’t accommodate massive or infinite amounts of information (similar to the content you may have to know for tomorrow’s exam).
You may want to find a more organized study buddy in your classes and work out a system where you both keep each other updated on what needs to be done and report back when you’ve successfully finished your assignments or pre-test studying.
The work load is manageable but again, if you feel forced into situations where cramming is an undesirable yet necessary option, the Centre for Student Development can also help you address these concerns.
And to end things off…
An amazing way to work around stress is to constantly keep in mind that you can only do your best. While this may sound discouraging, it’s simply true and our best is all we can ever give any situation. Worrying and jamming more information in than we can process or remember may not necessary help if a professor decides to write a purely brutal paper or “challenge” his or her students with mind bending problems. Just give each situation, each midterm and each assignment your best and remember not to compromise your mental or physical health worrying about what cannot be controlled.
