Written By: Alen Kuriakose, Trainer, HSSW.
A student’s school life is stressful related to academics and other co curricular activities. Managing stress in students is very important as it affects the proper growth and development of them. With all the activities and responsibilities of a student, he/she mostly never finds time to look into activities to reduce stress.
Certain easy stress relieving activities can help students cop up with the day today life’s stressful situations. Learning these as a student may in turn help them to continue it throughout their life. Why because, a child who is deeply affected by stress continue to fail to manage it as an adult too. Unremitting stress leads to increased levels of illness and infection, cuts years off of people’s lives, and generally cuts down on people’s happiness. If students can learn to deal with stress effectively in high school, and can carry those skills into adulthood, it can have ripple effects throughout their entire lives.
Here are some techniques to manage stress.
1. Exercise Our society has become more health-conscious and therefore there has been an increased focus on exercise. Rather than weight reduction and better physique, it is also a good stress reduction technique. Exercise can boost up positive emotions and redirect you from problems. So, in addition to all the other benefits, exercise may supply some immunity toward future stress as well as a way to cope with current stress.
2. Power Naps I still remember the stress than built up in me when I was facing my senior secondary exam. I used have some minutes of slight sleep in between lessons. Students are notorious for missing sleep, and deprivation of sleep may affect their productivity. You can make yourself more alert, reduce stress, and improve cognitive functioning with a nap. ‘Power nap’, means more patience, less stress, better reaction time, increased learning, more efficiency, and better health.
3. Music Music has magical properties. A small child in a mother’s womb may even get stimulated by music. It is a convenient stress reliever that has many cognitive benefits. Music can help you to relieve stress and either calm yourself down. Classical music and melodies can soothe your mind as well and high beat songs can wake you up mentally. Music helps to stimulate brain and calm you up. It increases concentration and make you more alert. It builds up a positive state of mind, creativity and optimism.
4. Healthy Eating Habits A proper diet can boost up your mental energy. You may not realize it, but true. Students may skip their breakfast as part of their busy schedule. Or even take up unhealthy snacks from school canteen during intervals. These can have negative impact on their nutrition, as proper nutrition is very important during growing stages. Sugar foods and caffeine are enemies. Most people rely on junk foods and beverages like coffee, tea and carbonated drinks to ease up their hunger and tiredness. Instead of all these wrong diets, plain water or fresh fruit juices, salads, fruits and nuts can serve you better than fast foods and junk foods. Easy to consume! Never take your time up.
5. Stay Organised A healthy time table serves you as a much good friend. I have seen students whose rooms are untidy, books are shattered, clothes are thrown up etc. How can you stay yourself calm when everything around you is messed up? Surely not. Clutter cause stress, can waste your time, decrease productivity and lower your grades. In a cluttered space relaxation is impossible. Imagine that you came home after school. You saw your bed heaped up with clothes, wanted and unwanted. Table full of books piled up. You cannot find clothes to wear or books to start up with your study. Would you be irritated? Yes, it is a definite yes situation. Getting rid of clutter can help you plug up energy drains all over your home.
Organizing your things can help you to know where everything is, and have a place to put everything in your home so that clean-up goes very quickly. Decorating, using colors and themes that truly speak to you, can help you feel relaxed and energized.
Life is full of stress and tension. Managing it in the right way makes everything easier. When you look back to your after years, you can definitely feel the importance of stress relief, as it might have increased your productivity and led you to a win-win situation. Surely ‘yes’.
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