Flourishing when faced with challenges necessitates having psychological, emotional, physical, and social backing. Hence, by tending to your well-being in these aspects, you can build up the resilience necessary to endure stress and emerge even stronger.
In this article, I will discuss strategies for overcoming challenges, controlling your perspective, evaluating your behaviors, and utilizing effective techniques to succeed under stress and surpass your expectations. However, before I delve into that, I want to address four fundamental aspects that impact your general health and capacity to achieve your utmost capabilities.
Chapter – 1: What Causes Stress Among Students?
1: Homework
Teachers utilize homework for two purposes: involving their students beyond the classroom and addressing subjects that they lack sufficient class time to cover. Even though studies demonstrate that students who receive consistent homework assignments achieve higher academic success, a majority of students (84%) and teachers (57%) still perceive homework as a source of stress.
What is the reason?
According to Write My Essay, the quantity of homework tasks.
A study revealed that teachers typically give students around 3.5 hours of homework daily, totaling 17.5 hours per week.
Nevertheless, researchers argue that a decreased amount of homework is required for enhancing performance. This occurs because a direct relationship between homework and academic success exists only during the initial 90 minutes after finishing homework.
Once students reach the 90-minute to 2.5-hour mark, homework becomes less beneficial as students lose their ability to concentrate.
A huge amount of work can lead to burnout, decreased participation in learning, overwhelmed students, and hinder them from fulfilling their other obligations.
2: Overscheduling
Participating in extracurricular activities allows people to gain self-assurance, discover interests, and cultivate virtues like collaboration and accountability.
However, more students are citing being overscheduled as the reason for their stress. It’s just a matter of ‘time poverty’ – having too many tasks and not enough time to complete them.
Why do students enroll in more courses than they can manage?
Competition for spots at prestigious universities is increasing.
The focus is more on being a versatile student rather than just excelling academically. Therefore, students believe they need to engage in activities, leading them to stretch themselves too thin.
Studies indicate that having a jam-packed schedule can result in stress-induced symptoms. These encompass headaches, fatigue, irritability, and lack of sleep. It has been associated with various health problems such as chronic stress and stomach ulcers as well.
3: Parental Pressure
This is aimed more towards parents rather than students.
While it is common to want your child to succeed in school and achieve high grades, parents might be hindering them instead of helping them.
66% of students indicate that pressure from parents is a major cause of stress.
Even though studies indicate that parents setting high academic standards for their children can enhance their academic performance, overly stressing their child to meet these standards may lead to adverse effects on both their well-being and grades.
If parents ask their child about their math test before asking about their day in school, it shows they prioritize grades above all else.
As a result of this, students turn to cheating, experience lack of sleep, decreased self-worth, and heightened levels of stress and anxiety because they fear failing.
How to Take Care of Your Stress in College?
1: Keep Your Habits in Check
Habits, whether positive or negative, are simply a series of behaviors that your brain chooses to carry out. Many of the actions you perform in a day are formed by these habits.
Identify the habits that are obstructing your success and change them to eliminate any obstacles they may pose. Understanding that your actions shape your habits and that you have control over both is crucial. And this can also help you get better and thrive under pressure quite viably.
2: Don’t Procrastinate
To lower your stress levels, you must avoid delaying tasks.
50% of students admit to participating in problematic procrastination behaviors that hinder their academic success. By finishing tasks ahead of schedule, you can manage and reduce the amount of stressful situations you encounter.
If you’re struggling to begin, attempt to work on the task for just five minutes. This happens because your brain stays active from the moment you begin until you complete the task.
This phenomenon is called the Zeigarnik Effect. Beginning the task is always the most difficult aspect. However, once you get started, you’ll surely succeed if you’re patient enough.
3: Develop a Proper Sleep Routine
Sleep and emotions are closely related. When we are fatigued, we perceive our environment in a more pessimistic light. Students who consistently mention improved sleep quality are shown to have higher academic performance (approximately half a grade difference).
Establishing a consistent bedtime is important, as irregularity can have a detrimental effect on the quality of sleep, leading to feelings of fatigue, despite getting eight hours of rest! Adhering to a consistent sleep routine is known to significantly boost academic performance.
4: Communicate Properly
When you are experiencing stress, it is beneficial to engage in conversation with another person. For example –
If school feels like too much, talk to friends or teachers;
If parental expectations are overwhelming, discuss with parents.
You can avoid suffering in silence by creating a proper support team. When the day is over, the importance of your health, both mental and physical, surpasses that of your grade.
Having a strong support system can help provide needed support, enhance coping skills, and serve as a buffer against stress, ultimately boosting individual performance and resilience.
5: Prioritize What You Want to Do
It can be challenging to determine where to begin when you are constantly facing deadlines. This can lead to feelings of being overloaded and even more anxious.
Make a schedule for study sessions or jot down a list of all the assignments you must complete, estimating how much time each will take and when they are due.
This will help you effectively handle your time.
Studies indicate that successful time management is a key factor in reducing stress levels and is associated with improved academic outcomes in students. Making a list of tasks on paper can help you better structure your thoughts and determine the starting point for your actions.
Final Thoughts
Being a student is hard.
When we experience stress, our body’s “fight or flight” reaction is triggered, leading to potential shutdown of bodily functions.
Tasks assigned by teachers, lack of sleep, having too many activities, and pressure from parents can contribute greatly to the formation of chronic stress problems. It can negatively affect not just academic achievement but also physical and mental health.
Nevertheless, if you inspire your students to shift their perspective, efficiently handle their time, and cultivate positive behaviors, they will reduce much of the stress they experience each day and savor the remaining time they spend in school.
