This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BC chapter.

Why are we stressed?
As college students, we all know what it means to feel stressed, especially as we take on more and more responsibility to prepare for our entrance into the “real world.” Between classes, extra curricular activities, jobs, friends, sporting events, and everything else we fill our busy schedules with, we hardly have time to fit everything in. In exchange for having a fun college experience and building up our resumes, we give up things like meals, sleep, and other essential relaxing activities. Not good.

Recently, several articles have been published in the New York Times and on other sites about our generation and the questions of stress and self-esteem we face. These articles focus especially on stress during our time in school and the repercussions we will face down the road if we continue living this way.

Self Esteem:
In one article , an examination of college students suggested that our generation would rather get good grades and compliments than “eat a favorite food or engage in sex.” I’m not sure what exactly the implications of this finding are, but it does show that our generation is one that is constantly hungry for an ego-boost, and that self-esteem is an especially important issue for us. Who doesn’t like to be complimented, especially after putting in a lot of hard work for something?

This struggle for success in the eyes of others, however, continually pushes us to do more and to take less time for ourselves. This in turn affects our stress levels and pushes them through the roof. A recent Times article (which you’ve probably read or heard about) explained that in a study, only 52% of incoming full-time students at four-year colleges thought that their emotional health was above average… which means that almost half of these freshmen thought they were below average!!

Other Factors:
We all know that college can be a stressful place, especially for freshmen who are living away from home for the first time in their lives. The pressures to fit in and make new friends, get good grades, have fun, participate in extracurricular activities, and everything else build up quickly. On top of all this, students are worried about their futures – financial situations, debt, and getting a well-paying, enjoyable job in a job market that is less than desirable. It’s overwhelming.

Interestingly, but not all together surprisingly, along with this increase in stress levels comes an increased drive to do well and succeed among college students. We are working harder and thinking about graduate school earlier on in our college careers. This is great, but it also contributes more and more to stress and the declining emotional health in our generation.

Fact:
On top of this, women have always had a less positive view of their emotional health than men, and the gap continues to widen. Why? Because boys tend to participate in activities that alleviate stress, such as sports and other exercise. While girls do these too, they frequently take on more responsibility in the form of volunteering and other activities.

So what can we do about this?
How can we relieve stress, relax, and feel better about ourselves? Take a little time away every day to do something that you don’t have to do.

Spend 30 minutes exercising or stretching.
Take a walk in the fresh air. (Yes, I know it’s cold out right now, but it actually helps a lot.)
Go see a movie with your friends.
Take a 20-minute power nap.
Read a book (for fun).
Take up Yoga or other meditation.
If it helps, make lists of things you have to do and make the point to cross one or two off every day. It makes everyone feel better to know that they’ve accomplished something that they set out to do, even if it is something small.

Whenever I’m feeling particularly stressed (which happens at some point every day), I take 15 minutes and run on the elliptical, without my iPod. It’s not too much of a time commitment to be a problem in my schedule, but it’s just enough that I can clear my head and think about things without other distractions. Then I stretch for a few minutes, take a hot shower, and I feel a million times better.

My sister’s favorite stress-reliever is to blast loud music and have a mini ‘dance party’ with herself, and it works like magic.

So, what’s the moral of the story?
We’re stressed, and everyone knows it, but if we’re going to change this, we have to take a little time for ourselves every day. I’m not saying that we need to stop working so hard or taking on responsibility, because those are good things too, but we need to make sure that we are able to blow off steam once in a while. Otherwise, we will get too overwhelmed, stressed, and depressed. College should be fun too!

Photo Sources:

Stress, Self-Esteem, and the College Student

We wanna slide into your DMs