This week, I have had a lot of things on my plate and while thinking about this article, I thought about how stressed and busy I have been lately. This is common for a lot of college students as I always hear other people complaining about how stressed they are. So, I decided to ask a few of my closest friends what their solutions to dealing with stress are and they had some common themes.
My best friend from high school who happens to be at the same college as me, Olivia, said that when she is stressed she just cries. Then she thought about it a bit more and said that she goes for a workout to help her destress. She also chooses to work on what needs to be done first that way she is not stressed about it.
One of my new friends from college,Emma, agreed with Olivia saying that she cries a lot. But also, since she is on the swim team, she said going for a swim helps her to destress. Some of her other suggestions for destressing are going for a drive, or listening to music, both of which help her in combating her stress.
My friend Max said that when he is stressed he becomes a little aggressive and he finds that he destresses by taking it out on things. (I do not know if I would personally go for this solution but it is what he said he does.) He also said that he talks to Olivia when he is stressed to help in overcoming what may be stressing him out.
My friend Lexi said sometimes she will go for walks, or listen to music. She finds herself trying to focus on positive things. If there is a few things that are stressing her out she tries to think about 5 things that are going good in her life.
Everyone handles stress differently, but I personally find that I become less stressed by calling my Mom who puts things into perspective, or by talking to my sisters who seem to help by distracting me with all of the things going on in their lives. I also find it helpful to make a list of things I have to get done, even if the list is not exactly a to-do list. I still find that writing down what I need to get out of the way seems to be helpful to me.
When it comes down to it, I think when things are stressful, people should take a minute to realize that eventually, all the stress today will help in having better days to come. Taking a few minutes out of the day to just have some freetime will help when it comes to beating college stress!