Stress impacts college students

This archived article was written by: EJ Sanders Jr.

What an incredible time it is to be an Eagle with the 2016-17 school/athletic year here. Welcome back to another year of growth, school spirit, and athletic competition and student advancement. With any luck students had an ideal summer vacation and are restless to take on the year and challenges that wait in college.
Launch of the school year means new freshman set to make the changeover from high school to college and for some, transitioning back into this amazing college atmosphere: transfers in pursuit of a new beginning in one of the healthier environments. Returners leading their newly acquired peers and endure down the path of their dreams and academic promotion.
As always, with commencement of the school year, stress levels skyrocket with the curiosity, nervousness and expectancy of incoming freshman and sophomore’s as graduation for them is within an arm’s reach.
Stress is inevitable. Everyone at some point in life feels it. It is a natural sympathetic activation of the nervous system. It is how the body reacts to challenge and in result it ignites the fight or flight response. However, the volume of stress, how long you endure and its effectiveness is a consequence of your cognition and how you elect to cope.
School is arduous; early mornings and late nights, lengthy class periods, demanding lectures with a progressive bundle of assignments. Sleep deprivation, class absence for athletes, confusion and critical thinking.
However, these are the necessary aspects of life we need to indulge in to become the best student and individual we can be. It’s here where intelligence becomes exponential and is powered by your willingness to critically think, learn and absorb. It’s here where your intellect is challenged, character is exposed and aspirations evolve.
College is a full-time job, an adventure, experience, reality check, but more importantly an opportunity to introduce you to the world with its ethnic and cultural diversity and its high promotion rate of establishing careers.
Understand college is hard, it’s onerous, stress igniting, but you have to become herculean. It’s meant to be grueling; it’s the progression of high school, the evolvement of knowledge and one’s interest, establishment of adulthood and proven founder of life opportunity. Comprehend this school, as in anything in life worthwhile is difficult, but allow the difficulty to stress you out is fueled by your thoughts.
Stress is an involuntary; therefore, it’s no way around, but allowing it to more than visit and offering it extended stay is all the work of your thoughts. Allowing it to hinder your academic performance, your life and sway your attitude towards others in a negative connotation is because of how you think and deal with it and is detrimental.
Not knowing what to expect, test, assignments on assignments, life outside of school, athletics, financial stipulation are all responsible for the creation of stress. Negative attitudes, change of character, melt downs, academic descendent, quitting are all symptoms and wrongful treatments of stress.
Here are some ways to think and attack stress to not allow it to affect you and become that friend or long-distance relative that overstays their welcome.
Start off your day with a small victory, such as just making your bed upon awakening. Commitment to something so simple will start your day off right. Me personally, I do that and everyone morning I start my day off with music, “Lovely Day By Bill Withers” because it ignites my mind as I begin to think positively and that’s how you win the day. It may seem basic, however, what you listen to has much more power over your cognition than you make think, so why not start it off with positive thoughts.
Turn the physical off and begin to understand how to get through this hardship, how to motivate yourself, how to be an example and motive others so we all can win the day. Because allowing stress to linger longer than a hi gets you nowhere and the quickest way to quit and lose a day of productivity.
Win the day. Focus on small victories; see every triumph as an evolution. Collapse your reality to the now and set very minimal term goals. Stack these mini wins throughout the day and that’s how you establish total victory and win each day.
Stress is inevitable, it’s involuntary; however, you decide the duration of its stay. Count your breaths, clear your mind. Don’t think about anything else but that breath. Relax and remain calm under pressure and that’s how you get through the hard part.
One key tenet of mental toughness is the ability to remain calm under pressure and to be able to make decisions in the mist of chaos. This is how you peak, reach the pinnacle of your abilities, this is how you succeed, become molded with a world of positivity, this how you win the day and win your life.
Small decisions are essential. Our lives are the sum total of small decisions made well or poorly.
I will leave you with this. You are where you are because of the way you think; change your thoughts and you change your world. Let’s accomplish these dreams and never sacrifice your happiness.