Final year English Literature student Megan Sales shares her thoughts with us about managing stress.
As a literature student, with an obvious love of books, it may seem odd when I tell you that I have never considered reading a ‘self-help’ book. I’ve spent my years with my head stuck in 18th and 19th century books, finding amusement in the way humans work – How much do we change? However, after an intriguing conversation with my Auntie, I found myself reading a psychology book and from there I have moved onto my current read Stress, the Psychology of Managing Pressure by Diane McIntosh. The book itself so far has been an interesting read. I personally love to find out how the mind works but even more than a basic interest, I have found this book genuinely helpful. Here is what I’ve learnt.
As I’m sure many others will have at some point in their life, I have felt stressed! The interesting thing about stress is that while we may commonly associate stress with negative connotations, it is (with the right dosage) something positive. We can use stress to our advantage, utilizing the optimal release of stress chemicals in our body to finish that assignment that is due, that application we’ve been avoiding! Now, it is important to note that should you feel the physical affects of stress you must seek some professional help to support yourself. You can contact the York St John Wellbeing Team here, or if you need some academic support, or to the Study Skills Team here. Also, remember that you can always chat to your tutor! However, there are some day-to-day tasks we can do to help ourselves along in this busy world.
Resilience – You’ve got through problems before, you can do it again.
Turn the negative into a positive – I’m nervous because I’m excited.
Talk it out! – find that good friend and talk it out until you are fed up yourself of hearing it.
Identify what makes you stressed – can you avoid it? Can you change it? If so, how?
Stop multi-tasking mental tasks – multi-tasking does NOT equal productivity. A productive way of multi-tasking is pairing the mindless task with the one that requires it. Fold the laundry and talk on the phone? Great. Talk on the phone and send an e-mail? You become mistake prone!
Emotions are hard to avoid, we all have them but thought patterns can be
changed. Becoming self-aware of what we are thinking and actively changing that thought process can do the world of good. Take some time and be kind to yourself. If you wouldn’t say it to someone else, don’t say it to yourself. Appreciate the challenges you have already tackled and beaten in life up until this point and give yourself a break – it’s okay to feel overwhelmed every now and again. As the calendar my Nanna once gifted me said “Take the time to smell the Roses”. Turn your favourite music up, read a chapter of that book you wanted to, take a tech-free hour, take a walk, and give yourself a break! You are more resilient than you think.