Understanding Your Stress Experience

Being a young adult can be an overwhelming phase, especially when we have to deal with the demands of college life. It is a time when we learn how to exert independence and discover our unique qualities that make us different from one another. As we build connections with other people, it provides meaningful relationships that influence the way we think and act. However, college life can be very demanding, and as students, we are also faced with other roles and responsibilities to fulfill. Sometimes we get so caught up with our responsibilities that we might not be aware of how stress is greatly affecting our lives, especially our own health.
How do we cope with these demands and still maintain a balanced lifestyle? It is important to be aware of the factors that influence our decisions. Each person can have different opinions and by gaining knowledge about your personal situation can shed light on what you can and cannot control. For example, how do you react when you get a grade lower than you expected? Do you view it as a learning experience or do you take it negatively thus feeling like a failure? Also, one has to remember that culture plays an important role in shaping how we think and act. The values that we have learned and acquired as we grow up affect how we prioritize things in our lives. For some people, getting good grades may be their priority while others feel earning money may be more important than getting A’s or B’s.
With so many obligations to juggle, such as school work, household chores, family relationships, and a social life, wouldn’t it be nice to just take a break from everything? You do not have to let stress control you!

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to find out what you know about stress in your life:

• Do you know when you are experiencing stress?
• Can you rate the level of stress you are going through?
• What triggers your stress?
• How do you react to stress?
• How do you feel about your current ways of coping with stress?
• Have you thought of changing your ways to cope with stress effectively?
• What do you think are the pros and cons of learning how to manage stress?
• Do you think you can successfully carry out changes to manage your stress?

You may or may not already be aware of the negative effects of stress on your body. Sometimes we tend to focus on the negative consequences, thinking it would motivate us to change our behaviors. This knowledge of negative consequences is not enough to move people to engage in activities that can help manage stress. It’s not that easy. How about trying to remind ourselves of the positive effects of managing stress? Focusing on the advantages of having our stress under control can possibly motivate us to modify our current coping patterns. Examining our behaviors can help us gain important insight on how we cope with everyday stress. This kind of awareness serves as a starting point to better understand our feelings and attitudes toward our own situation. You would not want to fix something if you do not know the cause of the problem. Therefore you should take a minute to explore your thoughts and actions on how you deal with stress.
=========================
References:
Horneffer-Ginter, K. (2008). Stages of Change and Possible Selves: 2 Tools for Promoting College Health. Journal of American College Health, 56(4), 351-358.


Prochaska, J., Norcross, J. and DiClemente, C. (2002) Changing for good: A revolutionary six-stage program for overcoming bad habits and moving your life positively forward. New York: Quill.