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Being a college student implies facing plenty of sources of stress. All of which can substantially worsen your productivity. And all of them can be broken down into two main categories: grades and reputation. The first one displays such threats as homework, coursework, endless tests, exams and college expulsion, while the second determines the absence of common respect, support and appreciation. Both variables are essential and most importantly – they are both manageable. To optimize your lifestyle to the level which will give you a certain control over them you have to consider minor activities that can make a huge positive difference in your stress management.1. Keeping the Air Maximally Fresh
Taking care of the fresh air is a rare, brief and pretty unusual activity. However, it is the one that will keep your primal physiological needs in check. It will decrease your stress and increase your intellectual productivity. If the air is horrible or not as good as your body requires, you will become more aggressive; you will take more conservative and less deliberate decisions, which will lead to conflicts and higher levels of stress.
2. Proper Diet
Taking care of your diet is the second healthiest activity you can do for your stress prevention. The necessity of having a well-balanced diet can be broken down into 3 categories.
- If you don’t eat – your will become aggressive;
- If you eat poorly – you will sooner become hungry and your brain will have less energy to think;
- If you eat unhealthy food – you will worsen the balance of your nutrients. Gradually it will increase your avitaminosis, which will lead to your pain, moodiness, aggression and many other stress-related conditions.
3. Physical Activity
Being physically inactive will minimize your chances to store, process and use any information you get from college. It is completely normal if you don’t want to have anything to do with sports. But for your own thinking and stress management benefit you have to spend at least a couple hours of your time on any sort of physical activity. In simple words – it will make you too busy, too tired and in some days even too happy to waste your energy on stress. Since even minor exercises will bring you additional dopamine support, will make you feel good about yourself and will also improve your sleeping hours.
4. Breathing Meditation Prior the Sleep
Breathing meditation means getting yourself comfortable, relaxing and thinking exclusively about breathing in and out. By concentrating on this exceptionally simple stress management activity, you will teach yourself to clear your thoughts and get to the sleeping stage faster. You can perform it however you want, by sitting next to your flower or by laying in your bed.5. Writing a “College Obituary”
The common practice for soldiers of some of the armies is writing an obituary before going to the war. The point of this mental trick is to make them less afraid of death. Many people find this one-time activity very effective. If one of your biggest sources of stress is the idea of messing up your coursework, failing an exam, worsening your college reputation and being expelled, then writing “college obituary” is definitely the activity you would want to do more than once.
6. Studying Without Music
As weird as it sounds, if you cannot live without music, make the exclusion of music from your studying process a part of your activity. There is no such thing as great music for focusing. Any music will always serve you as a subjectively esthetical distraction of your thinking. Especially if it is the music you appreciate. It will worsen the quality of your studying, which will reflect on your grades and level of stress.7. Image Adjustments
The point of this activity is to change and/or maintain your visual image to make it likeable for yourself. It may include changing your haircut, taking an interest in styling tips, buying and wearing new clothes which would make you feel the most comfortable. All of it will give you extra confidence that will help you to perform at the top of your abilities. But don’t get your head into it too much, or you will add another stress factor to your life.8. Social Skills Maintenance
Whether you identify yourself as introvert or extravert you are still a primate. Primates are social animals. Humans are one of them and furthermore they are social creatures. Which means they have a certain hierarchy. And the less stressful individuals are the ones who closely interact with others. If the individual is at the top or at the bottom of the hierarchical chain s/he is getting more stress than someone in between. The first individual doesn’t want to be bothered; his/her aggression is oftentimes the reason s/he is at the top. Meanwhile the second individual experiences stress due to the reputational failure. Thus, another great exercise for your stress-reducing strategy is to stay in touch with everyone. It will position you somewhere in the middle, which will not take much of the effort and will make the college journey for you far less stressful.
9. Gaining Respect of Professors
Not being loud, studying the subject, asking questions and making rare yet appropriate jokes is what will make you likable among the teaching staff of your college, which will greatly reduce a number of potentially stressful situations for you. But take into account that most people have a bad sense of humor, and professors are no exception. So, be wise when you raise stakes and take risks while saying something edgy.10. Having a Partner
Finding a partner, dating and having intimate relationships will keep your basic instincts and self-esteem in check. Of course, it may add some additional level of stress and drama, but the experience that you will get is what potentially can make you wiser and more popular. If you refuse to have any of these things in your personal life – you will get the bigger level of stress and dissatisfaction that will nag you throughout your whole college life.
