Stress, Stress, Stress, for Everybody

Everyone deals with stress but what are some healthy ways to manage this end-of-semester state of mind?

Graphic illustration by: Chelsie Bartley

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Stress is inevitable and everybody has it, but what are some ways we can manage our stress?

Take into consideration that everyone has different levels of stress.

Many naturally manage stress better than others, due to their nature.

According to Huffingtonpost.com, how much stress a person has comes down to how one was brought up and what types of genes they have.

Stress is different for everyone and can be through the roof at times.

What are ways to manage stress?

What are ways to help stop stress in its tracks?

First, the body needs to be properly hydrated.

Pimples cause more stress and hydrating the body will hydrate the skin, causing skin to naturally become more smooth along with reducing pimples.

Being hydrated will also help the body rid toxins quickly and efficiently, according to familydoctor.com.

The body is 60 percent water and is vital to the body’s energy.

Another thing that dehydration causes is headaches due to the brain’s muscles tensing up from lack of water.

Tension headaches are a direct line to increasing stress due to lack of sleep, skipping meals and eye strain.

Hydrating also causes the body to maintain an average temperature. All of these assets have to do with maintaining stress.

Rough skin, pimples, headaches, toxins and unregulated body temperatures are key reactions that make stressful situations worse.

Whatever stress is being experienced, dehydration will heighten that stress immensely.

Things such as being busy, getting a bad grade or preparing for finals are stressful and being hydrated is something that will naturally keep stress levels lower.

Being properly hydrated will allow one to deal with stress better instead of making it worse.

One of the biggest decisions to reduce stress levels, according to Stress.org.uk, is being properly nutritioned and maintaining good nutrition daily.

Being mal nutritional causes the body to lose vital vitamins that help the body work properly.

Skillsyouneed says that not having proper food such as well balanced amount of fruits, vegetables, dairies, meats and grains will cause the body to have an elevated level of stress.

Fast food, for example, contains lots of protein, fatty acids, and carbohydrates but it is very low in minerals and vitamins that are vital to the body.

This will cause the body to work harder than usual due to an insufficient amount of vitamins, which increases stress directly.

Eating properly will make the body work more efficiently and allow energy to be used correctly.

Our society tries to compensate with many substitutes to make the body work harder than it should.

Coffee, energy drinks, soda, even prescription drugs are all substitutes for easy energy.

By easy energy I mean feeling energized when really it is all artificial. Instead of the body working with what it has it must work with what it is given.

According to medicinenet these are direct lines that cause the body to be stressed out by the end of the day or at the end of the weekend.

We have all stayed up all night to finish what needs to be done for the upcoming week and doing so wears and tears on our bodies.

That brings me to my next subject, which is sleep and prioritizing.

Sleep is the time for our bodies to reboot.

Our generation as a whole, including myself, do not sleep as much as we should.

College students are the most sleep-deprived people in our society, with an average sleep time being between three and six hours a night, according to campusmindworks.

Sleeping helps us test better, work better, be able to understand more and, most of all, to be less stressed out. Not just sleeping in on weekends but sleeping between seven to 10 hours every night to allow the body to rest properly.

This all begins with prioritizing, managing time to be able to get everything done within life in an adequate and well-mannered order. This is so much easier said than done but the only way to succeed is to at least try.

Start by writing down tasks for the week or throughout the month that are important. Stick to getting them done or obtaining a planner and using it on a daily basis. This will help magnificently.

Another easy way to get started is setting a time to go to bed and to wake up at the same time every day, including the weekends. Doing so will help start a schedule and will help get things done.

Being able to prioritize will drastically reduce stress and according to pamf, prioritizing is probably the biggest factor to keeping stress levels down.

The last thing that can drastically help stress is herbs. Herbal teas, herb oils and herb supplements are drastically overlooked by our society.

Herbs like red clover, lemon balm, chamomile, raspberry, passion flower, lavender, kava and many others help relieve the body by helping with anxiety, sleep and stress, according to Health.

These types of herbs help relieve anxiety, help increase sleep, reduce depression and for the most part will help reduce stress levels.

Being a college student I have found many ways to understand my stress and have found many ways to reduce and control it.

All I wish, especially this time of the semester, is that I can help my fellow students have a better, more stress-free college experience.