Stress is so common in collegiate culture that, just like expensive textbooks, it’s guaranteed. There’s healthy stress, the kind that keeps you motivated and helps you get things done, but there’s also stress that will leave you in such an irritable state that you want to scream at the nice old lady at the coffee shop talking loudly and distracting you from your work.
The American College Health Association’s [National Health Assessment] (http://www.acha-ncha.org/docs/ACHA-NCHA-II_ReferenceGroup_ExecutiveSummary_Fall2013.pdf), conducted last fall, found that within a 12-month period, 84.4 percent of students reported that they felt overwhelmed by all they had to do, and 80 percent reported feeling exhausted not from physical activity. The mismanagement of stress can lead to unwanted behaviors, thoughts and emotions, and it’s physically and emotionally draining.
I spoke with Kimi Nolte, a graduate assistant at MU’s Wellness Resource Center, about how students can manage and deal with stress.
For many college students, stress is fueled by a lack of time management. Nolte says that time management is vital for preventing stress, and the center offers free planners for students.
“It lets you reflect back to see what time you have for yourself,” she says.
The center offers a Wellness Coaching Program that is free for all students, faculty and staff at MU. The program is designed to help overcome issues such as stress, time management, sleep and other aspects of living well with the help of a wellness coach.
The program puts an emphasis on keeping track of your responsibilities and setting time aside to take care of them. Nolte says they give participants a time sheet, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., to write down everything they need to get done and set priorities. Students rank their priorities and responsibilities: class, work, exercise and other activities. The time sheet helps them see where they can condense things to set free time to relax.
“I know it might sound funny, but set time in your schedule to have fun,” Nolte says.
Along with the time sheet, Wellness Coaching includes a “time management matrix,” a grid based on Stephen Covey’s book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” that helps organize your priorities and get things done.
The grid is set up into four quadrants. Above the grid, the first column says “Urgent” and the second is for “Non-Urgent” needs. To the side of the grid, the top and bottom columns are listed as “Important” and “Not Important.” This helps organize everything you need to get done and when to do it by breaking them down into categories: quadrant one is for important and time-sensitive activities, quadrant two for long term important things, quadrant three for insignificant distractions and the fourth quadrant for things that aren’t time-sensitive or important.
This system helps get things done that need to be taken care of now, while still allowing you to focus on your goals.
_But what about people who are organized, manage their time and are still incredibly stressed out?_
Nolte recommended utilizing the progression relaxation exercise, a ten-minute-long exercise that pairs deep breathing with the tightening and relaxation of muscles. The resource center will teach the exercise to all students, faculty and staff as part of its stress reduction plan.
To do the exercise, you target a specific muscle group and apply tension to that part of the body while holding your breath. After holding the tension, you quickly relax the tense muscles and exhale deep breaths. This helps to decipher the difference between feeling relaxed and tense, and allows you to recognize and avoid oncoming stress. The exercise is particularly useful for academics, because ten minutes of relaxation are recommended for every hour of studying.
If you’re stressed out mid-week, there is a “Relaxation Station” in the center, located in the lower level of the Student Center. The station has massage chairs for 15-minute relaxation sessions and is open to all students, faculty, and staff Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Exercise is key to stress management, and Nolte says there are a lot of small things students can do to increase their physical activity without spending a lot of time.
“Exercise helps you focus and stay healthy, and there’s a lot of little things you can do like biking around town and taking the stairs instead of using elevators,” she says.
Most importantly, you need to make sure you’re not over-scheduling yourself. If you’re overly involved and can’t manage school, working and all of your other activities, you won’t have time to relax. Nolte recommends students look at on-campus and work-study jobs because they’re generally easier on schedules than off-campus jobs.
MU has many [resources](http://studenthealth.missouri.edu/services/healthpromotion/stressmanagement.html) for students to help manage their stress. The Student Health Center offers a one-credit “Integrative Restoration iRest Yoga Nidra” class, a Yoga for Stress Management class, an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, daily noon meditation, a Biofeedback for Stress Management program and mindful meditation and relaxation [videos](http://studenthealth.missouri.edu/services/healthpromotion/stressmanagement/audios.html).
