Student life can be very stressful, some may describe it as an emotional roller coaster. But the one thing you should know is that you are not the first nor will you be the last, many students go through this stage during university years and you should also know that there are ways to beat it.

Exercise

Get rid of the idea that exercise should only be done with the intention of losing weight, exercise is just as much for the brain and moral as it for the body. You don’t need to go to the gym and suffer through an hour-long class to see the results, simply running 30 minutes each day can already brighten your mind.

Being outside your home or the office, standing up from hunching over your desk and committing to something will help you get your mind of all your worries and concerns. Having a moment to yourself during which you can see nature and you can just clear your thoughts.

Time management

Running out is one of the most stressful things in life and no doubt you are always going to be running out of time for something, but some minor time management techniques might offer you a little more wiggle room, especially if you are enrolled in a dual degree program in science and business.

Start by creating a written (writing something down instead of typing it on a computer has proven to work better) work schedule where you break your tasks down from urgent to not so urgent and add as many steps as you want the trick is that it will give you a visual of what needs to be done with deadline dates and go from there. The most important until the least.

Organise

Indeed, life is full of ups and downs and you never know what is coming your way so your ability to organise is of prime importance. Just like time management a visual representation helps a lot and you will actually notice that organisation frees up a lot of your time.

When you organise, you are not only deciding when to do things, you should also be finding better ways to optimise your time. As a student, you have many things going on in your lives that you don’t want to miss out on and just a little organisation could save you so much time. But also having an organised life means having time to deal with unexpected problems.

Cognitive behavioural therapy

This psychological approach teaches us to cope with stress by explaining that sometimes what one conceives as a problem is actually only a challenge. With this change of perspective, you are able to think about your problems as what they are: temporary obstacles which can be resolved and act accordingly.

This way you will not be so drained with the idea that everything around you is a problem. Of course, there are problems and there are obstacles. But this can be surmounted; it is just a matter of organising your solutions and thinking about the different outcomes and thinking through ways of managing these problems. 

Talk to someone

Having confidence is also very important; surround yourself with people you can be genuine with and actually talk about your worries.

It is very important you are able to speak to someone who knows you enough that they know where you are coming from but also is impartial enough to give you an honest opinion. These types of relationships do take a while to build but they often start during university years so look out for them. 

Takeaway

These are a few examples that have been proven to be very efficient to combat stress, not only during university but also throughout our lives. It is a good idea to get into these habits while at university and stick to them.

Being a young adult can be stressful; it’s a time for critical decisions but you should also know that you will always be the master of what you do and there is nothing wrong with making a mistake and you can always try something else. You are never stuck to one thing.

***

Image credit: Freepik

Athena Barris works for HousingAnywhere, a housing platform where people can rent out rooms to international students.