How to move past stress
It鈥檚 official: syllabus week is over. Now what? As we approach mid-semester, you may begin to feel the stresses of an increased workload and added responsibilities outside of school. Here are some tips to help you move past the stress.
Give yourself a reality check
What things in your life feel overwhelming? Write out a list of everything on your mind. This could include things like upcoming tests, projects, job stress or relationship issues.
Listing your stressors out on paper will allow you to be more mindful about what is truly causing you to feel overwhelmed. It鈥檚 also okay to take a deep breath, step away and come back to your list at a later time. Being mindful doesn鈥檛 always bring a sense of calm or bliss 鈥 it can actually be quite uncomfortable. In the end, though, it鈥檚 important to be present and understand all the things that are going on in your life that may be causing unneeded stress in order to move forward.
Be honest about how your list makes you feel (anxious, tired, excited, etc.). Acknowledge those feelings and remind yourself that they are temporary. Ask yourself why these things make you feel that way. For instance, if the most stressful item on your list is an assignment, ask yourself why. Maybe it feels like there鈥檚 too much to do and not enough time to do it, maybe you鈥檙e feeling stuck or are confused about the directions. Once you鈥檝e determined the causes of stress for the items on your list, start breaking them down into smaller tasks to tackle. It could be as simple as going to your professor鈥檚 office hours, doing a half hour of research or writing an intro paragraph.
Prioritize your needs
When we feel overwhelmed, even simple things can take a hit. Check in with yourself using HALT: are we Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? If you answer yes to any of those, take care of those needs first.
Imagine you鈥檙e feeling hungry, but you decide to put off eating in order to study longer. In the long run, this will likely cause more stress. You鈥檒l get hungrier, and the last stretch of work may become unbearable or you鈥檒l start to lose focus. If you鈥檙e tired, your priority should be getting some rest even if it means that you鈥檙e not able to finish an assignment until tomorrow. Pushing ourselves to the limits and ignoring our basic needs is a quick way to experience burnout, which could slow us down even more. Taking care of yourself will not only help you, but it will also empower you to accomplish the other items on your list.
Do the next right thing
Sam Randall, program manager at the CU Collegiate Recovery Center (CUCRC), understands that when things pile up it can leave us feeling at a loss. If you鈥檙e looking at your list, your mind is racing or you鈥檙e feeling overwhelmed, Sam suggests focusing on the 鈥渘ext right thing鈥.
This means focusing on the next simple step that is going to move us forward. Sometimes that means dealing with your basic needs (HALT); other times it means tackling one of the items on your list.
If the next right thing feels too hard to pin down, check in with yourself again. What feels the most overwhelming? Can you break it down into pieces? Can you tackle a small piece of it right now? Most importantly, have you done a HALT check-in and taken care of your basic needs?
Repeating this check-in process any time you鈥檙e feeling overwhelmed can help you identify the next right thing.
Get support
Everyone goes through periods of stress. Reach out to your support system for help or try out one of these workshops from Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) to get you started.