The last few weeks of any term can be stressful, but the end of spring term and the school year is often the most overwhelming because of projects, finals, moving, jobs and so on.
Yes, as college students, we know stress. We know what it’s like to have a cup of coffee at midnight, take caffeine pills or try disgusting energy drinks as a last resort. We know what it’s like to eat nothing but the fastest, cheapest meals for days on end, and what it’s like to not move from the same chair in the library for an entire weekend except to go to the bathroom and stock up on caffeine. But it doesn’t have to be this way — or at least this unfortunate. Try these five simple steps to living a life more free from stress and see how refreshed you feel afterward:
Exercise
Any form of exercise — yoga, a walk around the neighborhood or a bike race — can help get the blood pumping, the oxygen circulating and raise your sense of well-being. Exercise may be the last thing on your mind during the last few weeks of the school year, and you may think there’s no room in your schedule to cram it in, but even 20 minutes of moderate exercise can help ease stress and shorten the time it takes to write that paper or grasp that complicated theory.
Justine Halliwill, a yoga instructor at the University since 2003, recommends any type of exercise for students dealing with stress, but she suggested two easy yoga practices that are especially helpful.
“Sun salutations are fantastic,” Halliwill said, “because it’s really going to get the circulation going and help people to get centered.”
There are several variations of sun salutations, but to do a basic sun salutation, start standing upright with your feet hip-width apart, with your hands either together in front of your chest or at your sides.
Breathe deeply, and with an inhalation, sweep your hands overhead and arch back gently.
With the exhale, do a swan dive forward with your arms, bending at the hips and bringing your hands to rest beside your feet.
Inhale and send your right leg back into a lunge posture; exhale, step the left leg back and move into a position as if you were preparing to do a push up.
Hold the position, inhale, and on the exhale, lower the body from knees to chest to chin.
Inhale, and stretch your torso and head forward and up. On the exhale, lift your hips, push back with your arms and form an upside-down “V” with your body.
Stay there and breathe for a while before inhaling and stepping the right foot forward.
Exhale, bring the left foot forward and stay bent at the hips with your hands resting beside your feet. Inhale, reverse the swan dive you did earlier, bringing your hands up to the sky, arching back slightly.
Exhale, lower your arms to your sides or up into prayer position.
Repeat, lunging backwards with the left leg this time.
Halliwill also suggests the Reclined Spinal Twist for relieving stress.
“It squeezes all the different muscles and organs and tissues in the body,” she said. “And if you’re holding all that stress and you go into a spinal twist, it’s going to help release it.”
To do a Reclined Spinal Twist, lie on your back and breathe. Extend your arms out to each side and cross your right foot over your left knee, resting the foot flat to the left of the knee.
Breathe deeply, and repeat on the other side.
Breathe
It may seem too simple or too obvious, but breathing is important when it comes to most things, including stress reduction. Taking the time to be aware of your breath can make a big difference while studying or trying to figure out what to do next.
“Just stop and take time to connect with some deep breathing. One of my favorite techniques is Ujjayi, or constricted throat breath,” Halliwill said, explaining, “You pretend that you’re fogging up a mirror or your sunglasses and you constrict your throat on both the inhalation and exhalation.”
Halliwill did a study a few years ago and found that Ujjayi breathing actually reduces blood pressure, so it’s certainly a good exercise to try when anxiety kicks in.
Sleep
Rest is always essential and is key to quality work and successful test taking, but between caffeine and the litany of things on our to-do lists, getting to sleep is often one of the most challenging parts of being a student.
“When you’re so stressed out, and trying to figure out how to sleep and study for finals and write papers and all of that, it can be pretty overwhelming,” Halliwill said.
She suggests students try another breathing technique that many of her students have found very beneficial. It’s simple, too: When going to bed, focus on your breath and exhale twice as long as you inhale. For example, count to two while inhaling, then count to four while exhaling. This is a good technique to try year-round and takes time to practice, but is extremely helpful for those who have a hard time sleeping.
“If students practice for a week, they’ll start seeing the benefits, having an easier time getting to sleep, and they’ll actually wake up feeling more refreshed,” Halliwill said.
For better rest, also try to avoid caffeine as much as possible, especially in the afternoon, and try to transition slowly from work to sleep instead of going directly from one to the other without calming your mind first.
Balance
Finding balance may seem impossible during the end of the school year, but it’s only three
minutes away.
If you’re having a hard time deciding what to do next, try making a list or a schedule to organize your priorities. This may sound like something from middle school, but it’s surprisingly helpful. It takes only a few minutes to make a basic list with everything you need to do, their due dates and their priority level, and it gets all of that mess out of your scrambling brain so you can focus and remain clear.
If you still can’t prioritize because there’s just too much on your plate, Halliwill recommends
balancing postures.
“With a tree pose or just standing on one foot in general, you’re going to have to have a quiet, calm mind in order to balance on the body, so it works reciprocally,” she said. “And then it becomes clearer to the person who’s practicing the balance of, ‘Okay, so what is my next immediate step?’”
For tree pose, start standing with your feet together and arms at your sides. Bend the right leg, lifting the sole of the right foot as high up on the inside of the left leg as possible without becoming uncomfortable. While balancing on the left foot, bring both arms over the head and join the palms together. Hold the position and breathe before slowly releasing and repeating with the opposite leg.
Eat
Just like sleeping and breathing, eating can seem like a ridiculous part of life to focus on when there are so many other, larger things going on. But the basics are what inform the more complicated tasks we complete, so three meals a day of junk food, or worse — no food — just won’t do it when you’re under a lot of stress at the end of term. There are certain foods that are not only comfort foods, but are good for you, as well, according to RealAge.com, a Web site informed by an advisory board of six top doctors and scientists from across the country, including the famous Dr. Oz.
Berries, full of antioxidants that protect our cells, are a good alternative to candy and other foods that help relieve tension in the jaw and mouth. RealAge suggests rolling a frozen berry around in your mouth to ease stress because the low carbohydrates in berries keep you from a blood-sugar crash later.
Other comfort foods that come with extra benefits include guacamole, wit
h avocados full of vitamin B, one of the most important vitamins for nerve and brain cell health; walnuts, brazil nuts and almonds, which have vitamin B, zinc, and vitamin E, respectively, and are all good for stressed-out cells; oranges, which provide a burst of vitamin C and the chance to take a break and focus on peeling instead of studying; and dark chocolate, with delicious antioxidant flavonoids that fight cancer and heart disease.
Follow these five simple steps and tasks will likely feel a lot more doable. The end of the year is almost here, and summer awaits. Stress is, unfortunately, something that comes with being a student. But part of the college experience is learning, in addition to all the academic stuff, what techniques work best for you for reducing stress during overwhelming weeks such as the ones coming up.
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