Stress

Stress is something that all college students deal with. For me, it has become a part of my everyday life. There are many things in my life that cause me stress. So since this weeks topic was stress, I thought it might help to first identify the top 3 things in my life that cause me it. My list is as follows:
1. School/Grades/HW/Test
With the school year coming to end, I feel like all of my classes are getting tougher. Final projects and such are getting thrown at me in every class and I get SO stressed out when I feel overwhelmed.
2. Being in a sorority
Being in a sorority is extremely time consuming. I am always stressed out by all of the events we have to attend, and time we must spend at the house. I love being in a house, but it just gets stressful when you always have things to do on top of school.
3. My future
I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Especially with the Career/Major exploration project happening, I have realized that I'm still undecided and need to start seriously focusing on what I want to do.

So the strategy I tried this week was "10 Minute Vacation". I have a very short attention span, so I have found that strategies that include chunks or breaks are very beneficial to me. This week in PSY 205, I had a powerpoint presentation and outline due. I started with the powerpoint presentation. I would create two slides, and then take a 10 minute vacation. During this first break, I went to youtube.com and checked out some funny videos. This was really helpful because it took my mind off all of the work I still had to do. I worked hard, and then got to treat myself. Then after the 10 minutes was up, I went back to working on my powerpoint for another two slides, and repeated these steps till my work was finished! Since I am a visual learner, I really enjoyed the 10 minute breaks because I got to take my mind off my work and focus on something visually appealing. I finished my outline in the exact same way. I would work out a paragraph or two, then take a 10 minute vacation on one of the websites. Youtube was my favorite because I find it the most entertaining.

Because I found the 10 minute vacation so useful, I decided to try it in MAT 121 as well. We had an exam on Tuesday, and I really needed to spend a lot of time studying for it. I would study for an hour, and then treat myself with a 10 minute vacation to youtube again. I found my stress level was greatly reduced by doing this because I would be so focused on my work, and then I would get to have a brainless 10 minutes where I had nothing to focus on but funny videos. I am definitely going to keep up with this strategy for the remainder of the year.

I learned a lot of great ways to relieve stress this week. My stress level has gone down immensely, and I hope it stays that way. If I just remember to breathe, and use the strategies we learned in class, then I know I'll be living a stress free life in no time!