Just as with any other area of your life, at times you’ll be feeling stressed or under pressure during your college studies. Here’s how to prevent stress from affecting you too much, and how you can sometimes use stress to your advantage.

As a student, you can experience stress in a number of different ways. It could be caused by improper time management; procrastination; battling to get to grips with study material; financial reasons or an exam that you’re feeling nervous about. In most of these scenarios, the most important factor for controlling stress is this one thing…

Proper preparation

In fact many of life’s stresses stem from being unprepared to deal with them.

  • Worried that you’re going to fail the exam you’ve spent all of the previous night studying for? The chances are good that you didn’t start studying early enough, or that you didn’t stick to a study schedule.
  • Stressed that you’re going to be unable to pay for your studies? Perhaps you didn’t work out your budget beforehand, or you spent money on unnecessary luxuries that have now left you out of pocket.

This isn’t to say that there may be alternative reasons for the above two situations. You may have been seriously ill in the weeks before the exam, or some unavoidable, emergency expenses may have come up. But these are exceptions to the rule. In these cases, your college will likely be able to accommodate you if you can produce the required proof.

More commonly, the stress will have been caused by something that was under your control. Make sure that you are properly prepared for your studies, financially, mentally and physically.

Other ways to deal with stress…

Don’t go it alone

Where do you turn to when it feels like stress is overwhelming you? It’s important to have a good support structure in place to help you through times like these. Make sure that you take advantage of whatever support your college offers to students. An accredited college should be offering student support in the form of tutors and other staff.

Another good way of getting support is to seek out students that are studying the same course as you. You can then look at forming a study group with them so that you can all help each other through your studies.

Learn anxiety management techniques

Anxiety can be highly upsetting and can severely affect the proper functioning of your brain. Learn some techniques that can calm you down when you feel like your anxiety is getting the best of you. There are numerous breathing techniques and meditations out there that are effective at slowing your heart rate and calming both your body and mind. Consider downloading an app such as Insight Timer, which offers hundreds of relaxing meditations to try out.

Use the stress as motivation

Everyone experiences stress, and you will have to accept that you will definitely feel stressed out at some stages of your life. Instead of viewing the stress as something negative, you can see it as a signal that you need to take action. When you take action to solve the issues that are stressing you out, you start improving the areas of your life that need attention.  So next time you’re feeling completely stressed out about your studies, use this feeling to keep you motivated to work harder and overcome the obstacles facing you!

Also Read: