Mindful Tools for Stress Management (self -study)

What is stress?

Stress is an emotional experience in which a person feels him/herself incapable of surviving all the demands and challenges in his/her life. Stress is a normal response when we feel that we are under too much pressure. Different people can feel stressed in different kind of situations. The way a person interprets the situation affects the level of stress experienced.

Both pleasant and unpleasant events can cause stress. For example, moving to a new city or getting married are generally considered as stressful events even though they may be nice events in our lives. Often we feel stressed when something is changing in our life and we need to adapt to changes. Stress can be beneficial for us at times and give us an energy boost which helps us to achieve our best potential e.g. in exams. Still, chronic stress is harmful as it makes us less efficient and may lead to burn out.

Signs and symptoms of stress

The signs of stress vary from person to person. Common emotional signs of stress are for example feeling anxious, frustrated, irritable or unhappy. Our thoughts are also affected by stress.While we are stressed, our thoughts may be racing or be very negative and critical. Stress affects also our creativity by making us less capable to invent new complex solutions. While we are stressed it can also be harder to concentrate.

The physical changes of stress are linked to our ancient survival strategy, called the fight-or-flight response. This means that our body is prepared to fight or flee the danger at hand. That is why stress hormones are released in our body and our sympathetic nervous system is activating. These changes make our heart pound faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rise, breath quicken, and senses become sharper. In emergency situations, these physical changes can be very beneficial, giving us extra strength to defend ourselves. However, if the stress continues and this emergency state becomes chronic, it can be harmful for your health. There are a variety of physical symptoms that chronic stress may cause for example headache, high blood pressure, tension in neck, heart palpitation and frequent colds.

What helps with stress / How to deal with stress?

To relieve stress, it is important to take care of yourself and give your mind and body a chance to recover. Recovery gives you new energy. You can compare it to loading the battery of your mobile phone. Recovery makes you more productive and enhances your learning ability. It is essential to have recovering moments during your study days but also to have time to recover in the evening and during the weekends.

On the psychological level, recovery means detachment from the sources of stress. Doing something you consider relaxing helps you to recover. Practicing new skills or doing something you feel you are good at also improves recovery. For many people, hobbies can give these kinds of experiences. Spending time with your friends and family also enhances your recovery from studying and work and decreases your stress.

For physical recovery, good sleep is crucial. While we are sleeping, our brains go through all the events that happened during the day. Meanwhile, important information moves to our long term memory. That’s why sleep plays such a big role in learning. In addition to sleep, physical activity is also beneficial for our recovery and helps relieve stress. Physical activity doesn’t necessarily have to be high-intensity sports with sweating. Less intense physical activity, such as walks in the forest are good for us too. Our body needs relaxing moments and rest as well. Lunch break with friends or short walk outside are good examples of recovering breaks during a study day.  

Feeling stressed because there are too many things to do? Being organized and managing your time and energy may also help with stress. Choosing how you want to spend your time, prioritizing and learning how to say no are skills that you can practice. In addition, setting realistic goals and breaking goals to small tasks may help when your assignments feel overwhelming.

References:

Terveyskirjasto
YTHS, neuvontapsykologi Marja Koskinen
Mielenterveysseura
Työterveyslaitos
NHS Stress self-help guide