Students deal with a lot of stress related to their classes. That stress can oftentimes be related to homework outside of class, which impacts students’ lives in general.
“I spend so much time stressed about everything that I have to do that it causes me to not be able to enjoy the rest of my life,” said Isaiah Simpson, junior political science and biology major. “I end up feeling guilty about spending time for myself instead of spending time doing things for class.”
Rumi Mamenari, graduate student in forensic science, attributed the stress to the overlapping of assignment and test due dates.
“I feel like my performance in the class will go down,” Mamenari said.
The Student Wellness Center tends to see more people coming in for stress around midterms and finals as well, according to Sally Crawford-Fowler, the director of counseling at the student wellness center. Stress and motivation work closely with one another.
“Some stress in our life is important so that we get our stuff done,” Crawford-Fowler said. “But we’ll hit a peak, where if our stress continues increasing our motivation will go back to zero.”
Crawford-Fowler recommends avoiding procrastination as a preventative measure for stress. This way students can avoid becoming overwhelmed or prevent reaching the peak of stress and motivation.
“If you avoid those things you need to do, you may feel okay at the moment but it’s just going to increase your stress later,” Crawford-Fowler said.
However, sometimes procrastination happens or students will fall behind despite their efforts. Crawford-Fowler suggests relaxation techniques if students feel overwhelmed, and recommended students look into Emporia State University’s Biofeedback website.
“If you go into the emporia.com search engine just type in Biofeedback,” Crawford-Fowler said.
She also recommended taking a walk or doing things such as breathing exercises to help reduce stress and anxiety as well.
“All of those kinds of things are going to help,” Crawford- Fowler said. “As long as you, like I said, keep it in a good balance so you are still getting stuff done.”
