Coping With Stress
April 28, 2023
While working on a project in my Human Behavior class I realized just how many stressors there are. There’s so many things that can stress a person out (especially in high school). Deadlines, college, SATS, the future, and failure are just a few common stressors that teenagers deal with.
In the Human Behavior class offered at Ewing High, Mr. Ballek defined stress as “the perceived inability to cope”. Everyone experiences stress and everyone has different ways that they handle it.
When you’re stressing over something it’s easy to forget that you need rest and it’s easy to feel like everything’s out of your control. However, no matter what, it’s important to remember that this is your life and you’re the one in control.
Some ways to cope with stress include coloring, meditating, exercising, sleeping, and more. There’s other methods that are less healthy like “rotting in bed”, withdrawing from loved ones, and overworking yourself.
When you’re stressed out and overwork yourself it’s easy to burn yourself out, which is extremely damaging to your mental health. Keep reading for more information on positive coping methods and why they work!
Coloring relaxes the fear center in your brain and allows you to relax and be creative. It’s an amazing way to destress because YOU are the one in control. You get to choose the picture and the colors that you use.
Coloring allows you to practice mindfulness without meditating which is amazing because many people can’t focus enough to meditate. It allows you to focus on what you’re doing rather than what’s stressing you out, and when you do it before bed it allows you to get a better good night’s sleep.
Sleeping can help you destress because it allows you to stop thinking for a minute and just lets you relax. It’s important to get plenty of rest or else you will be annoyed, irritable, and cranky throughout the day which isn’t good when you’re already stressed.
Exercising is a good way to cope with stress too because it allows you to put your focus on something else while also being productive at the same time. It’s important to note that exercising doesn’t have to be lifting weights or anything extra like that. It can just be a simple walk/run/jog around the block just to relax you and allow you to feel the stress float away.
While meditating isn’t for everyone and it’s continually introduced in classes and around the school, it’s important to still talk about it. While meditating may seem boring or may be a difficult thing for you to do, you should still give it a go. Meditating allows the mind to relax and allows you to let go of all other thoughts/distractions.
You don’t have to meditate for a long period of time in order for you to see the benefits. Once you start meditating and actually TRYING in your meditation, you’re going to love it and find it as a good tool in taking care of yourself. When you meditate you practice mindfulness and you become more in tune with your body and soul. Try it out and you may surprise yourself with the results! There’s a series on Netflix entitled “Headspace Guide to Meditation” that guides you through meditation with each episode. It’s a great way to begin meditating.
My advice would be to really just focus on finding what works best for you and always remember that you got this. Life will get better and the stress will go away, you’re capable of important things, and you will achieve your goals. Try some of these methods or if you know another method let us know! If one of these or multiple of these methods work for you then recommend them to a loved one. You never know when someone is super stressed and needs something to help!