Things to Help With Stress

Stress is your body's way of preparing for a difficult situation. When you are faced with challenges, your body releases adrenaline and glucose to give you energy; increases blood flow to your muscles to ready them for action; sweats to cool you down; and dilates your pupils to improve your vision. But long-term stress can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure and blood clots. Managing your stress will help you remain healthy, both physically and mentally.

Take Care of Your Body

• Stress may leave you feeling overwhelmed. Your life may seem too busy for you to take care of your body, but don't fall into this trap. Eating and sleeping poorly can leave you tired and irritable--and even less equipped to deal with stress.

  When you're stressed, it's even more important to take time to sleep seven to eight hours a day, so that you're well-rested and ready for the tasks ahead. It also helps to eat a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins and minerals, rather than relying on fast food or forgetting to eat altogether. Finally, regular exercise keeps your body in shape and helps relieve the effects of stress.

Schedule Relaxing Activities

• Your body has a natural antidote to stress: the relaxation response, during which your body releases chemicals to calm you down and counteract the energizing effects of stress. It's important to schedule relaxing activities in order to give your body some down time and let your relaxation response work.

  Relaxing activities vary from person to person. One activity that may help is performing simple breathing exercises. You may want to hang out with friends, read a book or take a bubble bath. No matter how you relax, make sure you purposely set aside time to unwind each day so your stress becomes less overwhelming.

Address the Cause

• Relaxing and taking care of yourself will make you better able to deal with stress, but only understanding the cause of the stress--or stressor--can help you make it go away entirely.

  Once you have identified the cause of the stress, determine how to address it. You may be able to remove the cause of the stress: for example, by dropping a class with a high workload. You may also be better able to find a strategy to deal with the stress: for example, by talking to a professor about difficult material so it feels less overwhelming.

  Sometimes the stressor is something you can't change. For example, a difficult boss may cause stress at your job, but if another job isn't readily available you can't just leave. But even if this is the case, understanding the cause of your stress can help you avoid it as much as possible and become better attuned to when you need to relax.