Stress Management

As the semester progresses and more and more assignments, tests, and deadlines creep up on you, it is likely you may start feeling a little stressed out. Pressures, expectations, time constraints…these are all fuel to your stress fire, but don’t let these get you down! There are many healthy and effective ways to deal with the stressful situations you may find yourself in throughout your time in grad school and they all begin with change: either changing the situation or changing your reaction to it. Rather than allowing stress to define your graduate years, try out some of the following techniques for managing stress. After all, how well you deal with stress will help determine how satisfied you are with your graduate experience!

1. Identify your sources of stress. Ask yourself what exactly it is that causes stress in your life – academic issues? personal issues? financial issues? Try and pinpoint your sources of stress to know what needs to be addressed, what needs to change, and what needs to be avoided.
2. Avoid unnecessary stress. Determine what sources of stress may be under your own control and aim to control the “controllables”, i.e. avoid persons and environments that stress you out.
3. Anticipate stressful events and plan ahead. Pare down your to-do list to distinguish between what “I’d like to do” and what “I must do” in your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. It can be helpful to transform any that you possibly can into "I'll do my best to get as much as possible done, and I'll start on the most important first". Set priorities, deadlines, and timelines to reach your targets and try to build in extra time for unexpected events or to catch up.
4. Alter your mindset. Keep things in perspective – avoid catastrophic thinking and instead focus on what the most important thing to do right now is.
5. Alter the situation. If you cannot avoid a situation, try to alter it. Figure out what you can do to change things to prevent the problem from presenting itself again in the future. This often involves changing how you communicate and operate in your daily life (i.e. being more willing to compromise, being more assertive, etc.).
6. Adapt to the stressor. If you cannot change the stressor, change yourself. Adapt to the stressful situation and regain your sense of control by changing your expectations and attitude (i.e. reframe the problem, adjust your standards, focus on the positive, etc.).
7. Accept the things you can’t change. Accept that there will always be challenging circumstances and what is, is. Some sources of stress are unavoidable and although acceptance may be difficult, in the long run it is easier than railing against circumstances you cannot change. 
8. Adopt a healthy lifestyle. You can increase your resistance to stress by strengthening your physical health. Exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, ensure you get enough sleep, or try some relaxation techniques.
9. Make yourself a priority. Take time out of every day and every week to focus on YOU. Take time out of your schedule for fun and relaxing activities because in doing so, you will be better prepared to handle life’s stressors when they inevitably come. Stress research tells us that those who take 20 minutes every day to do something just for themselves are less stressed than those who do not!
10. Look for social support. Friends and family are a great source of empathy and emotional support. Also try speaking with students who are further along in your program or professors who can offer advice, because they too have been in your shoes at one time or another!

To learn more about these tips and other approaches to Stress Management, please check out the information that the University of Guelph has to offer at the following link:

www.uoguelph.ca/~ksomers or contact Kathy Somers directly at ksomers@uoguelph.ca. Also be sure to check out the Stress Smart blog at http://stresssmartuog.wordpress.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/StressSmart.

This post was adapted from HelpGuide.org’s ‘Stress Management’ by Melinda Smith and Robert Segal (http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm), Queen’s University’s ‘Quick Tips – Managing Stress at Grad School’ (http://queensu.ca/learningstrategies/grad/stress.html), University of Health Services – Tang Centre at UC Berkeley’s ‘Dealing with Stress in Grad School’ (http://uhs.berkeley.edu/bewell/grad%20student%20stress.pdf), and Michigan State University’s ‘Stress’ (http://grad.msu.edu/wellness/emotional/stress.aspx).