Academic stress management strategies

1. Academic Stress Management
Strategies
By
Dr.Shazia Zamir

2. Daily Relaxation
• Deep breathing…………………
• Sit in a comfortable position
with your feet on the floor
and your hands in your lap
or lie down. Close your eyes.
• Picture yourself in a peaceful place. Perhaps you're lying
on the beach, walking in the mountains or floating in
the clouds. Hold this scene in your mind.
• Inhale and exhale. Focus on breathing slowly and
deeply.
• Continue to breathe slowly for few minutes .
• Try to take at least five to 10 minutes every day for deep
breathing or another form of relaxation.

3. Contents
• Academic stress
• Stress management education and awareness
• Healthy , proactive stress management
techniques.
• Role of teachers in reducing academic stress.

4. Objectives
• To provide stress management education and
awareness
• To increase use of healthy , proactive stress
management techniques.
• To minimize use of unhealthy stress management
techniques.
• To highlight the role of teachers
in reducing academic stress.

5. Academic + Stress
Academic---relating to life or work in schools, colleges,
and universities.
Stress is the body’s reaction to physical, chemical,
emotional, or environmental factors. These can range
from extreme, life-threatening situations to the simple
and everyday challenges of life.
Academic stress is known as
a lot of pressure that comes
along with pursuing a degree
and one's education.

6. Types Of Stress
• Bad Stress
Overwhelming and interrupts
the healthy state of equilibrium
• Good Stress
Creativity, learning
and your very survival…

8. Academic Pressure: Reasons & Causes

9. Factors of Academic Stress
Parental expectation
• Peer Pressure from neighbors and relatives
• Financial issues
• Job fear of children's
• Over-expectation
Faculty Or Institutions
• Result oriented expectations • Updating subjects • Students
mindset • Over load of other works • Job security
Students’perception • Procrastination • Family issues • Friends
issue • Interest toward subject • Distractions • Fear of
examinations

10. Factors of Academic Stress

16. Kinds of effects associated with the stressed state
1.Emotional effects
Anxiety, depression, psychological tension etc
2. Physiological effects
Shut-down of digestive system, Increased heart rate etc
3.Cognitive effects
Poor concentration, reduced
short term memory capacity etc
4. Behavioral effects
Increased absenteeism, disrupted sleep
patterns ,reduced academic performance etc

17. 17
An Activity
Events do not cause stress. Stress is
caused by our beliefs about the events.
Do you agree?

18. In stressful times what can we do as a
teacher?
• Teachers should keep in mind that the goal is not to eliminate
all stress but to help students develop a variety of skills to cope
with the negative aspects of stress.
• To assist students, faculty can recommend a number of
strategies:
• Set SMART goals
• Improving study habits/giving feedbacks
• learning positive self-talk
• Assess students who seem to be
experiencing psychological stress
• learning how to relax
• Add laughter to your classroom
• Teach students the art of reconceptualization
• Be realistic and not be over ambitious

19. Self-Management
Self-management – involves controlling or redirecting
one's disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to
changing circumstances.

20. Role of Teacher & Time Management
• Set goals & Establish priorities
• Spot the Time Wasters
unclear objectives
 Disorganizations
Interruptions
Inability to say no…etc
• Evaluate daily activities

21. 21
NO!!!

22. 22
YES!!!

23. Foods of Qur’an!
Dates Olives
Pomegranates Honey
Figs Milk
Bananas Grapes
Ginger Mustard seed
lentil Cucumber etc

24. Guidelines for developing a lifestyle
that reduces stress and worry
• Rest + ( guilt & worry ) = exhaustion
• Study + distraction = waste of time
• No rest = inability to study
• Study + too much effort = inability to study
• Rest – ( guilt & worry ) = reconstruction
• Study + right amount of effort = effective study
• Study + rest = effective study

25. How do you react to stress?
Do you tend to become angry, agitated, or keyed up?
meditation, deep breathing, or guided imagery etc
Do you tend to become depressed, withdrawn, or spaced out?
energize your nervous system by rhythmic exercise such as running,
walking, rowing, or cycling etc
Do you tend to freeze-speeding up internally, while slowing
down externally?
You need both safety and stimulation to help you “reboot” your
system. Techniques such as mindfulness walking or power yoga
(intense poses)might work well for you

26. Interpersonal relationship between
teacher and students
• Individual differences
• Johari window
• Multiple intelligences
• Learning styles
• Emotional intelligence
• Personality
• Locus of control
• ----------------------
• ---------

27. Open Area
(Height , colour,
occupation etc)
Blind Area
(A person who gets
angry easily but sees
himself very calm)
Hidden/Private
Area
(Past bad
experience , secrets
etc)
Unknown Area
If you have to go for
skydiving, your
reaction?
JOHARI Window
An Interpersonal Communication Model
KNOWN TO ME UNKNOWN TO ME
KNOWN
TO
OTHERS
UNKNOWN
TO
OTHERS

28. Open
Blind
Hidden
Avoided
Private
Unknown
Unconscious
When you share about yourself or self-disclose:
KNOWN TO ME UNKNOWN TO ME
KNOWN
TO
OTHERS
UNKNOWN
TO
OTHERS

29. Open
The ultimate goal of JW is
to enlarge the open area,
without disclosing
information that is too
Personal.
Blind
Hidden
Avoided
Private
Unknown
Unconscious
When you ask or receive feedback & self-disclose
KNOWN TO ME UNKNOWN TO ME
KNOWN
TO
OTHERS
UNKNOWN
TO
OTHERS

30. ___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
JOHARI Window: A Self-reflection Tool
KNOWN TO ME UNKNOWN TO ME
KNOWN
TO
OTHERS
UNKNOWN
TO
OTHERS

31. Multiple Intelligences

33. Note for teachers: Take learning styles test and armed with the
results of the test, sit down with your student and discuss some
new study tactics that take advantage of his or her strengths.

34. Goleman’s Model of Emotional Intelligence

35. What is your Locus of control?

36. Personality and stress
• The relatively stable and distinctive patterns of behavior that characterizes an
individual and his or her reactions to the environment.
• The Myer Briggs Type and Stress
• Identifies an individual’s personality preferences.
• Is based on an individual’s four preferences (or inclinations) for
certain ways of thinking and behaving:
• Extrovert (external focus, energy from people)
Introvert (internal focus)
• Sensing (rely on senses, practical, deal with facts)
Intuitive (dreamers, deal with ideas)
• Thinking (logical, analytical, think through decisions)
Feeling (emotional, decisions based on values)
• Judging (organization and order, work ahead of schedule)
Perceiving (spontaneous, work best at the last minute)

37. Scoring the Briggs-Myers
See in class!

38. Quranic verses for seeking knowledge
‫ي‬ ِّ‫ر‬ْ‫د‬َ‫ص‬ ‫ي‬ِّ‫ل‬ ْ‫ح‬َ‫ر‬ْ‫ش‬‫ا‬ ِّ‫ب‬َ‫ر‬
‫ي‬ ِّ‫ر‬ْ‫م‬َ‫أ‬ ‫ي‬ِّ‫ل‬ ْ‫ر‬ِّ‫س‬َ‫ي‬ َ‫و‬
‫ي‬ِّ‫ن‬‫ا‬َ‫س‬ِّ‫ل‬ ‫ن‬ِّ‫م‬ ً‫ة‬َ‫د‬ْ‫ق‬ُ‫ع‬ ْ‫ل‬ُ‫ل‬ْ‫اح‬ َ‫و‬
‫ي‬ِّ‫ل‬ ْ‫و‬َ‫ق‬ ‫وا‬ُ‫ه‬َ‫ق‬ْ‫ف‬َ‫ي‬“
O my Sustainer! Open up my heart and make my
task easy for me, and loosen the knot from my
tongue so that they might fully understand my
speech.” (Surah Taha (Chapter 20), verses 25-28)

39. Quranic verses for seeking knowledge
ِّ‫ب‬َّ‫ر‬‫ي‬ِّ‫ن‬ْ‫د‬ ِّ‫ز‬‫ا‬ً‫م‬ْ‫ل‬ِّ‫ع‬
• “O my Lord, increase me in knowledge!”
Surah Taha (Chapter 20), verse:114 (excerpted)
• ‫ي‬ِّ‫ن‬ْ‫ق‬ ِّ‫ح‬ْ‫ل‬َ‫أ‬ َ‫و‬ ‫ا‬ً‫م‬ْ‫ك‬ُ‫ح‬ ‫ي‬ِّ‫ل‬ ْ‫ب‬َ‫ه‬ ِّ‫ب‬ َ‫ر‬َ‫ين‬ ِّ‫ح‬ِّ‫ل‬‫ا‬َّ‫ص‬‫ال‬ِّ‫ب‬
َ‫ين‬ ِّ‫ر‬ ِّ‫خ‬ ْ‫اْل‬ ‫ي‬ِّ‫ف‬ ٍ‫ق‬ْ‫د‬ ِّ‫ص‬ َ‫ان‬َ‫س‬ِّ‫ل‬ ‫ي‬ِّ‫ل‬ ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬ْ‫اج‬ َ‫و‬
‫ي‬ِّ‫ن‬ْ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬ْ‫اج‬ َ‫و‬ِّ‫يم‬ِّ‫ع‬َّ‫ن‬‫ال‬ ِّ‫ة‬َّ‫ن‬َ‫ج‬ ِّ‫ة‬َ‫ث‬ َ‫ر‬ َ‫و‬ ‫ن‬ِّ‫م‬
• “My Lord, grant me wisdom, join me with the righteous;
give me a good name among later generations,; make me
one of those given the Garden of Bliss.”
Surah Ash-Shu’ara (Chapter 26), verses:83-85.

40. Stress Management Exercise
• Body Scan