This document discusses stress management techniques for college students. It notes that stress can be caused by obstacles to goals, environmental changes, life challenges, and transitions. While some stress is positive and motivating, too much stress becomes negative over time. The document recommends adopting a wellness lifestyle with healthy eating, physical activity, sufficient sleep, social support, time management, financial management, and spirituality to help manage stress. Specific stress reduction techniques include relaxation exercises, reframing irrational thoughts, managing warning signs of stress, and developing proactive stress management habits. Websites with relaxation resources are also provided.

1. Stress Management and Relaxation
Techniques
Lunch and Learn
Student Success

2. College Students and Stress
• Stress:
• Stress is a physical and psychological reaction to issues and events
emanating from one's environment
• Stress can be caused by:
• Perceived obstacles to goal achievement
• Environmental change
• Life challenges
• Periods of significant transition
• All of us experience stress on a regular basis
• Most of this stress is actually positive- serving to motivate us
• Like most things in excess, too much stress is negative
• Excessive stress usually develops over a period of time and often goes
unnoticed by the individual until a physical or emotional toll has been
exacted.

3. Negative Stress vs. Positive Stress
 Negative stress = perceiving
challenges as
dangerous, difficult, unfair;
thinking you lack the resources to
cope with it
 HOWEVER-Stress can be positive
too!
 For example: Getting married
brings both stress and excitement
 Stress management = finding the
right types and amounts of stress
(based on each individual) so you
can maximize your performance
and satisfaction

4. A Wellness Lifestyle Approach
•Stress is a part of life, but the healthier you are, the
better able you are to manage stress when it happens
•Chronic stress can impact your immune
system, which increases your chances of getting sick
•Approaching stress management from a wellness
lifestyle approach can:
•Prevent stress
• Give you the energy you need to handle stress when
it happens

5. A Wellness Lifestyle Approach
•Healthy Eating
•Eating well will:
• Increase your stamina
• Boost your immune system
• Help maintain a healthy weight
•Physical Activity
Just 20-30 minutes of exercise a day can:
•Give you more energy
•Improve your sleep
•Sharpen your mental productivity
•Sleep
•Consistent sleep is critical for a healthy life.
•We all need varying amounts of sleep
• If we do not get enough sleep, it effects every aspect of our lives

6. Stress Reduction
•Healthy Relationships
•Support from friends/family
•Avoid social isolation
•Communication
•Time Management
•Reduces stress
•Increases productivity
•Makes life more enjoyable
•Money Management
•Plan out a budget and stick to it
•Know what your school expenses are and how you will cover them
•Spirituality
•Finding personal meaning in your life

7. Refuting Irrational Ideas
 Negative ideas and negative self-
talk can skew a person’s beliefs
about themselves and the world
around them
 A person’s thoughts influence
his/her feelings, physical
sensations, and behaviors
 Surrounding yourself with
negative ideas = unhappiness and
stress

8. Steps to Refuting Irrational Ideas…
 Pick a situation that consistently generates stress
within you:
 Write the facts of the event
 Include only objective facts
 Write down your self talk
 State all subjective value judgments
 Focus on your emotional response
 (ex: “angry,” “worthless,” “depressed,” “afraid,” etc.)
 Dispute and change the irrational self talk
 Is there any rational support for this idea?
 Substitute alternative self talk
 Engage in rational thinking

9. Warning Signs
Too much stress can cause problems and affect our
health, productivity and relationships.
Warning Signs of Too Much Stress
Changes in sleep patterns
Changes in eating patterns
Frequent headaches
Shorter temper
Recurring colds and minor illness
Muscle ache and/or tightness
Increased Disorganization
Increased difficulty in task completion
A sense of persistent time pressure
Increased frustration and anger

10. Proactive Stress Management
It is no secret that psychological stress and physical illness are related.
Maintaining a balance between your intellectual, social, and personal
development is the key to a well adjusted college experience.
 Add a physical workout to your schedule at least every other day
Jog
Power walk
Swim, etc.
 Set both long term (this semester or this year) and short term (this
day or this week) goals.
 Manage your time
Make a schedule
 Follow the schedule

11. More on Proactive Stress Management
•Each day find twenty minutes of “alone time” to relax
•Always ask yourself if the issue at hand is worth getting
upset about
•Humor and positive thinking are important tools in
stress management.
•Communicate: Talk to a person you trust

12. Websites
Online Relaxation Exercises (most of these you can download!)
Arizona State University
http://vcc.asu.edu/relax/index.shtml
George Washington University (free IPOD downloads)
http://gwired.gwu.edu/counsel/PodCast/
Georgia Southern University
http://students.georgiasouthern.edu/counseling/relax/index.htm
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
http://www.hws.edu/studentlife/counseling_relax.aspx
Keene State College (click on topics & tools)
http://www.keene.edu/counseling/
Marquette University (“Other Resources”)
http://www.marquette.edu/counseling/anxiety.shtml
UCLA
http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22&oTopID=22
UNC – Chapel Hill
http://campushealth.unc.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=462&Itemid=95
Univ. of Missouri
http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/curators/wellness/mindfulness/guided.htm
Univ. of Texas: MindBody Lab
http://www.cmhc.utexas.edu/mindbodylab.html
Univ. of Texas: Diaphragmatic Breathing
http://cmhc.utexas.edu/stressrecess/Level_Two/breathing.html
Univ. of Texas: Progressive Muscle Relaxation
http://cmhc.utexas.edu/stressrecess/Level_Two/progressive.html

13. Relax Your Mind
and Body