The Mind-Body Interconnection of College: Stress

As college students, we all inevitably experience stress due to everyday occurrences. While briefly looking through the Psychology 1001 textbook I stumbled upon chapter 12, titled Stress, Coping, and Health. Stress is a type of response that we as humans experience, consisting of the tension and discomfort caused by a situation called a stressor. A stressor is a type of stimulus that strains us from coping effectively to a situation.These situations range over a broad spectrum; stress can be experienced around the time of holidays when extra preparations are a part of the tradition. However, something as emotionally-altering as a divorce or death of a spouse expends very high levels of stress and tends to have a huge responsive impact. Thankfully there are various ways of coping with different levels of stress including social support through interactions with people, adjust coping strategies as the situation demands, differences in individuality, and flexible coping. In order for one to decrease their stress levels, a good place to start is by promoting good health. Quit smoking if you are a smoker, limit alcohol consumption, achieve a healthy weight, and exercise. These four healthy behaviors can benefit an individual immensely in relation to stress levels. And if you are feeling overwhelmed with some of your classwork or other occurrences in your life, take a moment to relax. Listen to some soothing music, it can work wonders!