All of us will have to take exams at some point during the school year, and – like me – I suspect others have been facing stress, and not knowing how to cope with it.
Sometimes, stress can be a good thing: it’s what gets you to wake up in the morning, and do tasks like your homework. It’s when there’s too much stress that a problem occurs – too much stress can get you to panic and not be able to focus.
To cope with stress, you need to just take a break sometimes, where you’re not procrastinating, but rather, reading a book, grabbing a quick snack, or just doing something that relaxes you. Another helpful technique is having a study plan, because that can help reduce stress (knowing you have something to follow and less to work out.) It’s also important to teach yourself that it’s okay if you missed an assignment, or couldn’t complete a task when you had planned to. Something that helps me with my anxiety is counting backwards with my eyes closed. This is really useful and it helps me a lot, so I recommend trying it sometime.
Stress can be caused by numerous things, like exams and tests, meeting new people, or random things in general. The two most important things to know are what the cause of your stress is, and how to deal with it.
Solutions
- You need to make sure you get enough sleep. This is very important, because a lack of sleep can have a very negative effect on you and your brain, so stress levels can rise.
- If you’re feeling stressed, consider talking to a parent, guardian, or any other trusted adult.
- Don’t study too much or put a lot of pressure on yourself: this will make your stress levels rise and will prevent you from concentrating when you need to, but will just keep on adding to your pressure and stress.
- Light a candle; this can get you to calm down a bit and feel relaxed.
- Exercise! This helps so much and is one of the best techniques.
- Chew gum (not at school, though – that’s against the rules!)
- Try not to spend too much time on social media.
- Try doing some riddles on YouTube, or listen to calming music.
Stress can have a really negative impact on us: it can stop us from focusing, it can mess with our emotions, it can cause trouble sleeping, and can cause headaches.
A setting that helps a lot when stressed is having a candle lit and listening to calming music while doing something that relaxes you.
Stress can be rough, and while some people work best under pressure, others don’t. Stress can be caused very easily, so if you get stressed somewhere and can’t try some of these techniques, then just try counting backwards. Actually, do it now! Count backwards, and remember not to put too much pressure on yourself.
