Looking at this survey on stress levels, what are your answers when reading the questions? As a 6th year college student, there are times when I felt I couldn’t overcome my anxiety with the responsibilities I had obligated myself to. Results from a recent study show that even when students were given coping strategies for stress, they disregarded them and preferred an avoidant style of coping. 25% of participants shared that they just “did something that makes me feel good” (Goodenough & McCrea, 2022).
Now: this is VALID and we deserve comfort (dinner with loved ones, a good tv show, video games, etc), BUT! the stress will never go away if we always choose to avoid it. The hardest choice is “changing our behaviors to directly reduce the stressor” or to challenge your inner thought process about the stress (Goodenough & McCrea, 2022).
Even if you cannot change your immediate situation, there will always (ALWAYS) be action steps you can take to change where you are now – even if it takes weeks/months to start seeing a difference. THIS. IS. DISCIPLINE. IT HURTS. It makes your brain feel tired. But it’s a muscle, and you have to exercise it if you truly want to build the life you want. You were meant to read this, in this moment: keep going, run as fast as you can towards the best version of yourself.
This article was inspired by some weight on my shoulders as I continued to write my graduate school applications – quite literally determining the next 3 years of my future. I wanted to sit on my couch, scroll through twitter, and avoid the work. About 4 hours have passed, I knocked out what I needed to do, and here I am writing this post now.
Survey and quotes from a student researcher at Boise State University, citation below.
Goodenough, O. & McCrea, C. (2022). Acute Stress in Honors Students, Idaho Conference of Undergraduate Research.