Stress Management and Relief Techniques

As a senior graduating in May, I am especially under more stress than usual this semester. One of my issues, as I am sure many students have, is dealing with this stress. While staying organized and on top of your work will relieve some of your stress, no one is perfect and stress inevitably results. Some personal techniques I have for de-stressing are listening to music and working out for an hour at the gym. However, these my not work for everyone and they do not always work for me, so I felt I should have more techniques that I could use in addition to these two. I did some research and I thought I would share with you the techniques I found.

At www.healthed.uconn.edu/stressfree_zone.html you can find several stress management techniques such as the 3-2-1 relaxation technique. This technique allows you to relax your body more and more as you count down from 3 to 1. Another technique you can find on this site is a short breathing exercise where you focus on your breathing while thinking positive thoughts and tuning out distractions and stress. One other technique on this site is progressive relaxation and reflection where you put yourself in a place that relaxes you, then you move on to focusing on and controlling your breathing while relaxing your entire body, limb by limb. In addition to these, the Women's Center on campus offers techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation and massages free to students.

Other techniques I found include deep breathing, meditation, and guided imagery. As with anything, practice makes perfect and the more you practice your stress management techniques, the more effective they will be. Also keep in mind that every technique does not always work for everyone, so it is important that you find a technique that works for you and that you stick to it!