Finals week has arrived on campus, and it has brought along ample stress for students.
\n\u201cStress happens. Sometimes it\u2019s unavoidable; at times, it\u2019s unbearable. That\u2019s why taking time for yourself is a necessity,\u201d reports the website of the Federal Occupational Health Agency.
\n<\/p>\n
We all experience stress in one way or another, and many agree there is a strong connection between mind, stress and health.
\nSinclair actually offers a psychology course focused on stress. Phil Masline, a psychology instructor here at Sinclair, teaches this course \u2013 PSY 2126 \u2013 which is called Stress Management.
\nMasline earned a Master\u2019s Degree in Psychology from the University of Dayton. He has taught Stress Management at Sinclair for five years.
\nMasline reported that the class covers \u201crelaxation, stress and disease, and the psychology behind stress, too.\u201d
\nStress Management is open to any student who has completed the prerequisite of General Psychology.
\n \u201cA lot of the class is spent on ways to cope with stress, like humor, journaling, those kind of things, and also different relaxation techniques \u2013 so, meditation, breathing, tai chi, yoga,\u201d explained Masline.
\nThe Federal Occupational Health Agency states\u2014\u201cIf you suffer from chronic stress and can\u2019t influence or change the situation, you\u2019ll need to change your approach.\u201d
\nThey suggest refreshing your approach in a few ways, such as recognizing when you don\u2019t have control and letting it go. They also recommend reducing anxiety about situations you cannot change and focusing on what makes you feel calm and in control.
\nMasline stated that everyone\u2019s stressors are different because potentially stressful situations are perceived as either threatening or non-threatening to the individual. He provided the example of taking a math test.
\nOne student may be calm while another may feel stress, depending upon the situation. Stress is all about perception.
\n \u201cI describe stress as resistance,\u201d explained Masline. \u201cI view stress as any form of resistance. So whether we are resisting something physically or resisting something in our head, that produces stress. It produces a negative emotional state in us, which then can lead to physical illnesses.\u201d
\nSuch physical consequences include stomach disorders, depression and increased risks of stroke and heart disease. Masline explained that stress does not directly cause illnesses, but rather creates imbalances in the body. The neurotransmitters in our brain prepare us to fight the stressor facing us, leaving us vulnerable for illnesses because we over-run our bodies with stress.
\nMasline also explained that when we are under stress, the hippocampus can shrink which does not allow us to form connections we need to remember things.
\n\u201cWhen we\u2019re under too much stress and not taking the time to relax, you\u2019re also affecting your performance in school,\u201d he said.
\nSinclair students find themselves at the center of all the stress this week.
\n\u201cI think they stress themselves out about trying to take on too many different things, in terms of their balance of work and balance of other things in life, and also trying to get school work done and meet deadlines,\u201d Masline said. \u201cThey do have a lot of demands placed upon them, and so I think that time management is a big stressor for a lot of students.\u201d
\nFor coping with finals stress, Masline said the key is breathing. When you feel stressed, stop, breathe and relax, because relaxation is what the body and mind need. Masline recommended taking responsibility for our own stress by using \u201cI-statements.\u201d For example, we should say \u201cI am causing this stress,\u201d as opposed to saying \u201cthis stress is happening to me.\u201d
\nIn fact, Masline believes that although stress is often perceived as something going wrong in our lives, it is truly an internal process.
\n\u201cMy favorite misconception about stress is that stress is something that happens to us. It\u2019s just almost like we\u2019re walking down the street and stress hits us, or that \u2018Suddenly I have so many demands and now I\u2019m stressed out,\u2019\u201d Masline said. \u201cWe think of it as, \u2018We are the victim, and the stressful situation came upon me,\u2019 when in actuality, we are creating the stress ourselves in terms of how we think.\u201d
\nMasline\u2019s ultimate advice for students trudging through finals week is to think positively.
\n\u201cWhen we have positive thoughts, it does a lot to relieve our stress,\u201d Masline said. \u201cSo even though you might change your perception or way of thinking to something that\u2019s more positive in terms of your ability. . . I mean you\u2019ve made it this far, so obviously you have some things going for you. So if you think more positively, you\u2019re going to reduce that perception that you have, that you can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maggie Stacey Finals week has arrived on campus, and it has brought along ample stress for students. \u201cStress happens. Sometimes it\u2019s unavoidable; at times, it\u2019s unbearable. That\u2019s why taking time for yourself is a necessity,\u201d reports the website of the Federal Occupational Health Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[2019],"class_list":["post-11753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-maggie-stacey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-33z","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11754,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753\/revisions\/11754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"