Teens Meet Outreach

The word stress is not only common to those in the professional world, but also to students who find it difficult to strike a balance between their academics, social life, relationship, and spiritual life.

I have heard several people qualify their jobs, “it is a stressful job”, while some say, “my boss likes to stress me”, or a student says, “being a student of this university is enough stress on its own”.

Whichever form these sentences take, you can easily understand what the person is saying.

Are there really people who live a stress-free life?

I am not sure of the answer to give since stress is relative. Each day comes with its task, and to solve each day’s puzzle, we need to make use of our mental health, psychology, emotional intelligence and a lot more.

There are people who are living a stress-free life, but they are of few numbers, compared to those who live in a stressful world.
To know if stress is a way of life or a fact of life is simple. You just need to see the distinction between a way of life and a fact of life.

A way of life means the typical pattern of behavior of a person or group.

Examples of a way of life include:

• Yoruba men prostrate when greeting their elders, and women kneel on their knees
• Nurses practice handwashing procedures
• Students abide by the rules and regulations of their school

The above are examples of a way of life: a culture amongst both Yoruba men and women, nurses, students.

The question is, do everyone experience stress at their workplace, school?

No, not everyone.

Stress can be a way of life for nurses, because they work for long hours, and may never finish up on time before the next shifter comes.

Certain students may not experience stress at their school, some professionals do not experience stress, they only do the talking and sign the papers.

This means stress can not be assumed to be a way of life: not everyone finds their work to be stressful.

A fact of life is something that must be accepted and cannot be changed, however unpalatable.

Merriam Webster dictionary gives a better definition, fact of life is something that exists and must be taken into consideration.

Let’s look into this definition:

“Something that exists”

Stress exists, it has been in existence before we were born and will keep being in existence.

“…must be taken into consideration.”

Stress exists, but do we all have to experience stress at our various departments?
No. We don’t have to experience stress.
Stress is a fact of life, several people barely have enough time to spend with their families, with themselves, they barely catch enough sleep at night and eat good foods.

Accepting that stress is a way of life makes us unable to manage stress efficiently. Knowing that stress is a fact of life, and will remain unchanged if we don’t act upon it is dangerous.

How do you manage stress as a student?

1. Learn to manage your time

Time management is important. Several people don’t have a schedule, they wake up at 9’O clock, surf the internet till 12’O clock, after which they follow their friend to the salon.

Living life without specific timing causes damage both on your mental health and emotional health.

2. Get a To Do list

Have a picture of what you want to do during the day. This helps you prevent wastage of time.
When you have a break in class, don’t waste it, you either rest or find something to do.

3. Don’t procrastinate

Procrastination kills, drives and makes you lazy around at the end of the day

4. Make it a priority to sleep at least 7hours daily

When you prioritize something, you find it easy to do such a thing anytime.
If you make it a habit to sleep earlier than 11pm every day, you have a chance of sleeping 7 hours every day or more, if you wake by 5am.

5. Take a break when you feel sick

Nobody wants to miss school or class, or test. When you feel sick, tell your parents, and guardian, or teachers. It is better prevented than getting worse.
I hope I have been able to make a distinction between stress as a way of life and stress as a fact of life?

Stress is a fact of life and not a way of life.

It can be managed and prevented.
Stay safe this week, and enjoy every day with these few tips to help you manage stress.

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