Keeping it Cool

Keeping it Cool

Teenagers in high school have an immense amount of stress due to schoolwork, extracurriculars, and outside problems. Stress can be difficult to manage but there are many key tricks to help you out and focus on when dealing with the difficulties of being a human.

Stress is being overwhelmed and not being able to cope with the pressure pushed on you emotionally and mentally. It is generally generated from life changes, lack of control, overload of work, uncertainty in the future, and anger. More than 77% of people have reported being stressed enough to affect their mental health on a day-to-day basis. 33% of them are extreme. These are just the reported statistics; everybody struggles with a number of things every single day.

Stress management is so important. You need to give yourself time. Most people tell themselves that they should be here and they should be there but, in reality, everyone moves at their own pace and you need to recognize that. Give yourself a break. If you have a lot of work to be done and you are struggling in a relationship with a friend or family member, take a break and focus on what you want to. Take a nap. A lot of stress generates simply because your brain is tired and cannot properly take in information. Do the things you love. Interact with your friends and go through old pictures. Go get something to eat and enjoy your time rather than flustering through each day without remembering what you had for breakfast. If nothing is seeming to work out, you can always seek help from someone. See the school counselors or talk to an adult about getting a counselor or therapist. If you are not comfortable with that go to a trusted friend. Even talking to someone that you normally wouldn’t reach out to may help because you never know who else may also be going through it. People are surprisingly good at hiding their emotions and struggles and it is beyond important to realize that everyone has something going on.

Mrs. Runyan, a Family Consumer Sciences teacher at Penns Valley High School, teaches her students all about stress management and how you can help yourself to get through the hardships of everyday life. One quote that she really likes is said by William James. “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” Mrs. Runyan sees this quote and realizes when she is thinking and talking negatively that she needs to recognize it and stop, then choose to go in another direction, mentally, and avoid stress.

In 1963, Hans Selye discovered the term “stress”. He said it was a non-specific response from a demand for change in the body. He was the first person to use it in a context other than physics. Hans Selye conducted many important studies on the body’s responses to things that may induce stress. He was a Hungarian-Canadian endocrinologist from Austria who moved to Canada and helped diagnose and study stress and stress factors.