The Stress Epidemic

By Maura Gergerich, Toppel Peer Advisor

As students, we tend to feel like we’re expected to balance so much in a college atmosphere. Between class projects, term papers, studying, day jobs, clubs, leadership, applying for grad schools or jobs, and wanting to be able to sleep occasionally there just doesn’t seem time to fit everything in. Unfortunately, trying to handle everything may cause stress in many students. Small amounts of stress are actually helpful. It stimulates productivity and motivates people to get things done in order to experience that relief after finishing a big project or final. Think about it this way, if you weren’t at all concerned about what grade you’ll get would you have any motivation to study? However, excessive amounts can cause detrimental symptoms such as muscle tension, colds and sickness, and fatigue as well as more drastic ones such as depression, high blood pressure, and ulcers.

There are four main sources that cause stress. The first cause is the environment, which includes stressors such as noise, pollution, traffic, crowds, and weather. The second is physiological stresses which come from illness/injury, and poor sleep or nutrition. The third is self-induced stress which comes from things such as negative thoughts and perfectionism. The last is social stressors. These include financial problems, work demands, school work, and social events. It is easier to deal with and reduce stresses in our lives if we can figure out the cause.

One of the most important steps to avoiding excessive stress levels is to try to maintain your overall health. This may be a struggle for many busy college students, but simply eating well and sleeping enough hours a night does wonders for your ability to cope in stressful situations. Many students feel that they don’t have time for sleep especially around finals week because of all of the exams and projects they have. Lack of sleep decreases your ability to retain information, and that plus your heightened stress level will make it difficult to concentrate. So keep this in mind for the next test you have to study for.

So, use winter break to actually take a break. Take the time to get back into your workout routine (don’t wait for the post-new year’s crowds), read the novels you’ve replaced with textbooks during the semester, cook some recipes now that you’re not confined to the dining hall, or ask you parents to get you the massage you’ve been dreaming about for the past month for Christmas. Find your happy place and plan ways to keep yourself there through the stresses of next semester.

Be SMART, Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed

By Marian Li, Toppel Peer Advisor

Brand new school, brand new you. College is the time to make the saying “to each your own” come true. But new experiences can be a black hole filled with the unknown that snowballs to reduce even the most confident individual into an emotional basket case. Even if it’s not your first time, returning students can get caught up in the hubbub of campus life, forgetting the main reason we came to college in the first place. Students are here to continue their education and grow into mature adults, ready to take on the big world of work in whichever field of interest; we can’t very well prepare properly if we lose the goal in mind. So how can we circumvent the annual meltdown and stay sane?

Toppel’s been teaching students about time management efficiently to maximize the 24 hours allotted in the day. Succumbing to the overwhelming pressure is counterproductive. Students are tired of hearing this but prioritizing is a must! Achieving a system that works is difficult, but if you’re SMART about the goals you create, you will go into new responsibilities with the end in mind.

Specific – A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. Spelling out the details removes any room for confusion or time wasted worrying about details along the way. To be specific, consider the six “W” questions (who, what, when, where, why, which).

Measurable – Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that boosts you motivation to reach your goal. Quantify your goals, ask “How much?” and “How many?” and the most important “How will I know when it is accomplished?”

Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways to make them true. You develop the mindset, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals. 

Realistic – To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high to aim your goals. But just be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.

Timely/Tangible – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it, there’s no sense of urgency. If you truly believe it can be accomplished, then your goal is realistic.

Take a moment to BREATH and enjoy the autonomy college gives you!

Time to Laugh

By Alysha Gomes, Toppel Peer Advisor

With the beginning of the spring semester comes an immense storm of stress and confusion.
 

• Which building is my class in?
• Where do I buy my books without spending my life savings?
• When is the first assignment due?
• Can I manage to juggle a job and courses while still having a social life?

These questions and countless others crowd our mind as we sit 

through lectures on syllabuses; however, what most students forget is that college is supposed to be fun!

Taking time to laugh and simply enjoy the beautiful scenery of the University of Miami not only will cut down on stress but also improve your overall health!  After a long workout, a good hardy laugh relaxes the muscles for up to 45 minutes and can even relieve pain. Also if you need extra vitamin C, a good laugh boosts the immune system and activates antibody production.  Laughter even improves blood flow, decreasing the risk of heart attack and preventing many other cardiovascular problems.

Posted below are some sites that help me distress and improve my health that I thought I should share. Also not only should you laugh, but you should laugh with others! It doubles the health benefits, so be sure to share the sites below with your friends.

http://www.reddit.com/

http://www.theonion.com/

http://www.collegehumor.com/

http://www.fmylife.com/

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

http://www.latenightmistakes.com/

Your Time Isn’t Running Out

By Kayla Lott, Toppel Ambassador

It seems like today everyone is trying to make everything into a timeline, and I can’t say that I haven’t done that myself, especially going to an institution like UM.  Everyone seems to already have their lives figured out and laid before them, and then there’s you, still looking for that big-break internship.  You may be a junior, sophomore or even a freshman freaking out about your future and how you’re not ready for it.  You may very well not be, but no one can be ready for the future.  Unless you’re some type of future seer, no one knows what the future holds, and it’s okay not to have your whole life figured out. 

Not to mention people are always changing.  It’s said that people change jobs seven times during the time they work.  What you do coming straight out of college most likely won’t be what you’re doing ten years from now, and what you’re doing ten years from now most likely won’t be what you’re doing ten years from then. You shouldn’t be the same person in ten years that you are now, and your job may be affected by these changes.

Also, don’t ever feel like you haven’t done enough.  You are young.  Of course most of us don’t have the experience of a CEO!  Hiring managers understand that.  As a matter of fact, they like that better than experienced people because the experienced have a tendency to act like they know everything, and at 22, no matter how “experienced” you are, you don’t.

Don’t look at college as an hourglass that’s running out.  Look at it as a time to learn who you are and the person you want to be.  The next four, three, two or even one year is a time for you to develop your sense of self and sense of purpose.  Don’t take this time for granted because in the blink of an eye, it’ll be over, and you’ll actually have to start worrying about the future.  As a Chinese proverb says, “one step at a time is good walking.”

Get Rid of the Stress, and Get Inspired!

 By: Bree Blair

Being a student is a taxing job: class here, homework there, study now, and activities or work somewhere wedged in there. What happens when you get off track and lose your motivation? Well for starters, everything that you’ve been working for begins to slowly slip out of your hands. Before you know it, you’re behind in all your classes and can’t seem to find an ounce of motivation to step up your game. What do you do? Surprisingly, I found sometimes the smallest things can be the remedy to what seems like the biggest problem: famous or inspirational quotations.

It seems as though everyone has a quotation or two that he or she likes to live by- something to remind yourself when you’re slowing down or going too fast. One of my favorite quotations is from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the character Ferris says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” We all know what it’s like to get caught in the craziness of school, but it’s so important to remember why you’re here in the first place. Whenever I’m feeling too stressed with school, practice, or anything, I remind myself not to forget how much hard work pays off, but more importantly, I remember to enjoy my life in general. Yes, of course school is important, but how you go about your everyday tasks is what makes it an enjoyable experience!

Another quotation I really like to live by is from an unknown author, but it says, “If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders.” This quotation could mean anything for anyone, but for me, this quotation represents how I got to where I am today in beautiful, sunny Florida. I have always wanted to be part of the UM community and experience year-round fun in the sun, but it took hard work and dedication for it to all come together. If you want something bad enough, it will lead you through all the stress that school just loves to bring. The most important thing to remember is that dreams aren’t just some unattainable ideas we have; they’re the ultimate goals that we strive to achieve through school, work, or whatever activities we may be involved in.

Don’t let yourself get lost in the midst of life. Take a step back, think of your favorite quotation, and remember the reasons why you work so hard in the first place. Having said that, I’d like to leave you all on a positive note with my favorite quotation of all written by the famous Mark Twain. He said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Work hard, live your life, and make the best out of every moment!

Three Ways to Avoid Stress

By Thien Van Tran

You know, sometimes when life gets hard, I just wish I could be a dog and not have to worry about anything. I’d even be great at it, licking and scratching myself in front of company, and pooping everywhere except outside. The usual. But since that’s not really an option, I’ve had to find other clever ways of dealing with stress, which I have generously shared below. I know it’s finals week, so I promise this is a short read.

3. Breathe Deeply

This may sound like the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard silly, but deep breathing has been shown to be the cornerstone of many relaxation techniques. But according to WebMD, there’s a proper way to do it. Sit up straight, inhale only through your nose (very important), and exhale through your mouth while pushing out as much air as possible by contracting your abdominal muscles. Your stomach should move while breathing, but your chest and shoulders should remain still. If this is difficult at first in your sitting position, it is recommended that you lie down and breathe. Who knew breathing could be so involved? Apparently this is supposed send a message demonstrating that not many people know how to breathe effectively, and allow stress to make their breathing more shallow and strained. I just thought it was about how only air should go in your nose, not your finger. Both equally powerful messages.

2. Choose the Right Surroundings

Most people would consider Richter Library to be a productive and peaceful environment in which to study. However, unless you want to play musical chairs at 2AM, I would strongly advise you find another location. Seriously, people steal and stash chairs as though Armageddon is going to happen any second and the new world will be one in which chairs are the new form of currency. But hey I know finals are important and sometimes people get desperate, so I’m not here to judge. I’m here to point fingers. This has happened to me personally, and although I may have looked calm, in my head I’ve killed them three times. So, find a quiet place that is not your bed, and hunker down.

1. LOOK AT THESE PICTURES!

No matter how stressed you may be, looking at cute little animals will always make it better. Just take this one for example.

Come on now, he is an emoticon (^.^).

Feeling better now? Feel free to browse through the rest of the “D’AWWWWWWW!!!1” that I have placed below.

Time Management

by Oleg Ignatenko 

        Our life revolves around time.  Each day we are given twenty-four hours to accomplish small tasks and duties that will enable us to achieve our life goals and in the process meet new people and discover more about ourselves.  Twenty-four hours may seem like a lot but for people who have a hard time managing their schedule, it may seem like they never have enough time for anything.  It is especially difficult for college students who sometimes have to juggle many things at once, such as school projects, activities, different organizations, work, and in some cases kids and families.  We all wish we had more time during the day to accomplish what we set out to do.  But how?  Hopefully this blog will answer this question and help you determine a way to prioritize your schedule. 

HOW BAD TIME MANAGEMENT COULD AFFECT YOUR DAY 

Here are 3 of the biggest mistakes that can occur when trying to accomplish daily tasks 

• Targeting too many areas at once  
  
  When trying to develop a schedule, the first thing you want to do is determine a specific task that you will want to finish by the end of that day.  This should be your primary objective for the day and the task that should come before every other one.  Try to focus on this task and feel free to take time  away from your other interests in order to accomplish it.  That way, as long as you achieve this particular goal, you will not feel like your day went to waste.   By keeping yourself on track and finishing the important aspects of your daily schedule, you will be able to accomplish so much more with your time as well as maintain a sense of purpose and fulfillment. 

• Being busy just to be busy  
  
  This is usually referred to as busy work.  Busy work is something that keeps you occupied without being constructive or productive.  A good example of busy work is assignments you had to complete that were given to you in high school or middle school when you had a substitute teacher whose sole purpose was to make sure you were working on something/anything.  Other examples of busy work are completing a project with no clear purpose, word searches   which do not actually reinforce vocabulary and anything that is there just for the purpose of keeping someone busy with no prominent objective.  This type of work can cause students or employees much frustration because even though they remain busy for the moment, later on they feel a complete sense of lack of accomplishment  as well as no purposeful progress. 

• Allowing yourself to get distracted
  
  First of, lets be honest with ourselves.  We live in Miami where the sun is always bright, the ocean is always inviting and there are an unlimited amount of activities to do for fun.  But instead of looking at those things as distractions, lets view them as incentives or as rewards that you can present yourself with after finishing the things that should come first.  There are of course other distractions, such as the ones that are present during your study hours.  Nowadays the majority of students use a computer when working on their homework or conducting research.  That gives us the opportunity to consistently disrupt our concentration by allowing ourselves to wander to other sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube where you might start of watching a video on math tutorials and two hours later you are somehow watching videos of cats doing backflips.  A great way to avoid this is to download a program called FocalFilter.  This program is designed to allow you to block certain websites and the length of time that they will remain blocked for, resulting in keeping you more focused at the task at hand and allowing you to get more work done. 

THE EISNEHOWER METHOD  OF TIME MANAGEMENT 

The Eisenhower Method of Time Management was proposed by Dwight D. Eisenhower.  For those of you who do not know who he is, here is a quick history lesson.  He is not the guy from "The Office".  Dwight David Eisenhower was the thirty-fourth President of the United States who priorly served in WWII as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and held the responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of France and Germany.   Now that I'm sure you guys are very accepting of this man, lets get to his method.  The Eisenhower Method of Time Management is based on the prioritization matrix which consists of areas of importance and areas of urgency. 

There are 4 priority blocks and they are: 

1. Urgent and Important 

2. Important yet not Urgent 

3. Urgent yet not Important 

4. Not Important as well as Not Urgent 

Whether reacting to or creating  our environment, Dwight D. Eisenhower's Method of Time Management makes a lot of sense.  If our work is dependent, this method prioritizes our work tasks. 

By applying these simple time management methods to your life, it can help you become more effective as a professional as well as bringing yourself into greater awareness of time.  Increasing your own consciousness of a thing is the basis of improvement. 

TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR STUDENTS 

• Have an organized workplace 
• Create an appointment calendar and follow it as best as you can 
• Take short breaks during study and work periods  
• Learn to say "no" to other activities when important deadlines are coming up 
• Try to be punctual and prepared for your classes 
• Know who to ask for help incase you might need it 
• At last, Have a positive attitude! 

Remember, we live in a very complex world and should not take the time to gather all the information when we frequently use our own intuition.  Ultimately, we need to give equal priority to our family and friends, leisure or pleasure as we do toward work.  An important thing to remember is that even when spending the majority of time thinking strategically and planning things out, we can still get overwhelmed with our day to day lives.  A great way to avoid some of the daily stress is to take a step back, take a break and allow your mind to clear.  Even though it may seem like you are wasting time, in reality, you are giving yourself a chance to think clearly and more distinctively about the important aspects in your life. 


For extra help feel free to visit or contact the Camner Academic Resource Center (ARC) which offers a multitude of resources for every constituent of the University of Miami community.  Currently the ARC houses 7 primary services: Tutoring Services, Office of Disability Services, Learning Specialist, UMX, Academic Workshops, Faculty Support and Independent Learning Initiative.


The ARC is located at the Whitten University Center, Suite N-201; 2nd floor, by the elevator 
Phone (305) 284-2800 
Email: tutoring.arc@miami.edu