What is your stress level? Rate it on a five-point scale with one being no stress, three being average and five being tremendous stress.
This is a question from the 2015 National College Health Assessment, a national survey that collects data on thousands of undergraduate students. They found that campus stress levels are on the rise, with 53 percent of students having unhealthy levels of stress – defined as four or five on the scale.
Here on the University of Idaho campus, our numbers are even higher. As Vandals, 66 percent of us reported unhealthy levels of stress.
The demands of academics, finances and important relationships force hard choices on people. The feelings of dragging energy, pushing harder and harder, mounting anxiety, poor diet, lost sleep and emotional emptiness are widespread. Reaching for another coffee, another cigarette or another Snickers bar to get through the day is also widespread. Sound familiar?
Jamie Derrick
Is this just modern life? Is stress at UI given?
Let”s hope not. A recent paper by Harvard University researchers found that the eroded health arising from chronic workplace stress – and college certainly counts as work for students – leads to 120,000 deaths per year. That makes workplace stress one of the six leading causes of death in the United States, outranking diabetes.
The time crunch of 15 credits or more plus a job and a relationship may be a reality of college life, but the amped up anxiety and pressure of stress is optional. One of the great misunderstandings about stress, and its close friend anxiety, is that events and people in our lives are the main causes.
Sometimes what seems true by all appearances turns out to be misleading. Stress is mostly generated by what we think about.
Thoughts agitate us beyond what is actually happening. Yes, that paper is hard, and that thought turns into worries about your grade, about your assignments, about your degree, your career, your lifestyle. Pretty soon, your entire life can be linked to this one paper and your heart-rate shoots to the moon.
But don”t believe everything you think. Mindful awareness practices can help us learn to keep perspective and reduce stress.
Mindfulness trains our attention to stay focused and trains our attitude to be more relaxed and gentle with what is actually happening in our lives. Something magical happens when we sharpen our focus and resist the worrisome thought trains – we find more peace.
Take a deep breath, refresh your mind and discover what will help in this moment. Mindfulness is that first step.
The benefits of mindful moments often carry over into what we do next. Studies of undergraduate students have shown that brief meditation before class leads to better retention of material and higher test scores.
Perhaps try it and see for yourself. UI Mind, our campus mindfulness program, offers anyone-can-do-it, uplifting drop-in mindfulness practice to students and anyone from the community from noon to 12:25 p.m. every Wednesday in the Bruce Pitman Center Borah Theater. Drop by and trim your stress diet.
Jamie Derrick is the founder of UI Mind. She can be reached at [email protected]