Be smart. Stay healthy.

After spending all day researching and writing and studying, you'd think I would come home and gladly crash for the night. I know that's what I want to do, but somehow I always keep myself awake. Not smart.

Now my immune system has decided to show me a lesson, and I'm taking antibiotics galore in addition to a couple more health center remedies for all of my illnesses I'm currently trying to get over. I'm complaining, but really it's my fault. I neglected sleep, so now I'm paying for it. From one inconveniently sick student to any healthy people: GET SLEEP.

Location, location, location

As students push through the end of the semester and work piles up just as warm weather approaches, you want to optimize productivity and minimize stress. To do so I advise being particular about the location in which you work.

If you're a student, choose wisely where you study. Be conscious of how easily distracted you are and whether you absorb more in a group environment or solo. Personally, I prefer to study alone in the presence of some background noise. Even the quiet hum of the library or consciousness of other people around me doing work helps me concentrate. Every now and again, one group of chatty girls will get situated next to me and throw off my flow. This is a distraction in the library, but if I'm doing less tedious work in the Bookstore, this is expected and I don't mind at all. For reasons like this, determine the amount of focus you need to put into what you're doing when choosing a location to dive into work.

Maybe you're the type that needs complete silence to be most productive. If you're easily distracted or just like the quiet, try to find a couple good locations to rely for silence because it's not always the easiest to come by. Plenty of libraries have "quiet rooms," and I know this room at my school is eerily quiet. So quiet I've felt bad clearing my throat in there, but maybe that it just what you need. Depending on your living situation, you might be able to find silence in your bedroom. Or try turning to an unassuming building on campus or in the area that most overlook during final exams. Freshman year a posted up at a table in the lobby of one of our buildings and the only person I saw each night was a member of the cleaning crew.

If you're obligated to work in an office or the like, do you best to make yourself comfortable. Whether that means decorating, rearranging furniture or playing music, do something to keep yourself at ease while you work. This environment isn't always the most encouraging or flexible, but at least try to make the location feel more your own. Think about how difficult it is to do work you're not particularly fond of at the moment in a place you don't want to be. Do your best to stay physically and mentally comfortable by remembering the significance of location, location, location!

Focus Under Pressure

Again, a post addressing that time of year: final exams, projects and papers. Of course this kind of advice can also be applied to any situation in which your feeling some pressure. Being under any kind of pressure requires focus.

I suggest achieving it by listening to music while you work. After you actually motivate yourself to embark on whatever feat is facing you, turn on some Vitamin String Quartet, specifically. Personally, it helps me focus by distracting me in a good way. It keeps my spirits up kind of subconsciously. I get to enjoy music I recognize without the disturbance of words, while I accomplish some work in the mean time. I've also heard music stimulates one side of your brain while studying stimulates the other. If this is true, that could explain why music distracts you but doesn't detract from your focus.

So take the edge off of under-pressure stress by staying focused with some motivating music that keeps your spirits up. And keep in mind that music like that by Vitamin String Quartet is great for this!

Under Pressure

The next few posts will include a few methods to handling life under pressure. Whether you're wrapping up a the semester and facing term papers, projects and tests, you have a heavy work load in the office or you're working on a looming deadline, my advice is to pace yourself from the beginning.

Allot time to put a dent in your work far in advance, so you have time to mentally prepare. When that time approaches, you can think back to when you scheduled it and why you wanted to get it done at that time. Even with a few weeks to get through a task, don't push it off. Pace yourself. Spreading your work out will certainly minimize stress as the due date approached, as well as offer the gratifying experience that comes from being ahead of the game or stepping up to a personal challenge.

If you need motivation to start making progress a process over time, think about instances in which you've pushed something off until the last minute or misjudged how long it would actually take to complete at you best ability. Think about the stress that brings. Pacing yourself, although it might be difficult at first, is definitely a good habit to fall into. It could also allow for a consistent amount of free time during which you can relax or get other things done. This, rather than a bunch of free time for a few weeks during which you worry about the task at hand until you really stress yourself out while scrambling to get it done last-minute.

With multiple papers and projects due at the end of two weeks from now, pacing myself has helped me through the early stages of my work. Now I just have to challenge myself to stay on track as I really have to bring everything together. My planner had notes and assignments written in it weeks in advance throughout the past month so that I'm reminded of how much I have to do, but also that it is doable.

Give this tactic to avoiding stress a shot, and wish me luck until the end of the school year!

Become one with nature

Maybe that's a little dramatic. How about just enjoying or noticing it? This falls under the general stress relieving method that is distraction. Focus on something pretty about your surroundings, or take note of something interesting out there that you never took the time to appreciate before. If you're surrounded primarily by bricks, steel and cement, and wildlife to you is the occasional bird or maybe squirrel, step out of your element when you get the chance. Go somewhere where there's enough nature to get absorbed in, even briefly, that is actually serves as a pleasant distraction.

One of my friends and I take full advantage of our surroundings at school by going on walk on and around campus. Walking was initially the stress reliever in the situation. We reached points where we just wanted to get away from school work or out of the house, so walking was our solution to physically get us away from those things. Eventually, we realized one of the reasons our walks even work is because of what surrounds us. Our campus is on a steep hill in a pretty forested area at the south end and a more urban one at the north end. Believe me we've walked everywhere possible, and the more relaxing stroll usually immerse us in nature, not traffic and buildings. When we started appreciating the beauty of our surroundings, walking became even more enjoyable and stress relieving. When we pay attention, we usually notice something different out there, even when we take a typical route, or we notice a new path to take. Walking takes my mind off of daily stressors I have to address by letting me take in my surroundings. I wold regret not appreciating the nature on my campus if I graduated without taking advantage of it.

Another more dedicated way to enjoy nature is to go camping. I've gone camping with my family in the Boundary Waters on routes my dad mapped out forgetting we're not all pros at that kind of stuff... However, even my mom who was basically kind of irrationally concerned for our well-beings the whole time, we all sincerely appreciated the opportunity to experience being a part of those surroundings. It's a difficult scene to do  justice with a quick explanation. Despite the soreness that resulted from long portages, I'd say none of us felt any stress out there. An easier method might be getting a couple friends together and go to a lake for a weekend. Good company and the beauty of nature are a guaranteed stress reliever!

Drink Up!

Water, that is.

I think the health benefits that come with staying hydrated really contribute to a healthy lifestyle that is helpful in minimizing stress. I've mentioned my theories on living healthy when I posted about exercising and getting enough sleep. It's just one less thing to worry about and a good self-confidence booster. When you feel good physically, you feel good mentally.

Dehydration causes things like muscle cramps, constipation, dry skin and headaches. Another common result of thirst is mistaking it for hunger. As an honest food-lover who already eats just to eat regularly, I guess I don't really need to eat when I can just drink. Try to take note of this physical hungry feeling next time, and realize if your mind is actually just tricking you. These are all really annoying disruptions in your day and some of those little stressors you don't even realize are ruining your mood. In addition to a hectic schedule or a weighing decision or dilemma, you don't also want to be constipated...

Drinking water is so important, the Department of Health and Human Services created a "drinking water week" a few years ago.

This is an easy enough way to stay feeling physically fresh from day to day, and it can also help you out to mentally tackle the work day. When you're feeling particularly bogged down during the day, take a water break, like an athlete but for some different reasons. Use this time to gather your thoughts and organize the rest of the day in your mind before embarking upon the nest task. Or don't think about what brought you to that water break, and make it a brief separation from an overbearing boss or term paper.

There are a ton of reasons to drink water and stay healthy, and one is to relieve some stress. So drink up!

Be selfless

Next time little stressors in life become too much to handle, try doing something good for someone else. My freshman year of college was a pretty hectic time in my life, not taking into account adjusting to college life and taking care of school work. Needless to say I was stress out. After a while, an opportunity came up to go to a local middle school to hang out with the kids after school. So I went without really thinking too much of it. I like kids and I wanted to get off campus. We helped a few kids with homework then played basketball before their parents came to pick them up for the day. Two of the boys took a liking to hanging out with me and got excited when I would go back. I certainly didn't making any kind of lasting impression upon their lives, but I learned a lot about them and they got to have a fun afternoon. Even after the first day, I felt a little better in general.

I think I can attribute this to thinking more about the kids I was with than about myself. In my previous post, I mentioned the ideas that there is more out there than whatever's stressing you out and things will improve. I say I experienced this my freshman year. I was so wrapped up in what was going wrong in my life and causing me stress, I forgot about possible solutions in everything else that was going on around me.

So the stress reliever I want to stress in post post is to think about other people and take a break from getting lost in your own thoughts. Of course it feels good to help others out, but doing so partially for the selfish reason of trying to shake your own stress can be okay, too. Keep in mind the amount of people that benefit from selflessness... it can include you!