Skip the Stress and Keep the Peace

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Eating Otter Pops and sleeping in until 1 p.m. all summer long is a relatively facile way to live. But now that fall semester has started, the Alexander the Grapes have disappeared and the hair pulling, teeth grinding, and nail biting have reappeared. Chronic anxiety is unfortunately a common ailment of many college students. Here are six simple ways to avoid the shakes and shivers of stress.

Meditate: There is something so refreshing and foreign about sitting in silence and counting your breath. Taking a mere ten minutes out of a hectic day to let the static in your head float away is more beneficial than you may realize at the time. Whether or not you reach nirvana while meditating, you will at least keep your cool.

Eat healthy: A pizza a day doesn’t necessarily keep the doctor away. It may temporarily relieve stress, but in the long run it will create more problems than it solves. Grab an apple or some carrot sticks and start noticing how much easier it is to pay attention to your math professor explaining logarithms… You may not understand it necessarily, but at least you won’t be asleep from a pizza hangover.

Cry: Researchers have found that tears release endorphins that relieve stress, so stop trying to keep those eyes dry and just let the waterworks flow.

Laugh: A good belly laugh is good for the soul. Finding humor in a situation and not taking everything so seriously will seriously alter your mood, and if you are a diehard believer in cliches, then you know that laughter is the best medicine.

Exercise: You don’t need to be a marathon runner to reap the benefits of exercise. All you really need to do is move your ass for at least twenty minutes a day to lose your ass and your stress. Two birds with one stone, folks. It’s that easy.

Be a kid again: Go outside. Ride a bike. Chase your crush (in an innocent and playful way, of course). Play Red Rover. Eat cotton candy. Don’t worry about what others think. Live in the moment and enjoy what’s around. Being an adult is stressful, so embrace your inner child.

If none of these ways to de-stress help you out, then at least take comfort in the fact that fall break is coming up and you can go back to eating Otter Pops and forgetting about logarithms for at least a few days.