Stress
No matter what gender, social economic status you are who relaxed and perfect you may try to be...stress will never go away and will always be present. The brain never stops entertaining the very things that you try to suppress. That even though you may not express it out loud how your feeling or dealing, your body also can get the best of you and make you have a mental and physical break down. So yes, taking necessary breaks away from my desk, getting off campus, running an errand, listening to music whatever you must do, to heal you relieve some of the stress is very helpful than nothing at all.
Patrick, seems simple but how do we go about recognizing flight risks? What signs do you look for?
Stress is linked to the fight or flight reflex. Some students choose to fight some choose to fly. We should do a better job of recognizing when flight is about to happen.
What do you think your role is, Merrick, when you observe someone who seems to be suffering from too much stress? This could be a colleague as well as a student.
this is very true. i Have seen people literally get physically sick from stress. The body responds to factors in several different ways and this is an example of what it can do.
Charles, I would suggest in some cases a student's family can be the source of stress. Broad generalizations can be quite dangerous.
I see single students stress over minor problems they are having.
Other students have family’s to support along with school work. These student's show no signs of stress.
They have learned to manage it.
Stress can have both positive and negative impacts. Decisions we make because of that can be good or bad. "Lucked out" can be good from a knee jerk reaction. Sometimes we become crippled by overthinking, then opportunities pass us by.
I use the term "system" in a very broad stroke. I am not singling out a demographic, a culture nor a geological area. The system might be anything that we are used to seeing, saying, observing, hearing, thinking or things of that nature. We need to help students think outside of the box or even comfort zone to help to be successful. By recognizing different learning styles used by students, thwere is a much higher success rate when it comes to comprehending simple and more complex theories.
David, could you explain what you mean by "the system"? Are you using this phrase in a broad societal context or more locally within the school?
Understanding how stress affects one's own body can generally help when instructing students. If we react a certain way to a topic, situation or physical mannerisms, why would we think another human(student) would not. These students are not sub-cultures that need to be observed in a petri dish, but nurtured, motivated, partnered with and they need to understand: "it is not me against you, but it is us against the system!" This has, and does work for me in easy and hard students. Motivation comes is so many different packages.
I believe that although stress is a constant companion throughout the college experience, sometimes the instructor has to recognize and mitigate the effects whether its by a referral to student services or any other qualified individual. A do nothing attitude neither helps the student or retention.
Sarah, is this something you discuss with your students? They may benefit from a thoughtful conversation about managing stress.
Stress can wreak havoc on our health. you must be able to understand your body and your emotions what you can take on.
There are alot of people that do not no how to deal with stress and some people down play it to nothing at all. It plays an important role in our lives as you stated but it is handled differently in our world today with or without medication. Some choose to shut down and not deal with life stressors at all hoping they just go away or is it easier to walk away and let someone else deal with it. Sometimes we all fall short as adults are we equipped with the right tools to deal with the more difficult situations in life so that fabrication,self medication or abandonment isn't neccessarily the outcome.
Stress is an important factor in our life that might become us stronger or weaker.
Depend on each individual ,each support system if we can move over that particular situation or not.
