Stress Management for Students

Ranjana Bhatia
Principal
Amity Institute of Education
Saket, New Delhi

Abstract

You have to live your own life. You can decide to live either a happy life or a stressful one. You can live through the years with the attitude, “I will do my best and not bother about the outcome,” or you can live a life full of fears, doubts and jealousy. The choice is yours. To be happy or to be under stress irrespective of anything. I repeat, anything.

What is Stress?

All of us have some potential and capabilities. We also have certain aptitudes and attitudes and demands are made on us by society. We, as parents/teachers, make demands on our children. Most of the time when we make demands on our children, we have a tendency to forget that our children have their own capabilities. The result is nothing but an imbalance between the potential of the child and our expectation and all this results in a stressful situation. Stress can therefore be best defined as a state of imbalance between demands made on us from outside sources and our capabilities to cope with them.

Some students lack the courage to acknowledge their weaknesses, to draw on their strengths and to analyze where they stand in relation to their dreams.

All of us have some element of personality or some habit with which we are not entirely satisfied. This element of personality is more pronounced in students, especially when they are entering into the adolescent age-group. They dream and fantasize a lot. At times their dreams fade into meaningless fantasies, and fail to produce successful results.

From the world of fantasies, when they come to reality and find their dreams shattered, they meet with what is termed as ‘frustration’, one of the major causes of stress. These students do not have the courage to make a fair assessment of their personal resources including a realistic picture of where they stand on the road to success. They are not willing to accept their weakness. They feel embarrassed.

Since they are not able to accept their weakness, their approach is not at all realistic in nature and hence gives rise to a situation which is confusing as well as conflicting resulting in stress. Peer pressure and pressure from parents and society form the main reasons or causes of this stressful situation for a student.

Causes of Stress

But for a very few who have clear thinking, practically all students opt for Science or Commerce stream irrespective of their own potential. They are not willing to accept the fact that they do not have aptitude for Science or Commerce. Let us take an example of how stressful situations arise, say, when the students opt for a stream at a certain stage. Presumably, Humanities stream is considered inferior by a majority of them, which is very sad. Not doing well in class XI after opting for Science or Commerce becomes a cause of frustration and stress. Peer pressure plays a major role at this point of time and children are not willing to head, consequently giving rise to stress.

Stress amongst adolescent students has been increasing these days because of various factors, some of which are enumerated below.

· Severe competition at all academic levels.
· Parental pressure for excellence in performance irrespective of the potential of the student.
· Uncertainty in choosing the right option.
· Constant comparison at home, in school and within peer group.
· Distraction as a result of media exposure.
· Loss of value system.
· Negative influence of western culture.
· Nuclear families
· Both parents pursuing careers and not available to their children when they need them.



Causes of Stress












Family

Environment







Parental pressure

Competition




Constant comparison

Choosing the right option




Nuclear families

Constant comparison




Both parents working

Media distraction






Loss of value system





Influence of western culture


Coping with Stress

Paul J. Mayer, a well known management expert has said, “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to a pass.”

In a stressful situation the normal reaction of any human being is to imagine all the wrong things happening to him. This kind of reaction prevails more strongly in the young, impressionable mind of an adolescent who sees only hazy situations and is unable to take the right decision. His/her enthusiasm is lost and he/she lands in a depressive situation. Since he/she only sees the negative side of life, all negatives actually start happening to him/her.

It is truly a game of thoughts. His/her thoughts become negative, his/her commands to the brain are negative and the reaction of the body thus is nothing but negative. And all this adds to an already existing stress.

A stress management programme which runs into three phases, enumerated below, can help and train a student in overcoming or facing stressful situations.

Three-phased Module of Training for Coping with Stress

First Phase : Cognitive Preparation

This phase is educational in nature and is designed to provide the students with a conceptual framework for understanding the nature of stressful reactions. During this phase the students learn what is stress and how it creates wear and tear. Students share their experiences with other students.

The sharing of experiences assures the students that they are not the only ones suffering from such a problem, there are many others in similar situations. They also learn that stress is a process of psychological appraisal rather than a factor inherent in the event itself. This learning enables them to conclude that stress is caused as a consequence of certain events and individuals’ reaction as well as perception of it.

Through these messages the students begin to see that they can dilute a stressful situation if they are properly armed with the technique of handling it. Students in this phase of stress management record their physiological, emotional and behavioural reactions to stress as they experience them. Students are trained to record their own maladaptive efforts to cope with stressful events such as excessive sleeping, watching TV, eating, etc. They are taught to tabulate stress responses and examine them.

Second Phase : Skill Acquisition and Rehearsal

Here the participants discover and review the coping process through small group exercises. A number of behavioural and cognitive coping skills are offered to the subjects for rehearsal. The students are trained to engage in positive talk and set new goals. They are trained to change the stress situations into challenges. They learn to distinguish between stressful situations to be avoided, tolerated or overcome.

Third Phase : Application and Practice of Coping Technique

Students are given an opportunity to practice coping skills during exposure to a variety of stresses. They practice stress management techniques in the targeted stressful situations and monitor their effectiveness. Positive talk involving self into auto suggestions and encouragement becomes a guiding force for students to overcome stressful situations. It also enables the individual to confront stressful events with a clear plan and a clear account in mind before the stressful event becomes overwhelming.

A stress-free life is not possible in today’s environment. All that we can do is to reduce it to a reasonable level, even to the level where it can play a positive role rather than adversely affect our health and abilities.

The general feeling is that tension or stress has a negative effect on our lives. On the contrary, a certain amount of stress is healthy as it acts as a motivating factor and gives the required push to an individual to attain set goals.

All students suffer from anxiety and are stressful at some time or the other. The intensity, however, may differ from person to person. A certain amount of stress induces enthusiasm and learning becomes better provided the stress is given direction. Parents and teachers play a vital role in the management of stress in a child. There are many pressures on a child who is appearing in a board examination both at Class X and at Class XII level. The moment a child enters Class X or Class XII, there is a sudden transformation in the attitude of the child, the parents and the teacher.

Parents and teachers impose innumerable restrictions on this child, be it watching TV, playing, leisure time, phone, activities and functions in the school. Board exams have become synonymous with study and books and nothing else. It is abnormal as well as strange. This kind of reaction is universally present, whereas in our heart of hearts, we all know that a child who is studying all the time cannot give his/her best.

This reaction on the part of the parents only adds to the already existing anxiety in the mind of the child and he/she starts developing cold feet. This anxiety leads to loss of confidence and, in severe cases, even to nervous breakdown. The starting point of all this reaction is stress.

Managing stress with the above stated three-phased stress management technique can be complemented with some more suggestions which can work wonders on the psyche of a growing child and are worth giving a try. The suggestions are as follows.

Maintaining Optimistic Attitude

The attitude of fear of failure is the root cause of stress and related problems. It is the attitude of the student, which may promote stress.

· I don’t want to do it
No chance of success
· I can do it
10% success
· I don’t know how to do it
20% success
· I wish I could do it
30% success
· What is it
40% success
· I think I might do it
50% success
· I might do it
60% success
· I think I can do it
70% success
· I can do it
80% success
· I will do it
90% success
· I did it
100% success

It is important to train the students to be optimistic in approach and vision and have a positive attitude. Attitudes are habits of thoughts and habits can be acquired and learnt. But the action required for a sizeable change in habits and attitudes may not be really noticeable. The result may take a long time to come through and sometimes may be intangible. Training can be given to acquire a positive attitude by adopting the following steps.

· Ascertain who and what you are.
· Find out what you want to become and where you want to reach.
· Plan out how you are going to reach your goal from where you are now.
· Keep monitoring and correcting your steps – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible.

Goal Setting

A basic trait of human nature is to aspire, to achieve, to accomplish, to attain, to believe in the future rather than in the past. Improving performance propels continuous improvement. Continuous improvement adds to personal accomplishment, professional success and pride in the achievement.

Set a goal which is SMART. Goals help in ensuring that time is spent on work that really matters. If the child learns how to set priorities in achieving goals, stress management will be much easier.

When goals are set they work in two ways. You work on them and they work on you. Once a goal is set with firm and unequivocal belief, it can work wonders. The greater the belief, the more rapid is the success. If, however, the goals are not clearly defined, it can hamper the progress and hence cause stress.

Successful people are the ones who have worked with goals, tangible goals, small goals and achievable goals. It is only then that they have been able to utilize their full potential, and even that full potential is only 25 per cent. You can imagine what role goal-setting plays, if you have to tap the 75 per cent balance of success.

As the student recognizes his/her potential of achieving the set goal, his/her image automatically improves. He/she learns to believe that he/she has great potential and tremendous abilities that he/she has not begun to use. Train him/her to have belief in himself/herself and his/her capability. Teach him/her to discover his/her unlimited potential. Tell him/her to stand in front of the mirror and say- I am capable. I can do it. Teach him/her the power of thoughts which transform into words and then into action. Positive thoughts, affirmation and visualization supplemented by small weekly/monthly goals will help in reduction of stress to a very large extent; and when each victory is celebrated it will work like a magic tonic for success and hence reduce stress.

Faith in Oneself

Faith in oneself stirs every dormant force within and pushes one to use one’s full potential to reach set goals.

Teach the students to develop faith in the potentialities that they have in order to reach the set goals. This is possible when he/she has an understanding of his/her own self. He/she has to understand that he/she is the only one accountable for his/her performance, he/she is the only one who can accept responsibility for his/her success. Other factors may contribute to success but his/her success will result from primarily what he/she gives – the long hours of practice, the sacrifice to keep body and mind in condition and dedication to goals. Any distraction or interruption destroying his/her attention will deviate him/her from his/her set goal and hence cause stress. It is never too late to learn this.

The best way to guarantee reduction of stress is to get started on the job on hand NOW. Two reasons account for failure relating to stress – children either never start or never finish. Both these unproductive patterns fall under stressful situation. Several patterns of faulty thinking are evident if time is not managed properly. The following guidelines will enable one to avoid to these pitfalls.

· Begin required work and continue without relying on “feeling like it”. Getting started is often the most difficult part but once begun inspiration often follows. Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor, has put it well when he said, “Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”
· Break the difficult task down into easy and logical steps to make it more manageable at each stage. Getting started on the job and working systematically keeping the goal in mind will give a sense of mastery that enables one to complete the job on hand with less stress.

Strive for Result, Not Perfection

Overemphasis on perfection nearly always brings negative consequences – immobilization, fear of making mistakes, discouragement and preoccupation with what others think rather than genuine work. Train the students to be result-oriented rather than being fussy about perfection.

External Circumstances as Cause of Stress

Numerous circumstances outside the control of an individual can cause stress. These can be competition, financial condition, sickness in the family, etc. Though difficult, students can be trained to refuse to let circumstances discourage them. They need to be trained to commit themselves to thinking positively and seeing possibilities. They must welcome these outside circumstances as challenges to their creativity and as signs of progress.

Commitment to an attitude of positive expectancy is the key to a stress-free situation. Refuse to let external circumstances become an excuse for inertia or decreased output. Instead give demonstrations of how to cope with external circumstances and see the changes they produce. This attitude helps in transforming problems into upturns, stumbling blocks into stepping stones and hence in reduction of stress.

Understanding Attitudes of Parents and Teachers

The basic human need, it is said, is to understand and appreciate. The traditional viewpoint on understanding takes into account a stable and an orderly way of doing things through established rules, procedures, regulations and principles. This is called ‘orderly way of understanding’.

Based on the rationale of various studies, aspects of understanding is the systems approach, i.e. breaking the whole in two parts first and then sensitizing it as a whole, and behavioural concept of understanding takes into account the integrative relationship between the two.

Since students spend most of their time either in the school or at home, parents and teachers play a vital role in helping them to overcome stress. The following guidelines should help.

· The students are spoken to objectively and in warm tones.
· They are encouraged to express themselves objectively and freely.
· They are motivated to use their potential and capabilities.
· They are provided an open and free environment at home and in school.

Students often feel stretched as they feel that there are many people who know them but very few who understand them. Understanding has to be more of the heart than that of the mind.

Intellectual identification with a person’s feelings, thoughts and attitudes is essential in understanding the frame of mind of the student. Correct understanding of their feelings, being able to see beyond the obvious, the ability to communicate this understanding by verbal and non-verbal expression reduces stress and elevates self-respect and honour.

When the student gets to learn that the teacher has also gone through what he or she is going through, it soothes his/her nerves. Personal experiences of adults sharing something personal with them appropriately timed with humour is a fresh stress reducer. A dry nature of teachers and parents aggravates the situation while a jovial personality helps in reducing stress.

Power of Prayer in Stress Reduction

We are instruments in the hands of God. We make out daily plans and when these plans do not work we feel stressed. Students have to be taught to accept and be grateful without forgetting the theory of Karma – Nishkam Karma – as the Bhagwad Gita has taught us. Once we have done our best, nothing should worry us. We should not worry and feel stressed, if our daily plans fail.

Above all, to make the students stress free, wear the crown of authority in your heart and not in your mind while dealing with them.

References :

Bloom. 1971. Report of Pilot Project. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Das, Manoj. 1999. Shri Aurobindo on Education. New Delhi : NCTE.

Joshi, Kireet. 1997. Education for Character Development. Dharam Hinduja International Centre of Indian Research.

Mayer, Paul. 1995. Success Motivation in Personal and Professional Programme.

Sri Aurobindo Society. 1996. The True Teacher. Integral Education Series.