By: Nosagiegbon Igiede, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences Well-being Leader

Hello everyone,

Today’s topic discusses effective ways to destress in challenging situations. Whether you are facing an exam that you may not feel prepared for, or a not-so-fun event that has unfolded and you don’t know what to do next, I have some tips for you!

1. Understand what the problem is.

When faced with a stressful situation, I always ask myself, “why am I feeling this way?” Is it the actual problem at hand, or something more complex? I often follow this up with narrowing down the problem and understanding what exactly I am feeling emotional about. 

2. See if the problem can be solved right away.

Next, it is important to consider whether the issue you are experiencing can be solved within an allotted time. For instance, let’s say you have an exam coming up that you do not feel confident about. Will your feelings of anxiety or sadness subside once you submit this exam, or will they remain even afterward? Will you be pondering about your score once it’s out or even after? These questions are important to know not only for yourself, but also to help you narrow down what might be stressing you out. 

3. If the issue can’t be solved right away, what are some steps you can take in the meantime? 

This next step poses more of a hypothetical question, but if the problem can’t be solved instantly, what will your next steps be? Let’s continue the discussion about having an upcoming stressful exam. Now, let’s pretend that this exam won’t be given to you until a matter of weeks. A few things you could do in the meantime is take time off from academics and focus on eating, resting, and de-stressing. Another thing you could do is reach out to someone to express your concerns. This could include a Well-being Leader, advisors, professors, fellow students, friends, family, or anyone else you feel comfortable opening up to. Finding something proactive to do is something that always helps me calm down during stressful times. 

4. If the problem is solved, understand what is next.

The next step is understanding what needs to be done once the problem is faced head-on. Following the previous example, let’s say you got your exam back and you didn’t do as well as you expected. What could have been the issue (if any) that resulted in your poor performance? Whether it was your studying habits, how long you studied for, or maybe even the specific layout of the exam, multiple factors could have influenced this outcome. Not every problem you face will follow this specific example, however, it’s important to know that what you do after the outcome is just as important as the outcome itself, if not more. 

5. What will you do to prepare for the future? 

As previously mentioned, what you decide to do after experiencing a dilemma is highly important. Let’s use the exam problem one more time. Let’s say you now understand that you didn’t do well on your exam and you have also narrowed down the issues that could be worked on to prevent this from happening in the future. What you can do now is implement these newly learned strategies during future exams while also making sure you aren’t being too hard on yourself. Having high standards for yourself is understandable, but it’s important to prevent these high standards from becoming so negative that they cloud your judgment. In addition, what you can do to improve future outcomes is set reasonable end goals for yourself that help you to be both organized and productive.

One important thing to note is that these methods won’t always work for every scenario/problem given to you, and that is okay. Being able to tweak these strategies around and tailor them to your liking is something that I highly recommend to help yourself overcome stressful situations. 

Til next time,

Sai