Every college student knows that
with work comes stress. The higher the workload the more we as students feel
the weight of the world pressing in around us, causing our bodies to react with
flight or flight mechanisms. The same hormonal responses that allow our bodies
to run from a bear or lift a burning car off of a friend are what permit us to
adapt to workloads day after day. Knowing that our bodies have ways of managing
such high levels of stress, whether it be physical or mental, is vital to
understanding the management of stress in our lives.
Stress comes in two forms: Positive
and negative. This is something most students have come to learn throughout
grade school and the beginning years of college and isn’t going to make the
“evening news”. The positive and negative forms cause different effects on our
bodies that can be broken down into either the flight reflex or the fight
reflex. When stress is negative, our tendency is to run away from it, or
“flight”. This flight can come in many forms including lack of motivation,
missing work, not turning in assignments or simply doing less than one is
capable of. Positive stress however, causes us to “fight” for what is important
to us, even when we think the work might be too much for us to handle. This
stress causes us to buckle down and pull those all-nighters and give our
hundred and ten percent effort even when the world seems to be crashing down on
us. The importance of knowing the difference between the two types of stress,
while beneficial, is greatly limited unless we are able to decide which type of
mode our body will switch to when those fifteen page papers hit during finals
week when our phone breaks and we miss our shift at work. Unfortunately, we
cannot choose how our body will react to life’s circumstances, but we can
choose what stimuli reach our mental palette.
This is where the secret of loving
what you do comes into play when dealing with stress. When you are doing what
you are passionate about and enjoy, what would be interpreted by your body as
negative stress, will tend to become more of a positive stress to the body.
While a massive term paper might cause negative stress to some, for those who
love to write a paper of that magnitude brings about a more positive feeling
workload. The end result of all these words thrown on a page is this, doing
what you love is not only important for our mental health, but curtail to a
positive lifestyle. When the end result of something we do truly brings us joy,
the work to get there is almost transparent. The secret to a healthy lifestyle
isn’t always in getting rid of all stress, but rather allowing the stress we
surround ourselves with to be something with an end result that brings us joy.
When we replace the negative stress in our life with more positive stress by
pursuing what future college goals allow us to follow our passions, life turns
from bearable to positive.
So
as finals this semester head full speed at us students, take a minute to
remember why we are taking these finals in the first place. Putting school in
the perspective of being a stepping stone to achieving what truly will bring us
joy one day, allows us to turn the negative, “flight” stress of school and life
into a positive “fight” stress that will allow us to reach our true passions
and desires in our life. It might be today, tomorrow or three years from now,
but as long as we fight for doing what we love, our work seems to slowly melt
into play; this is where a truly positive and fulfilled lifestyle begins to
blossom.
RA Josh Watkins
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