Teen stress is real. Between navigating school and exploring friendships, not to mention balancing extracurriculars and family obligations, you’ve probably got a lot on your plate.
The need for better stress management strategies for students is clear: three-quarters of high school students and half of middle school students say they are “often or always feeling stressed” by their schoolwork, and 30% of teenagers say they consistently feel sad or hopeless.
But while a busy life may be inevitable, a stressful or overwhelming life doesn’t have to be. With the right stress management techniques for students, it’s possible to find calm even amid a hectic schedule. By making choices that support your health and wellbeing, you can avoid this cycle of stress.
So what are those healthy choices? Let’s dive in.
Activities to Reduce Stress:
If stress is often caused by having too much to do, then it might seem counterintuitive that you can reduce stress by adding more activities to your schedule. But by making time for stress-relieving activities, you can reduce the stress created by the rest of your day. Activities to reduce stress include:
- Socializing
- Exercising
- Going outside
- Relaxing
Spending even five or ten minutes a day on these stress management strategies for students can make a huge difference in the rest of your life.
Socializing:
The science is conclusive: social relationships are essential to maintaining mental and physical health. Researchers at UT Austin identified three key ways that social relationships can improve health:
- Behavioral: social ties help us maintain healthy behaviors. The researchers found that “social ties provide information and create norms,” helping people to establish and continue positive habits. Essentially, when you spend more time with your friends, they influence you to behave in better ways that can improve your health and reduce your stress.
- Psychosocial: Our relationships provide social support. This social support directly reduces the impact of stress and improves mental health, making people feel more in control of their lives. Talking regularly with your friends can remind you that you’re not alone in feeling stressed and give you a more positive outlook.
- Physiological: Strong relationships help physical health in addition to mental health, as the psychosocial benefits of socializing can lead to additional physical benefits. For instance, studies have found that supportive relationships can reduce negative physical responses to stress and lower “wear and tear” on the body.
Overall, studies indicate that social support can make us more resilient to stress. That’s why spending time with friends and family, even online, is so essential. You might be surprised by how relieved you’ll feel after talking about your stress with your friends.
To get started, here are some socializing techniques to reduce stress:
- Prioritize your mental health while social distancing by setting up a virtual game night or video call with friends and family.
- Let your friends know how you’re feeling! Practice your communication skills so you can help your friends give you the support you need.
- 61% of young people have regularly felt lonely during the pandemic. Reach out to friends you haven’t talked to in a while and ask them how they’re doing.
- Your whole school can play a part. One way how schools can reduce stress is by creating time for students to interact and socialize, even during virtual learning.
Exercising:
If you regularly feel like you’re practically vibrating with stress, then you’ve probably heard this advice before. But “getting your wiggles out,” as cliche as it might seem, is scientifically proven to be one of the best methods to manage stress.
Counterintuitively, exercise reduces the effects of stress by mimicking them. Exercise imitates the fight or flight response, causing your heart rate to increase and muscles to tense. Doing so makes your body more resilient to stress, meaning you won’t be as overwhelmed and uncomfortable the next time you’re in a stressful situation.
In addition, intense exercise causes the body to produce extra endorphins, a type of neurotransmitter that improves the mood. Exercise also increases the production of hormones like norepinephrine that improve your memory and learning. And the repetitive movements involved in walking, swimming, and other physical activities can offer benefits similar to meditation, allowing you to focus on the body and clear your mind. That’s not to mention the physical benefits of exercise, which help you maintain your long-term health.
There’s no single right way to exercise, but here are some tips to start experiencing the stress-relieving benefits of exercise:
- Try something new. If you regularly feel stressed and aren’t used to working out, experiment with different activities like walking, jogging, biking, or dancing — the options are endless!
- Start small. Especially if you have a busy schedule, try planning your workouts in 10- or 20-minute sessions. Even a small amount of physical activity can have a big impact. Try a short high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout to really get your heart rate up.
- Bring a friend. Planning to walk or jog with a friend can help you commit to your exercise routine. And group workouts give you both the stress-relieving benefits of socializing and the stress-relieving benefits of exercise!
Going Outside:
According to research from the US Forest Service and the University of Pennsylvania, spending time outside limits stress by lowering the heart rate, reducing blood pressure, and improving self-reported mood. Although the pandemic may have made it harder to go to the gym or spend time with your friends, outdoor activities are still available.
These ideas can help you start spending time outside and reducing your daily stress levels:
- Take your office outside. Even if you can’t manage to take time away from work, you can find a way to bring your work outside. Bring your backpack to a yard, park, or outdoor cafe and enjoy the sunshine while you finish your homework. You can also consider eating lunch outside or having a socially distanced picnic with friends to celebrate the outdoors.
- Appreciate the everyday. Spending as few as 10 minutes outside can have a positive impact on your mind and body. You don’t have to go far: take a quick walk around your neighborhood and try to notice all the plants and wildlife you see.
- Get into gardening. If you want to commit to spending more time outdoors, start a garden by yourself or with your family. In addition to helping you reduce your stress levels and improve your physical health, you’ll learn to take care of living things and grow your own food.
Relaxing:
Relaxation is the inverse of stress. While stress increases the heart rate and tenses the muscles, relaxation does the exact opposite, counteracting the potentially damaging long-term effects of chronic stress.
Although it can be difficult to remind yourself to take a moment to relax, it’s essential if you want to avoid burning out or feeling overwhelmed. Thankfully, there are dozens of different ways to focus on relaxation. If you’re struggling to find one that works for you, think back to what you most enjoyed as a kid: if you had no obligations or responsibilities, what would you most want to spend your time doing?
For some more relaxing ideas, try the following:
- Play an instrument.
- Read a book.
- Doodle, paint, or create art however you want to.
- Take a long shower or bubble bath.
- Listen to your favorite song.
- Make a cup of tea.
- Play a game of solitaire.
- Take deep breaths!
Reflection to Reduce Stress:
While activities like exercise and socializing can help reduce the physical and mental effects of stress, they might not help you get to the root of the problem. If you regularly feel stressed out, you may find it useful to engage in some deep self-reflection. By identifying the sources of your stress and thinking through how to address them, you can develop long-term strategies that prevent stress and promote mental health. Reflection strategies to reduce stress include:
- Meditation
- Journaling
- Positive Thinking
- Therapy and Counseling
H3 Meditation:
Meditation is a practice that has been used for centuries to induce reflection and reduce stress. There are many different meditation techniques, but in essence, meditation is the act of sitting quietly and clear of thoughts. This simple strategy can reduce anxiety, depression, stress, and even physical pain.
Although it can seem unapproachable or complicated, it’s actually very easy to begin a meditation practice. Download a meditation app or try one of these strategies:
Journaling:
Writing about your experiences is one of the best stress management strategies for students. By putting your thoughts down on paper, you can explore your stress more fully, let out your negative emotions, practice positive thinking, and develop strategies to reduce your stress in the future. The science backs this up: studies have shown that journaling can improve your communication, memory, self-confidence, and even the quality of your sleep.
Journaling doesn’t have to be formal or regimented. You can write about anything you want and in any form you want — you can write poetry or prose or even draw, reflect on your day or write about your goals. A journal is a space to ignore the rules taught in English class and do whatever makes you feel best.
And if you’re truly stuck, these resources can help you get started with journaling:
- Respond to these reflection prompts to support your mental health.
- Watch a video about how other teens have used their journals during the pandemic.
- Read this advice for keeping a mental health journal.
Positive Thinking:
Although the initial cause of stress is often external — an upcoming deadline or presentation, a fight with a friend or parent — our minds often amplify stress more than is necessary, needlessly exacerbating stress by constantly focusing on our mistakes and ignoring potential solutions. This negative self-talk can take various forms, but by reframing negative thoughts whenever they arise, you can prevent yourself from falling into a spiral of stress.
There’s a difference between negative emotions and negative self-talk. You’ll undoubtedly feel sad or stressed out sometimes, but you don’t have to make those feelings worse by criticizing yourself for them. A good rule of thumb is not saying anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to others.
Therapy and Counseling
Sometimes, self-reflection simply isn’t enough, and you need the support of a trained mental health professional to help you deal with your stress and other challenges. It might help to seek out a therapist or counselor, particularly if you feel like your stress is intense, unbearable, or constant, or if you aren’t sure how to deal with the emotions you’re experiencing. Therapists can help you process your feelings in a controlled setting and give you the skills you need to make healthy choices and improve your decision-making.
Many students feel intimidated by the prospect of asking for mental health support. Others aren’t sure how to go about finding a therapist. If you’re looking for professional mental health support, try the following:
- Remember how schools can reduce stress, and reach out to your school counselor or school psychologist. These individuals can help provide some counseling and connect you to further mental health resources.
- Use Peer Health Exchange’s resources to find a local health center and other online sources of mental health support.
- Read this article about accessing therapy as a teenager if your parents won’t help and this article about low-cost mental health care.
What Next?
You may not have time to incorporate all of these strategies into your daily life. Depending on your schedule, your interests, and the cause of your stress, you may find that only some of these stress management strategies work for you. Try a few different techniques and see what works; by exploring a variety of options, you can achieve a balance that works for you and ensures that stress management is a daily habit. Better yet, share these techniques with your teachers and school administrators so that they can learn how schools can reduce stress for all students.