Introduction

For every single human being, every day is a new story and a new struggle. For our livings, as a child or an adult, we all have to fight on a daily basis. And as an individual, it is okay to sometimes feel defeated and out of our comfort zone. That is where stress comes on stage and this article will be about some tips to cope with stress at school or work environment.

What is stress ?

When you feel overwhelmed by activities or situations at school, work or your surroundings, you are under pressure and feel extremely bad. That's stress ! It is not an illness and can simply be defined as our body's response to pressure.

Whenever you feel unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure, it is stress. Whenever you are unable to control what you're doing, it is also stress.

Stress in fact, has a lot of sources. In other words, different situations or life events can be responsible of stress. Moreover, it is important to know that we all cope with stress differently. And this is due to some factors such as early life events, personality and social circumstances.

What are the different sources of stress ?

Very often, stress is triggered when we experience something that is new even if it is not the case of everyone. It also happens when we feel we lack control over a situation. In a few points, here are some of the causes of stress :

• Losing your job

• Financial difficulties

• Separation / Divorce

• Lack of social support

• Low salaries

• Non engaging jobs

But, stress can occur when people experience positive things. For instance, the simple fact of traveling far from your country for the first time can make you feel stressed although it is a big event. Moreover, something like moving in a bigger house or gaining a promotion at work can lead to stress.

Here are some personal tips to cope with stress especially at school or in your work environment.

How to overcome stress at school ?

At school, it is evident that stress is present and it all depends on how you deal with it. For a children, it may not be noticed at school (primary and secondary schools) but they can experience stress : most of the time due to laughing from classmates. Parents can serve as guide in those cases and motivate their children. Personally, before the university, I was most of the time stressed by school workflow: lessons to learn, exams pressure, team work, topic presentations...

Later, I learn and regularly apply some tips to feel free whenever I find myself ( especially in the academic work). There were some mistakes I did in the secondary school that taught me a lot and I take the time to correct them during my first cycle at university. Three habits saved me from dealing with stress on a daily basis.

• Make a plan : As a student, it is crucial to have a plan and strictly follow it. What I did ? What should be done ? What is done ? This help you to track your goals and have a strong control over your time management. So, making a plan can prevent you from being stressed at the last minute.

• Learn to learn effectively : You are a student and yes, it's okay to learn as much you as you can. But you can't learn everything at once. It's a process so do not rush : depending on your agenda, select what you have to learn. Next, if there is an extra time, then you can learn something that will benefit you.

• Don't forget to rest : It is important! If you do not take enough time to take some rest and relax, you will probably feel more stressed when you experience new situations at school or when exams dates are announced.

This works most of the time and there is a lot of other tips you can find online and apply in your daily lives.

Now, what about the work environment ?

How to overcome stress in the work environment ?

Experience stress at school is very different from the stress in the work environment. If you have ever held a job, then you probably felt that kind of pressure related to your work and that can easily lead to stress. Note that it can happen even if you love what you do at work because every work has its pressure elements.

Here too, I will share three valuable tips that help me a lot during my different internships.

• Build supportive relationships : Be involved in social activities that can help you to expand your social network and make you discover new people, new things.

• Identify and track your stressors : Undoubtedly, many factors can be responsible of making you feel stressed for nothing. A great solution can be to track them and observe how you react to them. Write down everything you notice about your behavior when you encounter a situation.

• Learn how to relax : At work or at school, relaxation is very important as it help you to recover. Always remember to take a break and practice some techniques like meditation, mindfulness or deep breathing exercises. There are many mobile applications that are very useful for practicing relaxation.

Conclusion

Stress can happen to anyone but differently. It depends on how much you control yourself and the environment in which you live and work. Hope these tips will be useful for someone. In case you have some tips that are not mentioned in this article, please, feel free to share with us in the comments.