Stress. Our good’ol friend who comes around time and time again. The friend who comes to visit without permission, and stays longer than you asked them to. The friend who is always talking when you’re trying to fall asleep, and won’t leave you alone when you just want to be by yourself.

I stress, you stress, we all stress! I stress of a daily basis during certain times of the year. I’m a university student going into exams, what do you expect? But, the alternative to experience stress is to know how to cope with it.

There are many different ways to cope with stress. We all have our way to deal with certain situations, or people, or experiences. It’s essential to know what triggers your stress, but just as crucial to know ways to cope with it.

Liv’s 7 Tips to Coping with Stress:

1. Take a deep breath – Literally & metaphorically. It is easy to overwhelm ourselves when a number of different stress evoking things enter into our life at once. The best thing you can do is take a moment, reflect on the time ahead of you, and realize what you need to do in order to get the job done. Be proactive, make a list, and budget your day accordingly.
2. Time management – This is suuuuuper essential to helping prevent and minimize stress in an active way. Managing your time can allow for all tasks to get completed, but also allow for you to relax. Don’t be afraid to schedule “you time” into your busy schedule because that’s significant too.
3. Wake up earlier than normal – Whenever I hear someone say “I had a late start to the day” it usually follows by a list of things they should have done that morning, but failed to complete because they woke up late. Don’t do this to yourself! Be proactive. Get up and get it done!
4. Exercise – As a kinesiology major I could tell you a  list of all physiological benefits your body gains from exercise, however, I want to tell you about the benefits your mind gets from exercise. These cool little things called endorphins get released from your brain and act as natural painkillers to reduce stress and help you sleep. Aerobic exercise (aka cardio) is a great way to get the blood pumping, endorphins flowing and stress levels melting away along with your fat cells.
5. Sweets – (ironically listed after exercise) chocolate, candy, ice cream, baked goodies – 100% necessary.
6. Rant to someone close to you – Sometimes a good venting session is all you need to release some of those negative vibes and keep on with your day. Saying the stress- inducing problems out loud to a friend releases your stress from your body and into the air (or at least I feel like it does 😉).
7. Remind yourself that you can do it – Odds are this isn’t your first time in a stressful situation. You’ve had years of stress followed by success. You’re capable of completing the tasks and overcoming the adversity. Believe in yourself!

Deal with things one step at a time. Things will get done and you’ll be able to relax soon enough.

Alleviating a little bit of stress will help you live your life to the fullest every day!

-Liv