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Stress in of itself is a finicky situation to tackle. Because while stress can be easily identified in certain situations, be it happening by random chance or by expectations, there are also many ways to manage a person’s stress.
For the occasional disturbance in personal space, the infuriating traffic jam, or even some kind of mild inconveniece; no matter what, don’t let your rage boil over. From a stranger’s perspective, the one thing they don’t want to see in a person is their bad side, so think ahead on first impressions.
However, there are also the uncontrolable situations. Deadlines for an important assignment, difficult jobs, or the one obstacle standing in their way with no other way around. Try to understand the situation in your own personal solution, working out the possible outcomes and the risks that may be made.
No matter what, if it’s proving too much, don’t be afraid to speak up about it. A great way to removing a stressor is to look at it from another angle, and get the support that you may need. Ask yourself the question of “How else can I solve it?” and decide on the most logical and efficient solution.
And no matter what life has for a person, there are many other ways to solve stress. No matter the methods, just step back from the problem and relax, the answer is sure to come to you.
Stress management is an important skill to have as a college student. One of the best strategies I have developed for stress management is exercise. Being a part of the field hockey team during the fall, I found going to practice and being with my teammates cleared my head and allowed me to get away from school work for a while. I believe exercise betters my mood and allows me to be more productive. During the offseason I have continued to go to the gym as a strategy for stress management. Another stress management strategy I have developed since coming to college is taking breaks while I am doing work for extended periods of time. In high school it was much easier to work on homework for large amounts of time because the work did not require as much concentration or thinking. Now, I have developed a routine of doing work for about 30-45 minutes and then taking a 10-minute break.
I think my stress management strategies work well for me. I find I am more productive after going to the gym or practice each day because I can focus better. I find the same thing happens when I take breaks while I am doing homework. The breaks work especially well when I am studying for exams.
I
believe a strategy I could incorporate into my life for stress management is to
sleep more. I find I am more productive on days where I am more awake, making
me feel less stressed as I get more work done. Another strategy I could incorporate
into my life for stress management is to put an assignment away for a little
bit if it is causing too much stress. Sometimes when I am stressed I spend too
much time just thinking about an assignment and looking at it instead of coming
back to it when my mind is clearer. I believe these two strategies would be
effective for stress management.
As any other normal college student, I find myself getting stressed maybe once or twice a week… every week. When I find myself in a stressful situation, one thing I like to do is isolate myself from everyone else and sit down with my planner and figure out what I am going to do from there. Another strategy I like to do is to talk to an outsider such as a parent or a friend and explain my situation and see what their opinions are. And lastly, sometimes when I’m stressed, I tend to watch my favorite show and pretend nothings wrong at least for the hour that its on.
These habits aren’t the worst, but they are probably not the best either. I know isolating myself probably would be the best out of the three of them. Sometimes outside opinions tend to sway you in a direction you might not want to go in and then you find yourself doing things because others want you to. And I know for a fact, pretending like the stress isn’t there and running away from it to watch tv definitely isn’t my best tactic.
Some other activities I could incorporate into my stress habits would be to be better at planning things out and not waiting until the last minute which causes the most stress. Even taking it one day at a time could show to help be more relaxed and focus more on the smaller victories.
Stress is part of everyone’s life (especially
in college) that cannot be avoided, but there are ways to cope and manage it. To
manage my stress, I try to plan out my schedule and try to work ahead so that I
will not fall behind. If something is stressing me out, I will put it down for
a day or two and come back to it later. I would say that these strategies work
pretty well. If I am not behind on work and just taking every task day by day
then I do not have as much stress to weigh me down. Also, when I have everything
that I have to do written down in front of me, it helps me to feel more control
of the things that I can get done. I think this is because once it is written
down, I mentally make a plan to get it finished before the end of the week.
Some activities that help me manage and
deal with my stress more effectively is participating in workout classes at
Etown, like Pound, Strong, Yoga, etc. I also will go to the gym and run on the
treadmill for fifteen or twenty minutes. I do not know the scientific reason for
why these activities relieve stress, but I believe they help me to do better on
my work and help me to release stress in effective ways. Some other stress
management activities that I could realistically incorporate into my routine
would be planning more time for friends and relaxing time for myself throughout
the week instead of just on the weekend.
Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag “Stress.”
Option 1:
Stress permeates American society, and college is a very stressful environment for everyone involved. Stress management is a critical component of academic success in college. Describe your current stress management strategies, assess how well they work, and discuss what other stress management activities you could realistically incorporate into your routine to help you deal with stress more effectively.
Option 2:
Stress is something all too common in college students’ lives, but what if you could change your relationship with stress? Kelly McGonigal discusses doing just that in her TED talk “Making Stress Your Friend.” Watch the video, share your reactions, comment on the speaker’s credibility, discuss how reasonable you find its message to be, and discuss how you could implement some of the ideas into your life.
Personality has been one of many components to describe an individual, and a person’s interaction with the world is both similar but unique to someone else. On hindsight, a multitude of personality tests are formulated by thousands of traits and information, For example, in completing a 68-question personality test, the attributes connected to each answer is measured out in a series of letters called the Jungian Personality Type. (http://www.personalitytest.net/cgi-bin/q.pl)
In performing the test myself, it describes my personality in the INTJ aspect, the Scientist. This percentage of the population are theoretical thinkers and perfectionists, setting expectations for themselves in order to acheive them in the highest standard. While that does describe my personality in a analytical standpoint, I do find myself straying sometimes from my work and occupy myself with other matters.
It is an interesting to think back on myself, even for the people who see me as a creative and intellectual mind. And even if personality tests are not for everyone, there are times where you can look into the details behind the results, and think about how some people have the same mindset as someone else.
“Is reckless and short-tempered. His decisions are made with little thought out the consequences, often times leading to unnecessary stress and conflict.”
I do not agree with this decree because I do not consider myself as a short-tempered person as I consider myself a person with a lot of patience and I do not like conflict. I partially agree with my decisions having little thought because I tend to focus on the positive sides of my actions and get surprised when something negative happens
Your Stress Sources
“Wishes for freedom and independence, free from limitations and restrictions except for the ones he choices to give himself.”
I agree with this part because I do tend to dislike being told what to do. I like feeling in control of my own life and whenever someone tries to take the wheel it puts me in a sour mood.
The Restrained Characteristics
“His desire to avoid open conflict and tension forces him to put his desires on hold, even though he is feeling restrained and uneasy.”
“Current situation makes him feel unable to prove himself, but tries to make the best of things.”
I do tend to put my wishes on hold if it means avoiding conflicts so I do agree with this assessment.
Your Desired Objective
“Longs for tenderness and for a feeling of acceptance from a partner. Appreciates things that are beautiful, pleasing to the eye, and stylish.”
I believe most people long for tenderness and acceptance from their partners when they’re in a relationship. This assessment seems very general in my opinion.
Your Actual Problem
“Prefers to be left in peace and avoids arguments, confrontation and conflicts.”
Of all the others this is the one I felt portrayed my personality accurately because I like my peace and I do my best to stay out of conflicts.
Overall this personality assessment did not seem very accurate to me. I felt like they were pulling at straws hoping to land an assessment I connected with. Most of them felt very general and unconcise.
I feel that most of these personality tests were scary accurate. The questions were somewhat confusing to answer at times, but in the end, I feel that the results properly described my personality. The first test’s results were slightly hard for me to understand, just because my results came out to have slight preferences or even marginal to no preference over each of the traits, I found myself answering these questions, mostly unsure because I didn’t understand these questions as a whole.
You have slight preference of Extraversion over Introversion (19%)
You have marginal or no preference of Sensing over Intuition (3%)
You have slight preference of Feeling over Thinking (19%)
You have slight preference of Perceiving over Judging (9%)
The second test, I feel properly described me because I feel that my presence does draw people towards me in social settings. I feel that this test could end up being the most credible, but the source of these personality tests doesn’t seem the most credible as a whole. I understood these questions more than those of the first test, so I feel that my answers were more accurate.
Second Test Results: ENFJ – Teachers
The atmosphere is levitated with their presence and their authenticity draws people towards them. They have an impressive imagination and are natural visionaries. 5% of the total population.
After taking the third personality test, I feel that I may have not understood the questions as well because my results came out making me seem like a terribly aggressive, disorganized, and impulsive person, when I know I am not an aggressive person by nature even though I do know I am disorganized and carry impulsive tendencies.
Third Test Results
Factor Descriptions:
Factor I was labelled as Extroversion by the developers of the IPIP-BFFM. Factor I is sometimes given other names, such as Surgency or Positive Emotionality. Individuals who score high on Factor I one are outgoing and social.
Factor II is labeled as Emotional Stability. Factor II is often referred to by other names, such as Neruoticism or Negative Emotionality (in these two cases interpretations are inverted, as Neruoticism and Negative Emotionality can be thought of as the opposite of Emotional Stability).
Factor III is labeled as Agreeableness. A person high in agreeableness is friendly and optimistic. Low scorers are critical and aggressive.
Factor IV is labeled as Conscientiousness. Individuals who score high on this factor are careful and diligent. Low scorers are impulsive and disorganized.
Factor V is labeled as Intellect/Imagination. This factor is also often called Openness to Experience. People who score low tend to be traditional and conventional.
My favorite personality test, the color test, actually became the most accurate in describing each situation I am currently facing. I am not sure how my choice of the order I chose the colors (pink, blue, green, light orange, bright orange, grey, and black) concluded to these results, and I wish there was description on how these results were formulated, but I found that taking each of these tests allowed me to learn more about myself as a whole.
These results were most accurate to my personal observation:
Your Existing Situation
“Creative and emotional, looking for ways to further expand those qualities. Looking for a partner who enjoys the same activities. Seeking adventure and new and unusual activities.”
Your Stress Sources
“Feels empty and isolated from others and wishes to overcome this feeling. Believes life has more to offer her than what she was experienced thus far and doesn’t want to miss out on anything. she purses all her goals and dreams, fearful that any missed opportunity will cause her to miss out on even more. Quickly becomes an expert in any field she pursues and can sometimes come off as overbearing and nosy.”
Your Restrained Characteristics
Current events leave her feeling forced into compromise in order to avoid being cut off from affection or future cooperation.
Giving more than she is getting back and feels misunderstood and unappreciated. Feels she is being forced into compromising and even her close relationships leave her feeling emotional distant.
Giving more than she is getting back and feels misunderstood and unappreciated. Feels she is being forced into compromising and even her close relationships leave her feeling emotional distant.
Current situations have left her feeling overwhelmed and tormented. Needs to avoid further activity or demands and concentrate on relaxing and becoming emotionally sound.
Your Desired Objective:
Very active imagination and may be prone to fantasies and daydreaming. Always dreaming of interesting and exciting things to happen to her. Is a charmer and wants to be admired for that.
Your Actual Problem:
“Fears she will be held back from achieving things she really wants, leading her to search endlessly for satisfaction and become involved in activities which are pointless.”
Your Actual Problem #2
“Feeling held back and restricted from moving forward, looking for a solution that will give her more freedom and less obstacles.”
When taking the personality tests, I felt like the yes or no answers were difficult to answer. I wanted to say maybe or I do not know, but they were not an option. Other than that, I think that most of the personality tests are credible. It is difficult to be accurate though, because of all the exceptions. Some people. including myself, do not fit into the categories the quizzes presented. I would say they were all reasonably credible. They are free quizzes that are not very thorough, so I did not expect them to be these amazing quizzes.
I think the quiz that most accurately describes my personality was the color quiz. I was confused on why they had me pick the colors in order of how each made me feel. I did not see the correlation between them and my personality. On the contrary, when my results came back, they were more accurate than the past sixty question quizzes. I also liked the Humanmetrics Jung Typology quiz. When I got my results, the were pretty spot on. They said I was 16% extrovert and 19% introvert, which I agree with. In certain situations, I tend to be one over the other. It just depends on where and who I am with.
The first test I took was the color personality test. It told me that I was creative and emotional, always seeking fun and adventure. Even though, some of these results are correct, I don’t think that this test is credible at all. All I did was pick colors and it told me my personality. I don’t believe you can figure out a personality but the colors they like. The next test told me that I was an extrovert, emotional stable, and intelligent. I believe that this test was the most credible because it gave me a layout of my top 5 traits and I found those results to be most accurate. On the other two tests I got the label ESFJ. These are outgoing, friendly, caring, kind and sympathetic people. These two tests were more credible as well because they had 60 questions about what type of person you are. Some of the questions on each test were weirdly worded and hard to understand.
While I believe all these traits to be true about myself but I do not believe in personality tests. I think that the only real way to know someone’s personality is to get to know them personally; a test that takes 7 minutes is not going to be able to do that. Everyone has different personalities that encompass many traits in different categories and none of these tests take that into account. Overall, I think these tests did not give me any important information about myself and if I really wanted to know what traits I had, I would ask family and friends that know me well enough to give me accurate answers.
