Improved Health, Music, and Exercise Helps Students De-Stress for Finals
By: Rachel Knittle
Staff Writer
Published December 6, 2018
Since final exams at the end of the quarter can be stressful, students can relieve mental and physical anxiety.
One way a student can ensure less stress is staying active every day. Exercising releases endorphins, which are the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters. Daily exercise helps reduce overwhelming negative feelings. If making time to work out is too much to handle with a busy schedule, there are easier ways to eliminate stress.
A simple method to get rid of stress is listening to music. When feeling overwhelmed, taking a break to listen to music encourages relaxation while simultaneously stimulating the brain. The music allows individuals to escape from reality to ease the mind from life’s pressures.
“I love listening to music when I can, because it helps me get through the day when things can be very stressful,” says Alek Fruetel, a first-year Running Start student at Green River College. Fruetel says he enjoys music as a stress relief and finds it “relaxing” and “effective”.
Simple acts like this better prepares a student for important, albeit stressful, school tasks.
By using stress-relieving methods, a student is better off preparing for finals. A good way to prepare for finals is studying periodically over multiple days rather than cramming information the night before an exam. The body will be less stressed without the pressure to memorize an abundant amount of information with little time. With periodically studying, the mind also will retain information better since the material is encountered multiple times. Besides studying, there are other ways students can prepare for finals.
Another way to help prepare for finals is having a healthy diet. Part of a healthier lifestyle includes drinking plenty of water. Drinking water rids the body of impurity and helps maintain a body’s immune system. People feel less sluggish with a proper water intake. As far as food goes, it is safe to say that a body needs healthy foods and vitamins to maintain substantial energy levels.
All in all, with finals approaching, students have the option to better prepare for approaching finals by reducing their stress levels.
