How to recognise and alleviate the mental stress of a student?

Education is of prime importance in the life of an individual. However, the way we impart education amongst young children is not the ideal way. If you look around you will find that most of the time the students have extremely stressed out thanks to their overburdened syllabus, homework, and project work. Some of the top schools in Faridabad and elsewhere spend a lot of their time in identifying the level of stress on the students and how to reduce it. In this blog, we have shared with you some of the best examples of identifying stress and minimizing it that the best schools in the NIT Faridabadprescribe to the students. While most of the examples we have taken care of the schools in NIT are applicable for any student.

Some of the important signals through which you can identify that students are under stress are as follows.

• A drastic decline in the academic performance of a student.
• Unnatural mental exhaustion of the student.
• Very low in motivation.
• Finding it hard to focus on the task at hand completely.
• Feeling of lethargy all the time.
• A low immune system.

How students should deal with such a situation?

1). Educate the students about the danger of procrastination: Most of the time, the extreme stress that some students feel while studying is due to the accumulation of homework or studies which they have postponed earlier. Everybody loves to play and enjoy the time, but students must understand that the small amount of work that they want to do later piles up quickly. And during the exam times, the problem of the unfinished syllabus due to their past procrastination leads to pressure and stress. It increases their anxiety about how it will affect their performance.

2). Ask the students to take regular breaks: Students during the exam time, try to cram as much possible to do well in their exams. This leads to long study hours which can affect their performance thanks to the work overload. Studying at a stretch can have a serious implication on the mental as well as physical health leading to study burn out. Therefore, the school should advise the students to take small breaks when they are studying for a long stretch to avoid any study overload. It is important that in the break the students should revitalize their system by taking a small snack, organizing their study space, meditate or take a power nap.

3). Exercise regularly: If a student is physically fit, then he/she can take more mental pressure. They should, therefore, exercise regularly for at least 30 minutes. Research has shown that if anyone regularly exercises, then their stress level will decrease as a large amount of dopamine is released during extensive physical workout. This chemical is extremely important to cope with stress and anxiety levels as well as improving the work efficiency significantly.

4). Have an active social life: Active involvement with friends or family members is extremely important to deal with extreme stress. If you are pressed for time, it may seem impossible to take out some extra time for socializing, but if you can manage it (small doses), then it can be of immense help in the long run.

5). Take expert advice: If you have student councilor, and you are feeling that your stress level is going out of control, then it is advisable to reach out to them. As the student counselors are experts in their field, they will be able to guide you better than any layperson.

Conclusion: It is important that students, teachers, parents, and student counselors should take the early warning of stress related to studying very seriously. It will give them and head start of dealing with the situation when it is at the nascent stage and it has not harmed adversely.