With busy schedules and numerous obligations, students need to find a balance in their lives, a health services coordinator said recently.

Flo Stanton of the South Campus health center provided coping strategies during Balancing Multiple Roles, a presentation Feb. 7 for the Women In New Roles program.

“ You need to be in the right relationship with yourself to be in the right relationship with others,” she said.

Being the full-time coordinator of health services, a full-time mother, and a former full-time student, Stanton knows the strategies for balancing multiple roles.

“ It’s conflict in what’s most important to us and what we spend the most time on,” she said.

“ Our roles can change day to day, morning to evening,” she said. “If you were in class, and your child called with an emergency, your role would change from student to mother or father quickly.”

Stanton said when roles are not balanced, people have the natural tendency to feel out of sync.

Identifying roles, establishing order of their importance and determining the percentage of time given to each role are all important objectives, Stanton said.

To deal with role conflicts, one needs to establish time frames (limits), let go of what is not really that important, learn to communicate, be flexible and allow “pamper-me-time,” Stanton told the student group.

“ Setting short-term goals may be more beneficial and less stressful than long-term goals,” she said. “Just trying to do well for the semester may be less stressful than thinking about how long it’ll take to get the degree.”

Stanton offered the students advice for living a balanced life.

“ The opportunity to grow is the most important thing,” she said.