Counselor offers stress-relief advice

By Crystal Fillmore/reporter

Identifying “individual stressors” is the key to success, a counselor told South Campus students last week.

Sandra Johnson addressed the facts and causes of stress for students during her seminar sponsored by the student development center April 22.

“Recognizing what stress is and how to handle it is very important,” she said. “Stress is your physical and emotional reaction to change.”

With the end of every semester, students are faced with the pressure of what to take next and sometimes a feeling of worry or stress.

The counseling office encourages students to have a face-to-face sit down with an advisor to draw up an individual degree audit. This audit is a detailed layout of exactly where students are in their degree plan and what they should take next.

“Being undeclared is the perfect place to be,” she said. “It is the exploration stage.”

Having a degree audit can be helpful and can relieve the student of the stress of registering each semester.

Johnson told students to stand up in the middle of the classroom and take a moment to stretch and relax.

This brief exercise gave a perspective on how the stressors of everyday life can cause someone to be tense and how taking a moment to “identify yourself,” Johnson said, can play an important role in relieving stress.

“Where are the stressors coming from … how are you handling these situations on a daily basis?” she asked. 

Johnson said the body is very important and how a person treats it is crucial on how it “performs” in different situations.

What one eats is the main fuel for the body. If a person eats only junk food, the body will go only so far without the proper nutrition that it needs.

“Take water with you instead of a Coke … instead of chips, take fruit,” she said. “Check out how you are eating.”

Johnson used the acronym HALT to explain how health is important and if any of these elements are present, it can cause a chain reaction of stress in one’s life. HALT stands for hungry, anger, loneliness and tired.

She also gave the TIME Module, which stands for Thermostat, Identity, Mythos, and Environment. These categories address the physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of a person’s life.

Johnson said all stress is not necessarily bad stress. If people know how to handle each stressor with a clear and positive mind, their decisions and reactions will have a better outcome.