Manage Your Stress

Take notes and answer questions here.

Review

In “Think Positively,” you learned about positive thinking. How has it helped you in school and in your life?

Learn

As you complete your education, you will experience stress. Stress is your body’s reaction to situations that challenge you. Stress is what you feel when you are worried or fearful about something. This worry can make you feel angry, frustrated, or afraid. Feeling stressed is part of life. You may often feel stressed in school for many reasons:

Not being prepared
Not finishing assignments on time
Fear of failing an exam
Fear of speaking in front of others
Feeling like you have too many things to do
Working with other people
Others treating you unkindly

As you move forward with faith, the Lord will bless you with strength and the ability to do hard things. You cannot completely avoid stress. You may feel anxious, worried, sad, or a lack of desire to try. You may also get a headache or feel ill. When you experience stress, find things that will help you manage the stress. The suggestions below may help you:

Rethink your expectations.
Let go of what you cannot control.
Focus on what you are doing well.
Avoid comparing yourself to others.
Exercise.
Serve others.
Rest.
Focus on gratitude.
Break down big or difficult tasks into smaller pieces.
Take one small step forward now.

Discuss how these suggestions can help you manage stress in your life. What other things have you found that help you manage stress?

Activity

Think about what will help you when you feel stressed. Answer the following questions to help manage your stress.

What stress do I have in my life right now?

Choose one way of managing stress that you would like to try. Complete the following sentence:

When I feel stressed about I will

Sometime today, copy this sentence onto another piece of paper. Post it somewhere it can help you remember how you will manage stress.

Talk with Your Family

Talk to your family about ways to manage stress. Ask your parents how they manage stress when things are hard.