Stress Case - Schooling

Everyday, American life revolves around numerous activities and duties that cause certain effects on ourselves. Living in such a world poses problems for people who feel overwhelmed by these situations and the demands of their responsibilities. Stress levels in my own life have had consequences on my performance in expected tasks. Between school ,work, and time management, stress has a major impact on me. Although I have gotten to where I want to be in life, there are some ways to reduce the amount of stress in my everyday life and sufficiently attain an organized stress-free lifestyle.

School has always been a demanding area of my life. I always felt that education was the most important aspect of my life. Knowing that my whole future lies in going to school and succeeding affects many different areas of my life. The constant demands of new projects, papers, and test-taking only leads in one direction when in full force: stress. Having the pressure from school is similar to having excessive amounts of weight on your shoulders at all times. Outside of school, leisure activities seemed to be short lived with the constant worry about schoolwork needed to be completed. It is a hard attempt to try and 'let loose' on the weekends when so much work has to be done.

In order to cope with stress in the school area of my life, I needed to find certain strategies. One strategy I found was to take three slow, deep breaths and exhale to help relieve tension and relax( Thomas 2005 p. 4). I plan on incorporating this strategy when I become overwhelmed with schoolwork. Often times when things start to pile up, I immediately start feeling anxious and let anxiety get the best of me. By taking a few moments to just breath and take a step back, I will be able to focus more on what needs to be done and feel less frazzled.

I have always been what people like to call a "workaholic". I like to keep busy and feel rewarded after a day of work. After working for almost five years at a certain employment, I have attained numerous promotions. Although these promotions lead to wonderful rewards, they also come hand-in-hand with consequences on my well being. More responsibilities lead to a more stressful atmosphere on the clock as well as off the clock. Communicating with fellow employees is an issue in my everyday interactions at work. My boss tends to ask me to complete a task only later telling me that's not what he wanted me to do. The stress of having so many people counting on you leaves you exhausted at the end of the day. I finish a day at work and still on the way home and at night while I am trying to fall asleep, I continue to think of things that need to be done and how to balance all the work that is expected to be completed.

Relieving stress in the workplace could be accomplished by working on communication. "Disagreements always hurt and can affect working relationships and lead to stress"(Thomas 2005 p.1). Working with people is enjoyable but lack of communication leads to stress and lack of interest. Relieving this area of stress can be accomplished by fully communicating and talking things out with