Stress and anxiety can negatively impact our emotional health. But stress, specifically, can also be leveraged to our advantage. Continue reading to learn more.

ANXIETY

We have found that many students struggle with anxiety.  Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness . It might cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. Many times it is a normal reaction to stress. For example, you might feel anxious before taking a test -which is quite normal!, or before making an important decision . Sometimes you may have a full on anxiety attack, can’t those be scary?! Anxiety can keep us from doing the things we want to do, and frankly, the things we should do.

Here are TWO videos that focus on strategies to help with Anxiety. As you watch at least one of them, think about how you could implement the strategy into your life to help ease the anxiety we all feel at times.

The Truth About Anxiety

Mental Health Tips to Beat Stress, Depression & Anxiety

STRESS 

Since anxiety is triggered by stress, perhaps it would be useful to Make Stress our Friend. Yes, you read that correctly, we can actually make stress work FOR us rather than against us!

Watch this video by Kelly McGonigal. This happens to be one of my favorite videos of all time. It has changed how I view stress and in so doing has transformed how I view life, challenges, and tackling things that were once difficult for me. I hope it will impact you in a similar way.

You can learn a little more about stress by exploring this PowerPoint: Stress

If you have trouble accessing the videos in the PowerPoint, you can find them here:

• How to reprogram your subconscious? 
• What is mindfulness meditation?
• Mindfulness meditation to help relieve anxiety and stress? (optional)
  • If you would like to complete a meditation with closed captioning, try this one: 10 Minute Mindfulness Meditation

Emotional Health

Fostering emotional health is also about your perspective. Dewitt Jones has some great advice on the subject. Watch the video below to learn more.