HOW TO DEAL WITH STRESS FOR CA-CS-ACCA-CMA USA STUDENTS

·  Focus: Students who fail to be attentive in class often have the chances of getting overwhelmed while attempting to study the concept from textbooks and other material. The vast coverage of each topic can often be too much to take in at once. Hence, concentrating in class and writing down self-notes will help you to a great extent when you attempt to study any concept later on.

·  Setting realistic goals: Students often have the tendency to overestimate their capacity. Setting high and unrealistic targets can make you feel really low and worthless. You should never be the first one to put yourself down and hence, it is important to introspect and estimate your capacity in order to attain your everyday goals.

·  Communicate: Pain shared is pain divided. Feel free to talk to your loved ones or your professors or colleagues when you’re feeling low. Talking to other people and sharing your troubles will not only make you feel relieved, but can also help you to pick up new perspectives and solutions from the people you’re sharing it with.

·  Breaks: Taking sufficient breaks is one of the most important things to keep in mind before you start your preparation. This is absolutely relative in nature and can change from one person to another. Each student will have different tolerance and saturation levels and you must remind yourself that it’s normal to take breaks to refresh your brain. Continuous studying without small breaks in between will lead to an ineffective learning as the human brain can’t perceive well after reaching the saturation level.

·  Exercise: Did you know that exercise helps to relieve your body from anxiety and stress? Even if you do, the problem lies in the fact that you’re too busy and stressed to make exercising a part of your routine. Stress relief exercises can be virtually any exercise ranging from yoga to aerobics to intense workouts. Regular exercise can have an elevated effect on your mood by increasing self-confidence and improving sleep cycles as it helps you get a control over your body and mind.

·  Eat and Sleep: These two essentials must be met regularly without fail in order to ensure good health and a clear mind. Hot drinks often have a soothing effect on you and a quick power nap can help you become fresh from the drowsiness. Hence, food and sleep must be taken care of to ensure your brain functions without fail.

·  Take your brain break: Be it anything from cooking to playing to going for an evening walk, you need to ensure that your mind and brain is not 100% forced to confine to studying. Doing other activities will always help to rejuvenate your energy levels to give more space for learning.

·  Colouring Therapy: Ever heard of colouring therapy using adult colouring books? This is one of the ways by which you can cope with your stress. Concentrating on the lines to make sure your colour stays within the lines is a refreshing activity for your brain which you can do at any time of your day.

·  5-4-3-2-1 Rule: Whenever you’re panicking or getting anxious and you cannot seem to be able to calm yourself down, try this technique to help you get through it. Focus your mind and look around. Acknowledge 5 things you can SEE, 4 things you can TOUCH, 3 things you can HEAR, 2 things you can SMELL, and 1 thing you can TASTE. This small exercise will help you to get yourself back to the present, away from the wandering thoughts. This will help you gain a sense of control to calm yourself and lead to healthier thought patterns.

·  Stay hydrated: Staying hydrated during exam season has a positive effect on students’ motor skills, cognitive abilities, awareness, and even their mood. So, make sure to keep a bottle of water beside you each time you sit down to study.

·  Eat and Sleep: These two essentials must be met regularly without fail in order to ensure good health and a clear mind. Hot drinks often have a soothing effect on you and a quick power nap can help you become fresh from the drowsiness. Hence, food and sleep must be taken care of to ensure your brain functions without fail.

·  Avoid stressed people: The kind of people frantically trying to remember key dates and equations, asking you difficult questions or showing you complicated concepts will do nothing but increase your stress levels. So, take care to avoid them and stay put in order to avoid unnecessary stress.

·  Exam "post-mortem”: Take care to avoid doing this. You don’t need to know how other people fared in the exam. You’ve done your best, you can’t go back and change your answers so the second you step out of the exam hall, focus on your next exam instead of worrying about the unalterable ones already in the past.

·  Self-Notes: Keep condensed notes handy for last minute references rather than relying on textbooks and other material. You have higher chances of remembering the material you write and prepare by yourself than of remembering a printed ready-made material.

·  Exercise: Did you know that exercise helps to relieve your body from anxiety and stress? Even if you do, the problem lies in the fact that you’re too busy and stressed to make exercising a part of your routine. Stress relief exercises can be virtually any exercise ranging from yoga to aerobics to intense workouts. Regular exercise can have an elevated effect on your mood by increasing self-confidence and improving sleep cycles as it helps you get a control over your body and mind.

·  Avoid stressed people: The kind of people frantically trying to remember how well they did in the exams and constantly ranting about failure will do nothing but increase your stress levels. So, take care to avoid them and stay put in order to avoid unnecessary stress.

·  Honour your effort: Accept that you gave the best you could and encourage your self esteem instead of being hard on yourself. Introspect and find solutions for areas where you feel you went wrong. Now, that you’ve given your best, concentrate on improving yourself rather than degrading yourself.

·  5-4-3-2-1 Rule: Whenever you’re panicking or getting anxious and you cannot seem to be able to calm yourself down, try this technique to help you get through it. Focus your mind and look around. Acknowledge 5 things you can SEE, 4 things you can TOUCH, 3 things you can HEAR, 2 things you can SMELL, and 1 thing you can TASTE. This small exercise will help you to get yourself back to the present, away from the wandering thoughts. This will help you gain a sense of control to calm yourself and lead to healthier thought patterns.

·  Stay hydrated: Staying hydrated before the results come out as it is natural that you’ll be very stressed out. Water will have a positive effect on their mood. It’ll help you deal with the results tension much better.

Eat and Sleep: These two essentials must be met regularly without fail in order to ensure good health and a clear mind. Hot drinks often have a soothing effect on you and a quick power nap can help you calm yourself. Hence, food and sleep must be taken care of to ensure your mental wellness and peace of mind.