Photo courtesy Adrienne Asvitt
Adrienne and Jessica Asvitt relax and spend quality time with their mom at Monkey Rock.

Lifestyles of the stressed and frustrated

by Catherine Moore MOO04009@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

You have a research paper due, a biology exam to study for, your roommate’s birthday to plan and your Relief Society president just called and asked if you’ve finished your visiting teaching for the month.

You are stressed and want to scream. Is there any way to prevent these episodes?

“The biggest thing that causes stress is our reactions to situations. It is not necessarily that we have a term paper due, it is how we perceive our ability to do the term paper,” Marie Parkinson of the Health Science Department said.

Parkinson suggests that people prioritize their schedules and set realistic goals.

“We need to look at the list that we’ve given ourselves and actually see what matters.

“Where is the most important thing, and then understand that we can’t do a 15-25 checklist every single day, but pick out two or three things that are maybe vitally important.”

One of the most important things to Parkinson is spending time with those who matter most.

Stress can be a positive force for some people.

“Stress arousal can be a positive motivating force that improves the quality of life. Initially, as stress increases so does health, performance and general well-being.

“However, as stress continues to increase, an optimal stress level is obtained, and if stress continues beyond this point to maximum stress, then performance quickly declines and health begins to erode,” according to Contemporary Women’s Health, by Kolander, Ballard, and Chandler.

How can we effectively deal with inevitable stress?

“The biggest thing is that it has to be personal. What will work for me may not work for other people,” Parkinson said.

“When it’s really stressful I put on my fuzzy white slippers and eat sweetened condensed milk,” Valerie Beck, a freshman from Blackfoot, Idaho, said.

Some ways that Parkinson suggests to relieve stress is to take a bubble bath, get a pedicure or write your problems on the bottom of your shoes and jog them off.

Parkinson also recommends music as a way to relieve stress.

“Calming music is a very nice thing if you’re in a calming mood, but when I’m very stressed I have to have it very up-beat. I like Liszt,” Parkinson said.

Beck also relaxes by listening to a variety of tunes on her MP3 player, including Christmas music and the Shrek soundtrack.

In dealing with and eliminating stress, Parkinson says to evaluate your life—abort useless things, alter your lifestyle if necessary and learn to adjust to things that cannot be changed.