Hey what's up guys and welcome to my
second video this week, I know that's pretty rare
and to make it rarer still, this is
actually my first full collaboration video.
So this week I partenered up with my friend Jess
who runs another channel about studying and
learning called fittingly, Study with Jess,
and I thought it'd be really cool to do a video
on how to manage stress since we're just about
into finals right now and hopefully you'll be able to
use some of the tips in this video to
manage any stress that you're feeling.
- Hi everyone, so when I was studying my
post-graduate diploma of psychology,
I learned a great deal about stress
but also some really effective techniques that you
can implement throughout the year to help you
feel more calm and stay on top of your stress levels.
So I'm going to be sharing with you my top five tips
for reducing stress and staying calm throughout the
busy school year but before I get into that, I actually
wanted to cover what is stress and what happens in
our body when we start to feel stressed, so stick around.
So what is stress?
Stress is your body's reaction to any change in the
environment that requires an adjustment or a response.
The body then reacts to these changes with either
physical, mental or emotional responses.
So in daily life, we often use the term stress to mean
something negative, but that's not actually the case.
Stress can either be positive or negative,
known as eustress or distress.
So eustress is the term used for describing positive stress
and this is the kind of stress that motivates us,
increases our focus, gets us excited
and increases our performance.
Some examples of eustress could be receiving a
promotion, starting a new job or having a child.
In contrast to eustress, distress is the term used
for describing negative stress and this is the kind
of stress that impairs our focus, leaves us feeling
anxious or nervous, often it's perceived as outside of
our coping abilities and impairs our performance.
And some examples of distress could be losing a job,
sickness, or the death of a loved one.
So what happens to our body when we start to feel stressed?
In the event of stress our bodies defense systems
are activated in a rapid and automatic response
known as the fight or flight mode.
Your body then releases stress hormones
called cortisol and adrenaline
which cause your heart to beat faster,
your breathing to quicken, your blood pressure
to rise and your senses begin to sharpen.
Also your body is preparing you to
either fight or flee the situation.
So how much stress is too much stress?
Some stress is good, in fact it actually helps to
improve our performance and increase our focus
so that we can execute a task more effectively.
But at what point does having too much
stress impair our performance?
The inverted U model
or Yerkes-Dodson law shows the relationship
between stress or arousal and performance.
This model, demonstrated by a bell-shaped curve,
says that up to a point stress actually improves
our performance, but when it becomes too high
it makes our performance drop rapidly.
So let's put this graph into perspective, shall we?
For example, you sit down at your desk to take an exam,
as you turn that page over, you can feel
your heart start to beat a little bit faster.
You can feel your breath start to quicken.
You feel wide awake and focused
and maybe even a little bit eager
to keep turning those pages and tackle that exam.
This scenario would be demonstrated by
the middle of the curve, showing that you've
experienced an optimal level of stress
and your performance is actually improving.
But what if we actually turned up the level of
cortisol and adrenaline pumping through your body?
This time you sit down at your desk to take an exam,
and as you turn that page, your breathing quickens,
you feel a pit at the bottom of your stomach
and the thought of actually trying to fathom
what these questions are becomes overwhelming.
This scenario would be demonstrated by the
bottom of the curve, showing that you've
actually experienced too much stress
and your performance is impaired.
So how can we manage stress to
stop it from getting the better of us?
Well here are my top five tips.
Tip number one is to do some deep breathing.
So when doing deep breathing you're actually
switching on your parasympathetic nervous system
to create a calming effect.
Try to increase your exhalations to
be longer than your inhalations.
Breathing in to the count of four
and then breathing out to the count of six
can have a really calming effect on the mind.
Tip number two is to use positive self talk.
Write down on a set of flash cards some
positive statements starting with I.
This way you can pull them out at any time
that you need and read over them to get
you into a more positive mindset.
Some examples of what you might like to write down,
especially if you're just about to have a test,
would be I know that I have studied to the best of
my abilities or I have survived exams before,
and my favorite is I'm going to ace this exam.
Tip number three is to seek support.
So talking to a family member, a friend, or even
a staff member can really effective because
it reminds us that we're not alone
and often they'll come up with some
really effective strategies as well.
The next tip is to exercise and get outdoors regularly.
So when you exercise you're able to reduce your
cortisol levels and also produce endorphins
to make you feel better.
The other great thing about exercising regularly
is that it promotes a good night's sleep.
Tip number five is to engage in self care.
Make sure you set aside at least 30 minutes
every day to do something nice for yourself.
Don't get consumed in all of your work
and end up neglecting your own personal needs.
It's important to prioritize yourself
and have some important me time every day
so that you don't end up feeling burnt out or run down
close to the end of the year or even sooner.
Some examples of what you might like to
do for yourself could be to read a book,
go to the park, play with a pet or even see your friends.
So there are my top five tips for managing stress
and I hope you found them helpful.
All right, I'm gonna hand you back over to Thomas.
All right guys so I really hope you enjoyed Jess's part
of the video and before I close this video out
I've just got a couple of different
things I want to mention.
Number one, if you're looking for some more
note taking hacks, I actually made a video about that
topic on her channel, so you can click
right there to watch it and also I just really
encourage you to go over to Jess's channel
and check out some of her videos and subscribe
if you like them because she's one of the few people
that is also dedicating all of her time to making
videos about studying and learning here on YouTube.
That is all I've got for this video so thanks so much
for watching and as always, I will see you next week.
(fast, upbeat music)
- [Voiceover] Hey there guys, thanks so much
for watching this video, if you enjoyed it
it would be awesome if you gave it a like
to support this channel and you can also
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tips on being a more effective student every single week.
You can also pick up a free copy of my book on
earning better grades by clicking the picture of the book
and if you missed the other video I did this week
It's over how to build a study schedule for your finals
so definitely check it out.
Lastly, I'm Tom Frankly at both Instagram and Twitter
if you want to connect or you can just
leave a comment down below.