Usually, people think student life is all about attending classes and hanging out with friends. However, this is only one aspect of being a student. In today’s highly competitive marketplace, students face a massive amount of academic pressure, especially in the healthcare field. Alongside a challenging curriculum, parents even have loads of expectations from their children.
Besides, students also have to keep up with extra-curricular, ace college placement tests, and navigate social challenges. In this bustling life, most students experience significant amounts of stress, which can take a toll on their health, happiness, and grades. At times, it even affects their sleep patterns, diet, and emotional well-being. Although educators are trying to bring innovation into the curriculum and reduce its difficulty levels, students have to strengthen their coping mechanisms.
Surprisingly, many students feel the sense to relieve stress. But they hardly find time to try stress relievers with all the responsibilities. Understanding the students’ busy schedules, here we are listing seven simple stress-busting techniques for healthcare students.
7 Stress-Busting Techniques for Healthcare Students
Don’t Pressurize Yourself
Sometimes, the overwhelming academic goals put students under a lot of pressure, resulting in anxiety and stress. Even though setting challenging goals is imperative to achieve strict deadlines, don’t let this get into your mind. In addition to disrupting mental health, it can affect physical well-being. Therefore, determine your learning capacity and set goals accordingly. If you can complete five lessons in a day, set a similar goal. Achieving such goals gives an inner sense of satisfaction while motivating students to perform better.
Most importantly, choose your degree and course program wisely. If you are confident that your caliber is not high enough to complete a doctorate program, don’t overburden yourself. You can look for other healthcare sector programs such as ceph accredited online mph programs no gre to avoid the pressure. You won’t have to take the graduate record exam (GRE), reducing the overall course burden. Honestly, making smart decisions at the time of career selection can be quite helpful for the students.
Exercise Regularly
It may sound like a no-brainer, but exercise is crucial to living a healthy and stress-free life. Exercise releases happy hormones – endorphins that relieve stress, reduces anxiety and combats depression. It doesn’t mean students have to head over to the gym after a hectic day at college. Perhaps, going for a run or evening walk can be equally effective. Similarly, if you are into sports, take out time for your hobbies. After all, any form of physical activity is beneficial for the health.
It helps students focus on their body and movements instead of worrying about studies. In turn, it adds mindfulness that combats negative thoughts and stress. Believe it or not, a healthy workout can put everything back to zero; you step outside, reset, and refocus on learning.
Take Regular Breaks
All the overworked and exhausted medical students need a break. Sitting between books 24/7 can drain all your energy while making your brain go numb. Above all, it significantly reduces retention power. Hence, treat yourself to a 5–10-minute break after every hour. You can go for a walk outside, listen to music, play a game, or anything that helps clear your mind. These small breaks throughout the day increase focus and productivity levels.
However, if you think this can break your learning spirit, take weekends off. You can go out with friends, have dinner outside, or meet your family. Precisely, utilize your weekends to unwind the brain and prepare a schedule for the coming week. Besides elevating health, taking regular breaks can also improve your sanity.
Try Self-Hypothesis
Do you feel sleepy at times? Despite sleeping for good eight hours, students complain of fatigue and dullness. Well, it happens because of all the tension and stress in your subconscious mind. Self-hypnosis can be a useful stress-management tool, helping students release all the pressure. First, use hypnosis to get into a relaxed state to prevent all stress-related health problems. Secondly, create conclusions for all the suggestions coming from your subconscious mind. It would release stress from the mind and plant seeds of positivity in your subconscious mind. Thus, eliminating all the negative thoughts and making your brain feel fresh.
Adopt Healthy Eating Habits
Even though medical students don’t have time to cook, they can understand the importance of healthy eating. Thus, following the concept of ‘practice what you preach,’ students must adopt healthy eating habits. Avoid having junk or sugary foods since it can worsen stress and anxiety. You can consume foods rich in omega-3 acids such as avocados, tuna, salmon, or sardines. In addition to being healthy, these foods can lower stress.
Busy medical students can also add chia seeds to their breakfast as it keeps the mind sharp. Also, citrus foods like strawberries, oranges, and grapefruit are high in vitamin C, closing doors for deficiencies. And for your sweet tooth, opt for dark chocolates. They are rich in antioxidants that lower stress hormones, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
Get Enough Sleep
As a healthcare student, getting an 8-hour sleep seems like an uphill battle, but it is essential. Not getting enough sleep at night increases stress, anger, and sadness because your body feels exhausted. It also drains out all the energy, affecting your productivity levels. Therefore, make sure you at least sleep 7-hours every day. In case you are unable to sleep for 7-hours, take power naps to make up for the lost sleep. Remember, the quality of sleep also matters because disrupted sleep patterns can slow down cognitive functioning. It hinders your thought process and concentration level, resulting in additional stress.
Practice Muscle Relaxation
With spiking mental health concerns, professionals are developing different stress-busting techniques. Progressive muscle regression is one of the most popular stress relievers that can help medical students overcome stress. It involves tensing and calming all the muscles until the body feels relaxed. In short, you have to loosen up your muscles while sitting in the most comfortable position.
With practice, you will learn to release stress from your body in minutes. Moreover, students can try this relaxation technique before going to bed for a deeper sleep. Likewise, it can also reverse test-induced panic that students encounter before the exam.
Final Words
Medical students face a great deal of pressure, primarily because of academia and advanced curriculum. Similarly, they also have to deal with peer pressure, extracurriculars, and other social challenges. Every student tries their level best to cope with these challenges, but many end up suffering from stress and anxiety. Before these mental health issues start affecting performance, students should look for stress-busting techniques to combat stress.