4.4: Stress Management — Read

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Understanding Stress and Decision-Making

Career and life planning, decision-making, and goal setting are exciting topics that play an important role in our lives, yet at the same time they are very heavy topics and can induce high levels of stress. Making decisions that will impact your future can feel overwhelming and create negative thoughts, unproductive behaviors, and uncontrollable emotions. In this section, we will address how stress can be managed and the important role you play in managing your own stress levels.

This section is focused on helping you identify and understand your stress responses. If stressful situations persist and there are no healthy coping mechanisms developed. The immune system is compromised, and disease begins. There are many tools that are available to help us learn healthy ways of dealing with daily ups and downs. This unit will help you explore some very solid, research-based tools for dealing with stress.

Stress Management Tools

Two of the most powerful tools most frequently used for managing stress are reframing and mindfulness.

Reframing: Changing Your Perspective

Reframing is a stress-management strategy that involves changing how you interpret a situation. Re-framing is a matter of mindset. Even though something happens that I may not have planned for, I still have a choice in how I respond to it. I can let “it” ruin my day, or I can figure out how to best deal with the situation and move on. So in other words, I can choose to “catastrophize” the situation and make myself and those around me have a bad day, or I can find a solution to take myself out of the situation. I always have a choice.

What patterns do you notice in your thinking during stressful situations? Are you generally a positive or negative thinker? If you are a negative thinker, use this opportunity to start to become consciously aware of your thought/perception patterns. Once you become more aware, you can make changes that will help you manage your thought process, thus changing your intentions, attitudes, and outcomes to a more positive lifestyle, which will help contribute to managing your level of stress.

Mindfulness and Present-Moment Awareness

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. Choosing to be mindful is about awareness. Rather than being distracted by technology or multitasking, mindfulness involves slowing down and fully engaging with what you are doing. Rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted by technology, television, or a myriad of other things, we purposely slow down and take in everything by being fully present. While many people refer to multitasking, research suggests we are actually shifting attention between tasks rather than focusing on multiple tasks at once. Each shift in attention can reduce focus and efficiency. Some people describe a distracted mental state as “monkey mind,” where thoughts move quickly from one idea to another. Mindfulness helps create awareness of this pattern and supports greater focus and calm.

Consider these tools when facing stressful situations. Re-framing and mindfulness are powerful tools that can be practiced to help manage stress caused by everyday stressors.³⁵

Healthy Habits That Support Stress Management

Stress management is closely connected to overall health. Healthy routines support both mental and physical well-being.

Key areas include:

Sleep quality and consistency
Nutrition and eating habits
Regular physical activity
Social connection and support systems

Poor sleep and nutrition can affect mood, energy levels, and decision-making. High levels of stress may also lead to impulsive decisions or unhealthy coping behaviors. Over time, unmanaged stress can contribute to anxiety, changes in mood, and difficulty concentrating. Regular participation in health-promoting behaviors such as exercise, healthy eating, and social connections reduces stress and anxiety.

Identifying Your Stress and Support Resources

It is important to pay attentuion to how you are "feeling." Often times when we suffer an increased amount of stress, our mental state is negatively affected. This may cause depression, anxiety, weight gain/loss, and feeling lost. Analyze and identify possible resources to help you navigate back to a balanced lifestyle.

Helpful resources may include:

Friends and family
Campus support services
Counseling or wellness centers
Healthy routines and habits
Time management strategies

The Student Health and Counseling Department provides mental health counseling free of charge to students.If you are feeling overwhelmed by academic pressures, work, personal responsibilities, or life challenges, you may benefit from speaking with a mental health professional. For more information, visit the Student Health and Wellness site or complete a Self-Referral Form (you will need your GavID and Password to access the form.)

This page titled 4.4: Stress Management was last modified on Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:25:55 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Graciela Martinez and Elizabeth Shaker.

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