How to handle stress?

Let me start this speech with a motivational quote “The struggle you’re in today is
developing the strength you need for tomorrow.” Stress is a fact of life for people of all
ages. As a high school student, you undeniably have a lot going on. Schoolwork and
studying take up time, especially for challenging academic classes. Your after-school
hours are likely packed with extracurricular activities. Add in a part-time job, a social life,
and spending time with your family, and you’re potentially facing a very busy schedule.
It’s no wonder, that many high school students feel stressed. To a certain extent, this is
normal and expected— everyone experiences stress, and many challenging and
valuable experiences will also be unavoidably stressful. Stress can often be part of the
experience of growth, and it’s not something you can or should totally avoid. Nearly half
(49%) of all students reported feeling a great deal of stress on a daily basis and 31
percent reported feeling somewhat stressed. When stress becomes a problem is when
it begins to affect you in negative ways, which can manifest in different forms for
different people. The common causes of stress to students include assignment,
projects, performance task, deadlines, poor in time management and loads of school
works. Anxiety, depression, suicides, poor mental health, and low self-esteem these are
just some effects of stress to students. Some might experience physical effects like
headaches or stomach troubles. Others might feel overwhelmed by worries, have
trouble sleeping, or be more easily irritated. But these things won’t happen if we know
how to handle stress. To handle stress we should: First, set our priorities in life. Why?
To be successful in managing multiple school works. And we as a student our main
priority to study and to finish with a degree. But it will not happen if it is not our priority.
For example, we should priority first doing our school works before leisure activities.
Because if we prioritize our leisure and then school works, it will lead us to loads of
school works which the impact to us is stress. Second, Time Management it allows you
to accomplish more in a shorter period of time, which leads to more free time, which lets
you take advantage of learning opportunities, lowers your stress, and helps you focus,
which leads to more career success. Third, Self-care it is important to maintain a
healthy relationship with yourself, sometimes called self-love. It produces positive
feelings, which improves confidence and self-esteem too. I have a story that will
motivate everyone. In a class, the professor brought some items a golf balls, pebbles,
sand, and a jar. He then picked up the jar and he put first the golf balls and then he
asked his students if the jar is full they said “Yes”. Then he put next the pebbles and he
asked the students if the jar is full they also said “yes”. Lastly, he put the sand in the jar
and asked the student if the jar is full and they said “yes”. He told to the students that
the jar represents us or our life. The golf balls represent as the important things in life-
our family, friends, goals, dreams, and health. Then, the pebbles represent as the other
things like car, outings, accessories and etc. And the sand represent as the small
things. The professor wanted his student to realized that if we put the sand first then
there is no room for the pebbles or golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all
your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are
important to you. Pay attention to the things that are priorities. Before we do the small
things, we should prioritize first the important things. For example, before we play some
mobile games or stroll in the mall, we should prioritize our school works. Because if we
choose to play mobile games or stroll in the mall, then we don’t have a time to do the
school works and it will compile up and will lead us to stress . This help the students to
lessen the stress because they know now their priorities. To end this, when things in
your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough,
remember the jar story.