Analysis

I. Introduction:

What causes Stress?

Stress is the physical and mental response of the body to demands made upon it. It is the result
of our reaction to outside events, not necessarily the events themselves. Not all stress is bad. We each
function best and feel best at our own optimal level of physiological arousal. We need some stress to get
everyday things done. Too little can lead to boredom and “rust out” – but too much can lead to
“burnout”. Adaptive stress helps us rise to life’s challenges. Adrenaline, nor-adrenaline, and glucose flow
into our blood. We get a buzz of energy and feel alert, focused, and creative. Negative stress occurs
when our ability to cope with life’s demands crumbles. If we don’t break down the stress chemicals (e.g.
through physical activity), they stay in the blood, preventing us from relaxing. Eventually, this results in a
permanent state of stress. That initial buzz turns to worry, irritability, or panic. Challenges become
threats; we doubt our ability to do even simple things and problems appear insurmountable.

Different things cause stress in different people. Some of the things students commonly cite as causes of
stress include:

 Examinations
 deadlines
 returning to study
 the pressure of combining paid work and study
 difficulty in organizing work
 poor time management
 leaving assignments to the last minute
 out of-control debts
 poor housing
 overcrowding
 noise
 adjusting to life in a new environment or even country
 difficulties with personal relationships (e.g. splitting up)
 balancing the demands of a family with studying
 parents or problems at home

Very often stress results from an accumulation of many different pressures which build up
gradually without us noticing.

Managing Stress
The key to success is to think positively. Take control of your stress and anxiety by
learning effective techniques to combat it. Relaxing bodily tension in order to reduce the
physical sensations of stress is a good place to start. If your body is free of tension, your mind
tends to be relaxed. This helps you concentrate and study, take decisions, and solve problems.
When you are relaxed, you can view each task as a positive challenge, and use stress as a
stimulus to help you carry it out, giving you a relaxing glow of achievement afterward.

II. Body Paragraphs

Stanford psychologist Kelly Mc Gonigal talks about new research indicating that stress
can make us stronger, smarter, and happier – if we learn how to open our minds to it.
Stanford psychologist Kelly Mc Gonigal says that viewing stress more positively seems to
encourage people to cope in ways that help them thrive. If people actually embrace the concept
of stress, it can make them stronger, smarter, and happier, a Stanford expert says.
“Stress isn’t always harmful,” said Kelly Mc Gonigal, a business school lecturer at Stanford and
program developer for the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and
Education. “Once you appreciate that going through stress makes you better at it, it can be easier
to face each new challenge.”
The initial research on stress mindsets, which was conducted by Stanford psychology Assistant
Professor Alia Crum, showed that viewing stress as a helpful part of life, rather than as
harmful, is associated with better health, emotional well-being, and productivity at work – even
during periods of high stress. One reason that how you think about stress matters is because it
changes how you respond to stress. Viewing stress as harmful leads people to cope in ways that
are less helpful, whether it’s getting drunk to “release” stress, procrastinating to avoid stress, or
imagining worst-case scenarios. One study found that simply having the goal to avoid stress
increased the long-term risk of outcomes like depression, divorce, and getting fired, by
increasing people’s reliance on harmful coping strategies.
In contrast, viewing stress more positively seems to encourage people to cope in ways that help
them thrive, whether it’s tackling the source of stress, seeking social support or finding meaning
in it.

III. Conclusion

Stress is not all bad.

Stress helps us to deal with life’s challenges, to give our best performance, and to meet a tough
situations with focus. The body’s stress response is important and necessary. However, when too
much stress builds up, we may encounter many physical and emotional health problems. If we
don’t deal with stress, our health problems can stay with us and worsen over the course of our
life.
We cannot eliminate stress from our daily lives at our workplaces, schools, homes, etc, but
studies have proved that there is much we can do to reduce it. Therefore the establishment of
stress management for every individual is essential.