Most school environments are rife with stressful conditions. Such conditions are not an exception in my school. I face challenging circumstances frequently, especially in social interactions within and outside the classroom. Often, these stressful scenarios handicap my ability to manage time, thus lowering school life quality. As such, this paper highlights the primary stressors currently affecting my school life, their origins and explores the best approaches for surmounting them. This introspection is also invaluable because it helps me gain a deeper understanding of my personality.
Social pressure, and undue physical and mental exertion from extra-curricular activities are the most considerable stressors affecting my school life quality. Social anxiety emanates from the nature of my personality. More specifically, I fall in the middle of the social personality spectrum, i.e., I am not distinctly outgoing, nor am I socially inept. In other words, peers describe me as an amalgamation of these two social traits. Possessing such a personality not only interferes with my class participation but also negatively affects collaborative and competitive aspects in my friendships. On the other hand, my preferred co-curricular activities are playing football and playing music in the school band. I view these activities as fulfilling escapes from the academic drudgery. However, although music and footballing activities are relaxing, they are sometimes demanding both physically and emotionally.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
There are specific triggers to the excessively exerting co-curricular activities and the ubiquitous social pressure. Such causes negatively impact my school life and particularly my time management activities. My self-image is perhaps the most critical trigger to both the perceived and experienced social pressure. Notwithstanding my personality, negative thinking habits blind me from innate strengths, causing me to perform self-sabotaging practices such as inadequate classroom participation. As a result, I find myself making inconsequential contributions in teacher-led and student-led class discussions. Non-participation restricts comprehension during lessons, and as such, I result to devices such as self-teaching to catch-up, taking up time for other activities. On the other hand, the primary cause of the needless stress in extra-curricular activities is the pernicious competition for limited slots in the school band and the football team. With the high, school population, extra-curricular activities can only support so many students. Such limited spaces force me to practice intensively to attain optimal performance and neuter competition. The rigorous physical training sometimes proves futile because I sacrifice my social time, but miss out on final team selection on many occasions. Neglecting my social life has wrought very unforgiving consequences, including losing essential friendships, which takes a mental toll on me.
Although numerous challenges plague my life, all hope is not lost because most problems have potential remedies. Some powerful stress relief methods include: positive thinking, eating a healthy diet, practicing meditation, listening to music, being organized, exercising regularly, engaging in visualization, and getting sufficient sleep. Among these stress-relieving techniques, the three most effective strategies are meditation, eating a balanced diet, and practicing positive thinking. According to Osho Media International (1995), meditation means being aware of one’s actions and being aware of events happening to you. In light of this, by practicing meditation, I can overcome stressful situations by using greater energy to improve my well-being leading to better time management despite the transpiring uncontrollable events. Secondly, taking a balanced diet is a powerful stress management tool. For instance, according to Human Kinetics (2010), eating the right kinds of food not only avails proper nutrients to the body but also helps the body deal with stress. Therefore, I should focus on healthy foods at school and at home to relieve the impact of stress on my body. This way, a healthy body will empower me to participate effectively in school activities. Thirdly, practicing positive thinking will alleviate stress because it cultivates a culture of optimism, which breeds better life circumstances.
This reflection has unearthed hitherto hidden personal potential. Investigating my school life stress factors and their remedies reveals that while challenges are inevitable, I must react to them with a positive attitude. The appropriate response calls upon me to shed my negative habits, such as negative thinking and constructively participating in co-curricular activities. Overall, overcoming school and life challenges necessitates mental clarity .
References
Human Kinetics (Organization). (2010). Dimensions of leisure for life: Individuals and society . Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Books.
Osho Media International. (1995). What is meditation? . New York: Osho Media International.
