With the overwhelming responsibility of balancing the completion of homework tasks, intense studying, extracurricular activities, and the occasional social difficulties, students are faced with a dangerous amount of stress each and every day of their busy lives. Stress is basically your body’s response to anything that disrupts your normal life and routines, either in a negative or a positive way. According to a survey that was established by the American Psychological Association, it was shown that teen stress incredibly rivals that of adults. Other surveys have displayed that 30 percent of teens reported feeling sad or depressed because of stress, 31 percent  felt overwhelmed, 36 percent said that stress makes them tired, and 23 percent said they’ve skipped meals because of it. Unfortunately, a hazardously increasing dosage of stress can play a part in many health effects including headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression, and anxiety.

To avoid making a dangerous impact on your health, it is important for students to try taking a positive approach when dealing with high stress levels. For example, the follow list includes various ways in which anxiety levels can easily be reduced:

1. Light yoga & exercise
2. Meditation
3. Breathing deeply
4. Aromatherapy (Spark some scents!)
5. Listening to music
6. Laughing it off
7. Chewing gum (It’s actually been proven to help!)
8. Taking a nap
9. Write/Read
10. 10.) Take a short walk

When Eunice Park, sophomore, was asked about the amount of stress she undergoes on a daily basis, she said, “I can say that from my own experience, I certainly do feel stress every day for upcoming tests, quizzes, etc. I also find time management to be rather quite difficult, even though I know it will result in the reduction of anxiety. I think stress is something that we all just have to learn to handle, yet not linger on. Focusing on how stressed you are rather than getting your work done can be emotionally deteriorating and depressing. I realized that even though it surely is an incredible pain to go through, especially due to school work, it also teaches me how to be efficient and wise about my life.”