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[8]By Leah Den Hartogh [9] and Jenna Leslie [10]
BELLEVILLE – Trading, breeding and selling African cichlids [11] is how Loyalist College [12] councillor Adam Gosney manages his stress levels.
He keeps his fish in his 10 different aquariums where he cleans, feeds and looks after the pets.
This activity allows for Gosney to focus his energy on cleaning and caring for the animals instead of thinking about work and all of life’s responsibilities.
Having a hobby was just one of the many suggestions that he gave for healthy ways that students can help minimize the amount of stress they deal with on a daily basis.
Another suggestion that Gosney gave was to never to overcommit to any one thing. Putting too much on your plate, he says, is a “recipe for burnout.”
Some of the other suggestions he gave for dealing with stress were managing your time effectively, avoiding overindulgence and making time for play.
“Having fun for the sake of having fun,” stressed Gosney, is an important thing for people to remember.
According to Gosney many students turn procrastinate when they are put in a stressful situation. He said that this avoidance may help in the immediate present but ultimately ends up causing them more stress.
He said that people need to realize that “stress is inevitable.” Gosney argued that it is how one manages this stress that is important to leading a healthy life.
Gosney claimed that among the most common stressors that he deals with in students are handling demands of college, relationship breakdowns, family crises and mental health difficulties.
“There will be successes and failures, relationships to navigate, family crises and just times when you have a lot on your plate: work schedules, bad days, and life itself throws you a curveball. All of those things are inherently stressful experiences.”
He says that there are certain activities that can be done to manage and decompress these stresses.
For other advice in dealing with stress, see the video below.
How to Manage Stress [13] from QNet News [14] on Vimeo [15].