Temple Talks Owl About Stress

BY EMANI WASHINGTON

The Office of Leadership and Wellness Resource Center hosted the “Owl About Stress Workshop”.

This workshop is designed to help students develop new ways to think about stress and offers healthy ways to cope with it.

Throughout this workshop there were several examples of stressors that students face on an everyday basis, but it was also pointed out that it’s more about how stress is dealt with rather than the actual stressor itself.

Peer Educator at the Wellness Resource Center, Dana Crowe explains the differences between an internal stressor and an external stressor.

“An internal stressor is essentially a stressor that comes from within and it could be your perception of yourself and other things that you may force upon yourself,” Crowe said. “Say, one person accepts C’s from themselves, but somebody else may accept only A’s, that would be an example of an internal stressor. An external stressor is stress that comes from other elements around you. It could be maybe your friends are stressing you out, or you have multiple papers due or getting stuck in traffic is an external stressor.”

This workshop explained the different levels of stress that students feel. It also allowed students to voice their personal testimonies on their own unique stress relievers.

One coping mechanism that the presenters shared was to have a self-care plan that helps identify your top stress triggers, identify your greatest strengths, have three go-to stress management activities, identify your support system, have an encouraging mantra and ultimately take care of yourself.

Although it may be easier said than done, Crowe also gave insight on how stress can escalade and create bigger problems for students.

“With chronic stress, we had some examples; People were suffering from poverty, racism and things like that,” Crowe said. “If somebody feels like they are suffering from chronic stress, we definitely recommend that they seek more professional help. Chronic stress over a long time can create a lot more health problems so that’s why we definitely recommend seeing a professional about that.”

If you are a student at Temple and are feeling stressed in anyway, the Wellness Resource Center in the lower level of Mitten Hall welcomes you to visit them at any time. Its’ hours are from 8:30am- 5:00pm.