Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe event with Sarah Rubenstein-Gillis and Andrea Gerding. Sarah and Andrea work at Gannett Health Services and the focus of their talk was stress. They also gave us various mechanisms on how to cope with stress for the upcoming finals weeks. They began the talk by providing some examples of signs that can tell you if you are stressed. Stress manifests itself differently in different people. For example, stress can cause physical ailments such as physical exhaustion, muscle tension, or migraines. On the other end of the spectra, stress can cause mental ailments as well. Inability to sleep or focus are some examples of such mental ailments.

When I get stressed, I have a difficult time falling asleep at night. Sarah and Andrea said that the reason for this is that I am worried about things that I have to do. They suggested that I try listening to relaxing music or making a list of the things that I have to do so that when I sleep, I do not have to think about these things. Another thing I learned from the cafe was that it is always better to try and prevent stress. This can be accomplished by providing yourself with positive energy throughout the day. For example, if you are working on an assignment, break up the assignment into smaller parts. That way, when you finish a part, you still receive a sense of satisfaction that you completed something. This will help you to not feel so stressed out later on in the assignment.

I really enjoyed this Rose Cafe event. With finals week coming up, the information I got from the talk was very relevant. As I had mentioned earlier, stress keeps me from falling asleep sometimes, but since this event, I have already used some of the methods and have been able to go to sleep much quicker.