By Evan White

There are many ways to define stress and how it comes about. Stress is the feeling of not being able to cope with mental and emotional pressure while being overwhelmed.

The worst part about being stressed is that there are a lot of effects that come into play such as having headaches from worrying, failing to concentrate and remain focused, and even having a feeling of fear, doubt, and depression.

Stress can be work-related, financial problems, dealing with the passing of a family member, or even as simple as not being able to figure out what’s to come next in life. However, stress does not have to overtake anyone if the right techniques are being practiced.

Roosevelt Joseph, a sophomore at QU, goes into detail about the stress relief strategies that are most beneficial to him. 

“I feel like everybody has to encounter stress at some point in their life whether they cause it or not, it’s like something you can’t get away from,” Joseph said. “I play football here so anytime I feel stress coming upon me, I try to go lift or hit the field with some teammates because it takes my mind off the bad things, lifting especially.” 

As some older folks would say, “It starts in the home”, meaning however you leave home and what’s going on in the household could carry over to the daily lifestyle. 

“With my mom being single, life was so much harder for us, she would get on me more about being independent and preparing me for the real world. However, with both parents being in the household that can really balance relationships and the way I go about things would be much better,” Jasmine Terry said.

 “For my stress relief techniques, I like talking on the phone with my close friends because they’re able to feel where I’m coming from and always offer great advice that allows me to grow,” Terry said. Friends are a great resource to talk to about problems of all sorts.”

This generation has been the one to encounter some of the most challenging situations due to the fact that COVID-19 came and ruined a lot of students and athletes’ school year for activities and sports. In spring of 2020, so many athletes and their institutions across the country were not able to finish out the postseason for some sports and on top of that, spring-semester athletes did not have a season.

However, despite all of that, athletes were able to get a year of eligibility back. For example, this brought unwanted stress to the world of athletes. Many of which who were banking on their senior year to make a big run in the postseason.

For the basketball players, March Madness is the biggest time of the year for players to showcase their talents to NBA scouts and personnel. With seasons ending early, many people’s draft stock went away and it was really like starting all over from square one. 

Stress can really get the best of someone, but only if the person lets it. A few ways to cope with stress are to accept help regularly, eat a healthy and balanced diet, put yourself in support groups, practice meditation/yoga, and the most important part of it all, getting enough rest to ease the mind.