College
...living better. In order to live a fulfilling life, you must believe in yourself, and engage in activities. Your personal health and safely depends on your attitude. When having a negative attitude you won’t accomplish much. Being assertive also has many benefits. Assertiveness is speaking your mind and allowing others to do the same. Some of the benefits of being assertive are as follows. Being assertive helps you to: 1. Speak your mind clearly and effectively, 2. Say “NO” without feeling guilty, 3. Feel better about yourself, 4. Improve your relationship with others 5. Get more respect from others. How you can start being assertive is by evaluating your behavior. Three different types of behavior you can exhibit are assertive, non-assertive, and aggressive. Seeing as you already know what assertive is, non-assertive behavior is putting others first at your expense. Fear, false belief, and/or lack of skill can often cause this kind of behavior. Aggressive behavior is putting you first, at the expense of others. Some things that cause aggression are insecurity, reluctance, and inexperience. Stress can impact one’s attitude and the way they behave with others. Stress is the pressure from the outside that can make you feel tense inside. It is an unavoidable fact of life. Stress comes from worrying, being a perfectionists, being self-critical, feeling powerless, and expecting problems. One of the main causes of stress is change. The most common sign of stress is anxiety. Anxiety is a worried and uptight feeling. Everyone has certain amounts of anxiety. Having anxiety is normal in one’s life but you have to know how to deal with the levels of it. Stress and anxiety can also lead to depression. Depression is a “sad and blue” feeling. Why should college students learn about stress? College is very different from high school. In college you will probably live with one or two roommates. Your classmates will be strangers at first, and the workload will be heavier and more complex. When faced with challenging decisions you can talk to your academic advisors, college counselors, and other resources for helpful information. Make studying less stressful by choosing a quiet place in which to study, learning to use your time more effectively, taking breaks while studying, and recognizing your limitations. Other useful tips for managing stress are organizing yourself (personal planning), changing the scene (listening, contact) changing your mind (faith, imagination), body building (eat ligh...