College is full of potential. There is a lot to gain and a lot to lose.

While working toward success, you’ll likely encounter stressors. Leaving your family home, beginning classes, taking exams, establishing friend groups and financial pressures can all make students tense.

You will experience consequences if you don’t address your stress.

“Any significant change that someone is noticing… we encourage them to step back and take a moment,” said Michelle Roling, clinical care coordinator and mental health counselor.

Stress affects everyone in different ways. It can disrupt sleep, change your temperament, alter your appetite and cause headaches. In more severe cases, stress can evolve into anxiety.

Iowa State offers many services to help cope with stress.

Student Counseling and Student Services work together to offer a variety of coping mechanisms.

One form of support is biofeedback, which is a process that allows students to increase awareness of their physiological functions such as heart rate and breathing. The goal of this process is to be in control of your body regardless of external stressors.

The Student Counseling website has free downloadable audio tracks to help practice mindfulness and meditation. Recreation Services offers mindful yoga. These practices can help keep stress low.

Roling recommends seeking services early. When you make the transition from high school to freshman year, the academic rigor is different and can be stressful.

University services aren’t the only method to cope with stress. Self-care and healthy choices can help you live a more joyful life.

Building a sustainable schedule helps manage your time, reduce stress and increase productivity.

For example, Roling said schedules should include down time.

“We know that you must take study breaks, and give your brain a chance to rest,” Roling said.

Every person has different limitations for how much stress they can handle.

“Go back and kind of think about the old messages we’ve gotten from older family members, that everything in moderation,” Roling said. “Work hard to play hard.”

Staying active will help lower stress. Activities can vary from playing on an intramural team to going for a mindful walk alone. Do things that are enjoyable and release negative energy along the way.

It’s important to take care of yourself on an ongoing basis. Roling said people should stay hydrated, nourish themselves and get plenty of sleep.

“Sleep is a critical component to keep stress down,” she said.

Roling had one final strategy for keeping a student’s mental health in shape.

“I would encourage people, on a good day, toward the beginning of the semester, to write themselves a letter about what’s going well,” Roling said. “What are all the things I’m doing on a daily basis, right now, that feel good and bring energy? What are my hopes for myself for this semester?”

Roling said people should open their letters to themselves in cases where they feel down or need help. 

“Seal it up in an envelope, and, if you hit a rough patch, they can get that out and open it,” Rolling said. “And it will literally be a how to for themselves, and they’ll be able to say, ‘oh yeah, I’ve stopped eating lunch with my friends,’ or ‘I’ve stopped going for a walk,’ or ‘I’m staying up later,’ and it will be able to help guide them back.”