Women Living Well - 2004

Student Papers

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Within the Bryn Mawr community as well as all college communities, it is very difficult for students to have balance within their lives. It is almost expected to not have balance because it is the time of your life where you do things that shape your future. It is the time to experiment and learn about certain concepts like balance. I think of balance as having an equal distribution of work and play in order to minimize stress and have a positive mental state.

The main reason for the lack of balance in the lives of college students is stress. We learned that it is the way that we look at the stress that we have in our lives that makes us not achieve balance. We never looked at some stress as being good stress. We always thought that all stress was bad. The good stress acts as a motivator to get things done because there might be something good in the end that's going to come from dealing with that stress. I admit that I only think of the bad stress and it times that can be detrimental to my positive mental state. Like Reggie said, bad stress makes a person feel helpless in most situations. I do feel helpless when I get into situations where the stress is bad. I always forget that stress is necessary in life. It adds character to our lives because without it there would be no variation in the tempo of our everyday lives.

To achieve balance in my life, I designate days where I will not do any work. I would just spend my time doing nothing productive. When I get really stressed, I always try to incorporate some physical activity into my routine in order to get the blood flowing through my body. I feel a lot better when I work out because a lot of stress is gone.