Campus Conversations at WWU

Welcome to Campus Conversations, a student production from the Counseling and Wellness Center at Western Washington University! Our goal is to spark conversations around mental and sexual health, consent and healthy relationships, and substance harm reduction at Western Washington University—because it's OK to talk about it!

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Campus Conversations at WWU

Stress 101

November 25, 2024 • BeWellWWU • Season 1 • Episode 2

In our second episode of Campus Conversations, we talk all about stress—how students at WWU experience stress, resources at WWU to manage stress, how stress shows up in our bodies, and strategies to build stress resilience. We feature mini-interviews with students at WWU, and our special guest is Madison Wiese, Community Well-being Specialist with the Counseling and Wellness Center, who explores the physiology of stress in depth.

WWU Campus Conversations Episode 2 Transcript

0:01 (intro song)
I'm Shaggy, sitting by a fountain having a conversation about well-being and how to be alive. I'm sitting with my fish friends, feeling all my feelings, asking what it'd be like if we could cry. We can cry. It's campus conversations. It's campus conversations. It's campus conversations. It's campus conversations.

Intro
0:39
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Campus Conversations.

0:42
We are a student founded and led production through the Counseling and Wellness Center at Western Washington University.

0:48
Our goal is to spark conversation about mental and sexual well-being, consent and healthy relationships, and substance harm reduction. Because it's OK to talk about it.

0:57
It's OK to talk about it.

0:58
It is.

0:59
So far, we've talked about the Wellness Advocate program and some of the wellness resources available to students here at Western. You should go check out the episode after listening to this one. Today's episode is going to be all about stress.

1:11
Before we get started, we wanted to do some quick introductions.

1:15
My name is Charlie, she/her pronouns, and I'm studying psychology and communications.

1:21
I'm Riley. I also use she/her pronouns and I'm studying psychology and music.

1:27
Hi, I'm Fiona, I use they/them pronouns and I am studying public health. And now I have a silly little get-to-know-you question for you all. What would you title your current chapter of life and why? Do you want to start us off, Charlie?

1:42
I would say this chapter of my life is all about self-discovery and kind of just figuring out who I am all on my own. And so I would just title it, “Self-Discovery.”

1:54
Nice.

1:57
I would say I was thinking, “Coffee and Tea.” So funny, but I feel like there's a lot of crazy things going on in my life right now, but a constant is coffee in the morning and tea at night. So that was that was where my brain went, yeah.

2:15
I like that.

2:16
Yeah.

2:17
I feel like mine's kind of similar. I feel like I would call it like, “Operation Remix,” or something like that. Like everything is so different from this summer or even last quarter. So everything's new and I like that, but it's been a lot.

2:30
Embracing change.

2:32
Yeah, exactly. OK, now on to the episode. Today we will primarily be discussing stress.

2:39
According to the American Institute of Stress, only 9% of American college students report no stress or less than average stress.

2:46
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America seconds this sentiment, stating that 80% of college students report being stressed on a daily basis.

2:54
To put that in perspective, this means that almost 12,000 students are walking around on Western’s campus dealing with daily stress. That's a lot of students and a lot of stress.

3:03
In fact, data from Western Spring 2024 administration of the National College Health Assessment showed that 80.2% of Western students have experienced moderate to high levels of stress within the last 30 days.

3:19
Again, a lot of stress.

3:20
So this episode will explore Western student experiences with stress, the physiology behind stress, what stress resilience is and how you can build it.

Interviews with WWU Students
3:30
And to better understand how people on Western or Western students experienced stress, we went out into the wild and we did some research. We held interviews with our lovely peers through a series of three short questions.

3:46
Our first question was, what's stressing you out?

3:50
I think the main stressor that I have in school is having to perform well on tests and then speaking to people that I don't know in front of the class and presentations.

4:01
Definitely like just the classes in general and like making it there like on time. And then also just like having quiz days and stuff overlap.

4:14
Balancing everything tends to stress me out. I'm doing classes full time, and I also work and I'm on the board for a club here on campus that can be pretty time consuming. So just trying to balance everything and making sure that I'm not like overworking myself.

4:33
There's a lot going on in the world and it seems kind of hard to focus on schoolwork, but I'm just trying my best. Yeah, just moving forward.

4:46
As you can see, a lot of people are stressed about a lot of things. Exams, money, and balancing school and work and social life were the main ones that came up.

4:56
Yeah, I feel like I totally feel that so hard, like, the balancing act that is life, I think is something that stresses me out. Like all the individual things, all the world things, how they all connect.

5:08
I feel like as students, there's so much stuff coming our way and we just have to absorb it and keep going. But figuring out tools like to move forward with that is going to be really helpful.

5:19
Yeah.

5:19
It was also, it was kind of, like, hard to hear everyone going through the same thing, but somehow in a way, a little bit more comforting to realize that a lot of students are struggling with the same sorts of stressors.

5:35
Yeah, definitely.

5:37
I agree.

5:38
And our second question that we asked was how do you deal with stress?

5:45
Normally I try to think about the things that I can control and the things that I can't, and I normally try to think about all the steps that I took to relieve the stress in the days or weeks prior.

5:57
The way that I deal with stress is usually just trying to calm down. I find a quiet place to go sit at. I tend to get a little overstimulated when there's a lot of chatter and talking around me because it feels like I can't focus. So as long as I have an area where I feel like I can focus and just sit down and relax and be on my own, then I can de-stress a little bit.

6:17
I thought that it was so, so fun listening to, like, all of the little bits and pieces from people on how they combat stress because people really show up in creative ways to combat it. And I feel like just by hearing people's ideas, I learned a lot of cool ideas.

6:33
Yeah.

6:34
An idea that I'm definitely taking away from this is, like, mandatory breaks came up with somebody that I interviewed and I was like, dang, that is such a good idea, a genius idea that I'll be using.

6:48
I liked hearing how much people used animals as like a comfort too, which I can definitely relate to.

6:54
Then our third, the 3rd and final question that we asked students was what does stress feel like in your body?

7:03
Definitely like a weight on my shoulders. I definitely hold up my shoulders and my stomach, kind of, between those.

7:11
If I am stressed, it's probably just going to feel like just headaches. Like I don't want to, kind of, just like mental fog, just not wanting to think about things.

7:22
Stress for me feels like my, like, joints are tight and tired and that, like, my stomach hurts, but it normally feels like, like, my mind is racing.

7:34
I feel like this one was super interesting to see the commonalities that kept coming up. A lot of tightness in the body, the chest and the stomach. And, yeah.

7:46
I liked the, like, how reflective this question was. I feel like it made, like, the people we're interviewing really think, which I appreciated seeing.

7:58
Yeah. And I appreciate how open everyone was. It's like, not easy to talk about this, but everyone was very much, like, well, that's a cool question and they wanted to share, which I think just shows that we should be having more conversations about these things and that really it is a common human experience.

8:13
Well said.

8:14
Yeah.

8:16
Yeah, overall, I feel like it was a really cool experience to actually talk to people and, yeah, just hear what they have to say. And yeah, we want to thank everyone who provide all the students who provided a response. And our apologies if your response didn't make it into the episode. We actually ended up getting a lot more than we thought we would, so that's cool. But catch us in Red Square for more interviews for our next episode in winter.

8:43
Yeah, we'd love to talk to you more.

8:46
We'll be back.

8:48
So as we learned from our interviews, a lot of students reported experiencing stress in their bodies in similar ways, such as tension, tightness in the chest, or pain in the stomach.

8:57
Up next, we'll have an interview with Madison Wiese to learn about the science behind these bodily reactions to stress. Madison is the Community Well-being Specialist here at Western Washington University, and she has a background and interest in somatics, which is all about how we experience things in our body.

Campus Resources
9:12
Now, before we get into our interview with Madison, we did want to shout out some campus resources that could help with some of the things that are stressing our fellow peers out. The websites for each of these sources will be linked in our episode transcript, so please feel free to check them out.

9:26
Got a big chemistry exam coming up that feels impossible to study for? Stressed about passing math?

9:32
Well, the first campus resource you want to talk about is the Tutoring Center, which is an amazing resource to help with academic stress. It's located in Wilson 280 across from the hallway from Zoe's Bagels in the library. The main thing that the Tutoring Center is known for is its free drop-in tutoring where students can stop by for one-on-one peer mentor support in certain subjects such as biology, math, psychology, econ, and many others. And you can visit the WWU Tutoring Center website to see the exact days and specific hours that the services are offered.

10:11
That's super cool. The Tutoring Center also offers study skills coaching sessions to learn skills like active learning, time management, and planning, which was something that I think a lot of people can find very helpful. It also offers study tables to study alongside an experienced tutor should questions arise, and study groups for many STEM disciplines.

10:29
Being distracted by how hungry you are in class or worried about how you are making this month's rent are very stressful situations to be in, even without all the other academic pressures that we have already talked about today. Money and balancing school with work is something that a lot of students reported in our interviews that was a source of stress.

10:49
The second campus resource we wanted to share is the Basic Needs Hub located in the Viking Union 420 down the hall from the Club Hub. Things like food insecurity, housing concerns, or financial stability can all be really big stressors for a lot of people. The Basic Needs Help can help you in all these areas. For example, if you're experiencing food insecurity, they have lots of information related to the Emergency Food Fund, where students can make requests for funds to use for food on campus.

11:15
They also have information related to food pantries on campus, how to apply to grow your own food in the Outback Farm, how to purchase veggie and fruit boxes from a local farm on a sliding scale, and can even assist you in filling out an application for SNAP Basic Food Benefits, which gives students who meet certain income requirements money for groceries each month. Visit the WWU Basic Needs Hub website to see what other resources are available.

11:39
Sometimes we have the academic and basic needs stress handled, but other life factors like trauma, grief, and unhealthy relationships can throw a wrench in things, piling all the stress back up.

11:50
Because of this, a final campus resource that we want to share is the Counseling and Wellness Center, which is located in Old Main 540. It's accessible from the North Elevator. The Counseling and Wellness Center offers many resources, but today we wanted to focus on the therapy options. Therapy can be helpful for people to cope with major emotional life events, anxiety, depression, and even building stress resiliency skills, all of which can help decrease the amount of stress that we are experiencing.

12:20
The Counseling and Wellness Center offers free individual and couples counseling to currently enrolled Western students who have paid their quarterly health services fee. This is a really great resource that I've heard really good things about from peers. They can also help you get referrals for counselors and therapists in the greater Bellingham area who meet your specific needs and match any insurance that you might have. This is often a better solution for long-term therapy or higher levels of care.

12:45
The last therapy option we want to highlight is group therapy, which is also free for currently enrolled western students who have paid the quarterly health service fee. These groups typically meet weekly for one quarter, with each session building on the previous one. There are groups focusing on many different things. The offerings include support groups like: Lost and Found, which is for LGBT students whose family dynamics are impacted by their gender or sexuality; Art-based Survivor Support, which is for survivors of relationship abuse and sexual violence; Living with Loss, which is for students grieving a death or imminent death of someone close to them; and Divergent Minds, which is for neurodivergent students.

13:24
There are also many more groups relating but not limited to topics like family trauma, social confidence, depression, anxiety, building relationships, developing effective coping skills, and nicotine cessation. I personally have done one of these groups before and I found it really helpful and supportive to be surrounded with a group of people who basically understand to some extent what I've been through, and just to talk about it.

13:49
Whoa, that was a lot of information.

13:52
Yes, it was. So many resources!

13:55
To summarize, whether you are dealing with stress related to academics, basic needs, or other life events, there are resources out there to support you. Once again, there more information for all these resources will be linked in our episode transcript. Now on to our interview about the physiology of stress with Madison.

Interview with Madison Wiese
14:16
All right, I'm here with Madison today, and could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

14:20
Yeah, my name is Madison Wiese. I use she/her pronouns and my background is in interpersonal health communication. So, I received my Master’s degree from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and I specifically studied the relationship between physical health and relational health. So it's called the biosocial framework.

14:42
That's so cool.

14:43
Yeah.

14:43
I actually just learned about that in my ecopsychology class.

14:46
No way.

14:47
Yeah.

14:48
So good, isn't it?

14:49
Yeah. So to start off, I have a question, a little bit of a silly question we all were asking each other earlier.

14:56
Great, can't wait.

15:00
If your life was a book, what would you title your current chapter and why?

15:05
Yes.

15:07
I feel, I actually had this question asked me like 2 years ago, and I actually think the answer is the same.

15:12
Yeah.

15:13
I think it's, “Homecoming.” Like, I feel like I'm in a process of, like, continually coming home to myself.

15:19
I like that a lot.

15:21
Yeah.

15:22
Alright. So my first question today is what has gotten you interested into the physiology of stress?

15:29
Yeah, so when I was near the end of my time in college, I experienced traumatic brain injury and so was, like, out for six months. And then, six months after that was diagnosed with a nervous system and neurological disease. And that experience was so incredible and also so difficult. I, like, experienced the, like, medical system for the first time of just, like, being prescribed things and kind of just this, like, how the medical system handles chronic illness. And then I kind of got curious about other avenues of healing. And so that kind of kick started looking into nutrition and yoga and the nervous system.

16:17
Yeah.

16:18
And that kind of started this whole beautiful journey of working with the body.

16:23
Yeah. It's cool to learn about how they're all connected.

16:25
Yes, they are, they are.

16:27
Yeah. So my first main question as we're exploring stress in this podcast is what is the purpose of it in our body?Because everybody has it, so.

16:39
Yeah, everybody has it. And the animals got it too.

16:42
Yeah.

16:44
So stress is a biological response to a perceived external threat. It's the activation of your nervous system. And it's basically doing this amazing thing of trying to keep us alive. And it's an evolved trait, so animals have it, and it's something that is to protect us.

17:03
Yeah, totally.

17:04
Yeah.

17:05
And kind of also, what does the word, like, if you could, like, breakdown what physiology really means, just so we all understand, because I feel like we're throwing that out a lot there.

17:16
Yeah, so stress physiology is basically, like, the process of how stress happens in our bodies. So the process of our bodies seeing and perceiving the external threats and then the process in which our body is trying to restore equilibrium.

17:32
Oh, gotcha.

17:33
Yeah.

17:33
And yeah. Could you just give us a little bit of an overview or kind of, like, a crash course on this system or, like, this stress response system and the physiology that's happening in the body?

17:47
Yes, definitely. So your autonomic nervous system gets activated and there are two branches. So there's the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and digest, and then there is a sympathetic nervous system that is the fight or flight. So that's what gets activated when you're stressed. Your brain then sends signals to your adrenal glands, which are on top of your kidneys, and it signals to release hormones, which are cortisol and adrenaline, and those are hormones created to wake you up and keep you alert so that you can stay alive.

18:21
This process also is redistributing blood in our bodies, so bringing blood to our vital organs to prepare us for anything. Our breathing rate increases so that our respiratory system can take in more oxygen to support our brain. And then the hormones of cortisol and adrenaline can last up to 20 minutes. And then the system then ends the stress cycle and goes back to parasympathetic, and the stress cycle is complete.

18:51
Thank you. Yeah, that's a great explanation. I feel like narrowed down everything I learned in psychology.

18:59
Quick version.

19:02
So we talked to a lot of students on campus a few weeks ago and got, gathered, some interviews from them asking them about stress. And the most common ways that we, or students, reported feeling stress was, like, a pain or tension in their stomachs. And I was wondering if you could explain a little bit of the physiology behind this.

19:25
Yeah. So for the stomach, the blood is being redistributed to our vital organs and to our muscles. And so it takes its attention away from the immune system and also from the digestive system. So when that blood is leaving, that can cause pulsing, that can cause tension. What we're also experiencing is those hormones. And so cortisol and adrenaline can cause spasms or cause your stomach to tighten up. So it's those hormones that can also create that tension in the body.

19:55
Oh, yeah. That's so interesting.

19:57
Yeah.

19:57
And then also another general thing that kept coming up was like a tension or tightness in your chest. I feel like almost every person we talked to mentioned that and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that as well.

20:13
Yeah. So that again would, could be the cortisol and the adrenaline causing the heart to be faster. Your body's, like, preparing you for battle. So it's, like, “We’ve got to protect the heart, we’ve got to give ourselves more air.” So the, the heart could also, or the tightness in the chest, could also be from the respiratory system, like, that kind of shallow breathing. So you're not getting as much oxygen into your heart. And then it also, stress can cause our muscles to tighten. So that can be anywhere in our body we constrict. And so the chest and the heart space could be a place that people are experiencing that constriction.

20:48
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

20:50
Yeah.

20:51
Yeah. It was interesting seeing the commonalities that kept coming up in all the interviews.

20:56
Yeah. Almost everyone experiencing that.

20:58
Yeah.

20:59
That's so, it's so wild how we experience things pretty similarly.

21:02
Yeah. It was cool to hear and think about, like, how I experience the same things and being, like, “Oh yeah, everyone feels this way.”

21:11
Yeah. Do you feel it primarily in your chest or in your stomach?

21:14
I would say in my chest. But overall, I think just, like, muscle tension in general is, like, a very, like, I would say I feel it all over my body, but, like, a very tightness that I honestly don't recognize a lot of the time. And then when I, like, step back and think about it, I'm, like, well, my whole body is, yeah, is tight.

21:32
Yeah. Cool awareness.

21:36
Yeah. And also we were wondering if there's, besides kind of the main ones that came up in our interviews, are there any other sort of common responses that people have when dealing with stress?

21:51
Yeah. So when we experience stress and we don't get to have that resolution, we don't get to complete that stress cycle, we can live in a heightened state of chronic stress, which means that we don't get to complete the cycle and we can constantly be feeling that cortisol, that adrenaline. And our body actually has two responses to this. So there's hyperarousal, which is anxiety, that intense feeling amped up, feeling kind of wired, not really being able to calm down. And then the other response would be hypoarousal, which is complete shutdown of the nervous system.

22:32
So your, your system is in the dorsal vagal response, which means it's really, really under stimulated. This is where we see emotional numbness, apathy, fatigue, right, that fatigue of just not being able to function. So when there's too much stress or the body isn't able to end that cycle, we then can experience this dysregulation and dysfunction of the nervous system. And I want to say that chronic stress, so not being able to complete that cycle is also something that can be from a trauma response. So trauma defined by Bessel van der Kolk, who's a doctor. He wrote The Body Keeps the Score.

23:14
Oh, yeah, I love that one.

23:15
Yeah. So he talks about trauma as not the actual event, but the way that the event lives in our nervous systems every day. So we're, we don't, our bodies don't know that that event is over, whatever it happened. It could be a car accident, a surgery, anything. And so our nervous systems are protecting us as much as they can, but we actually don't need that protection anymore. So that's where a lot of different diseases and things can come from is when we're in this chronic state of stress and we're not able to find that resolution.

23:45
Yeah. That's so interesting. Yeah, and do you have any, like, advice or specifically more so somatic advice for people who may be dealing with chronic stress or just stress in their lives overall?

24:01
Yeah, I feel like it's a journey. I wish I had this one tool. And the truth is, we, there's not one tool for everyone for every moment. So my wisdom around this is kind of three parts. So first is to cultivate awareness. So we can't really make any shifts or start to work with our bodies until we have awareness, right. So you listed things that you were aware of in your body. That's incredible, right? Because sometimes don't actually even know what our bodies are feeling. So we need to cultivate awareness. And this is where practices such as meditation can be super important of, like, dis-identifying with what we're experiencing. Because we are not the stress, we are not the depression, we are not the anxiety. We're experiencing those things.

24:50
Oh yeah.

24:51
But they're not like, actually who we are. So if we can, like, dis-identify with them, be able to be this loving, compassionate witness, then second step, we can learn what state we're actually in. So OK, I've noticed my body, I can tell I'm really contracted. And then the third step is to provide a tool that best supports that nervous system state. So if you are in a hypoarousal, so really not activated and really in that fatigue, it could actually be really helpful to do a practice. I do this when I'm in a frozen state is dance, because dance activates the nervous system and it kind of like can shake you out of that disassociation. And then if you're in, like, a hyperarousal state, it could be helpful to find ways to get into that relaxation response. So relaxing things, hot baths, yoga, anything that just is relaxing the body so that you can get that reset. So it looks different for everyone in any moment but starts with building that awareness to what you're experiencing.

26:00
Yeah, it seems like the most important thing is just being aware or being able to recognize your own feelings, which I feel like it's hard to do.

26:09
Yeah, it's not easy. It's like, just be aware. But it's such, I mean, it takes years.

26:13
Yeah.

26:13
And it's just a continual process of, like, how can we be more connected to our parties?

26:18
Yeah.

26:19
Well, this has all been so informative. And I just have one last question for you.

26:26
Great.

26:28
Thinking about if there was one thing, which is a hard question, but …

26:28
OK, I love the questions. Perfect.

26:35
If there was one thing that you wish that people knew about the physiology of stress, what would that be?

26:42
Yeah, I want us to just know how incredible the body is. The body is an infinite source of wisdom and it knows how to protect us. And it also is trying constantly to resolve that stress cycle. So through symptoms like anxiety or depression, right, our body is actually, like, trying to tell us that there needs some cycle to heal or something is needing our attention. And also that we have the ability to create new neural pathways and to actually rewire our nervous system. Like, we don't have to live in the state where we're constantly trying to survive. We actually can work with our bodies, create a sense of regulation, and thrive. And, like, can you imagine a world where we're all, like, work with our nervous systems, connected to our bodies, like unstoppable at that point, you know, like, beautiful.

27:40
Yeah. We have more power than we think we do.

27:43
Absolutely.

27:44
Yeah.

27:44
And I want to say one more thing about the importance of safety. And that sense of safety can also come from our own selves. Like, when we experience that regulation, we can tap into this inner safety, this inner power. And again, it's that agency of, like, we can rewire and work with our nervous systems and heal.

28:07
Yeah. Totally. Super inspiring. Thank you so much for talking with us today.

28:12
You're welcome. It's an honor.

28:13
Yeah.

28:15
Thanks again to Madison for that lovely interview. I learned so much. Fun fact, Madison also coordinates the consent trainings that some of the Wellness Advocates do here on campus. So if you're on a sports team, you've probably been to one of these trainings that was either organized or facilitated by Madison. Awesome stuff.

Stress Resilience Strategies
28:31
Yeah, Madison's awesome. Now moving on to our last stress-related segment for the day, we wanted to focus on stress resilience. We will have a little discussion about what exactly stress resilience is, why it's important, and different tips and tricks to help you develop it and cope with some of common stressful situations that come up with for college students.

28:52
The main sources we use for our research into stress resilience were the American Psychological Association, MIND, and the American Institute of Stress. You can find these resources as well as the rest of our sources for this episode linked in our transcript.

29:06
Before we dive deeper into this conversation, what even is stress resilience? Well, imagine riding on a raft down a river. Different obstacles—logs, rocks, rapids—are thrown your way threatening to break the raft or send you tumbling into the river. However, there, there are ways to counteract this. You can choose to reinforce this raft, build it and make it stronger. You can choose to wear a life jacket. You can connect to more experienced rafters or trusted friends. This way when you encounter, encounter these inevitable obstacles, you'll have tools and connections in place to push through, to keep you afloat, and to continue on more experienced and confident than before.

29:45
Stress resilience is the ability to cope with and adapt to the inevitable stressors, setbacks, and challenges that are a part of life. It's bouncing back from difficult experiences and maintaining mental and emotional well-being. When people are stressed, they often experience emotions such as anger, anxiety, and depression. Some people may remain trapped in these feelings long after the stressful events have passed, while a more emotionally resilient people are able to bounce back to their baseline emotional state more easily.

30:18
Stress resilience is a natural ability, something that everyone possesses, even you. It can be grown and developed by changing thoughts, behaviors, and actions. Resilience takes time and intentionality to build it, much like a muscle. Remember, everyone's different, and what works for one person may not work for another. It's also important to remember that stress resilience is contextual. There are social determinants of health, like access to education, housing security, income and employment, social support and access to healthcare, as well as social determinants of health equity, such as racism, classism, and sexism, that impact our well-being. This makes finding ways to develop your own stress resilience a bit of a personal journey as well as a journey in community.

30:58
Our world is constantly changing. Just like on the river, we don't always have control of what's happening to us or around us, which is why building up that raft, cultivating and developing resilience, is so important.

31:11
Now to talk a little bit about how you can recognize stress. One of the most important steps in developing stress resilience is learning to recognize when and how stress comes up for you. Everybody reacts differently to stress, but usually people have one or two indicators in their body trying to tell you that something is up.

31:29
For example, part of my normal self-care routine is cooking really yummy food for myself. The first thing I noticed before I even realized I'm stressed is that my appetite is all out of whack, which is something completely out of my norm. For someone else, recognizing stress may look like noticing a change in your sleep patterns. Maybe it's really hard for you to fall asleep lately, even though you're, you feel exhausted.

31:51
Stress can manifest differently. Some of the emotional responses could be getting irritable more than usual, withdrawing from friends and family, or feeling helpless, fearful, and anxious.

32:03
Stress also has a variety of mental responses, some which might be sleeping more or less than usual, finding it hard to concentrate, racing mind and/or mental exhaustion or the urge to pick or at skin or bite fingernails.

32:18
Finally, stress also has physical manifestations such as changes in appetite, more headaches, a lack of energy in your body. Recognizing when stress comes up in your body is the first step towards building stress resilience.

32:31
Well put. Now we're moving on to some general stress resilience tips. Madison gave us some great information on the physiology of stress and what stress resilience looks like. But what are some ways that we can develop it?

32:43
One way is to build connections with others. We humans are social creatures and depend on some level of social interaction to assist our general well-being. Building connections with others also gives you a support system to fall back on when you need it. This can include prioritizing relationships, whether they be with friends, family, professors, peers, etc. You can also join a group which helps foster a sense of community and belonging. For example, try joining a Western Washington University club that relates to a part of your identity or personal passion.

33:14
Another tip we have is to foster wellness. This can mean taking care of your body by prioritizing nutrition, engaging in some form of exercise, and also getting enough sleep. We're talking at least 8 hours. That might be hard, but it's important.

33:30
Good luck.

33:31
Yeah. The American Institute of Stress found that 40% of college students don't feel adequately rested most days of the week. And 25% of students feel that their lack of sleep adds to their stress and inability to complete schoolwork. I also definitely feel that.

33:47
It's a vicious cycle.

33:48
Yeah. You can also practice mindfulness through activities like journaling, yoga, and meditation. It's important to carve out time for yourself. Take a break and do something you enjoy, like reading, listening to music, art, or watching a show.

34:02
Finding a purpose may also help build your stress resilience. This can be found in helping others. It could mean being proactive, moving towards goals, or a journey of self-discovery.

34:14
It's also important to embrace healthy thoughts. Your mindset and your perspective on the world has such a huge impact on your experience of the world. Keeping things in perspective can help—looking at the current problems and focusing on the things that you can control. It also includes accepting change, maintaining a hopeful outlook, and learning from your past. Learning to embrace healthy thoughts can help you maintain a sense of control when stress inducing events occur.

34:39
Finally, it's important to know where you can find help when you need it. This can be from trusted friends and family. Lean on your friends and fellow students who might be going through the same stressors related to academia. And remember, you're not alone.

34:52
Now we'll be moving on into a segment about stress resilience and academia.

35:00
One thing that can help is breaking down your workload into smaller steps by setting achievable goals for yourself. Sometimes, like Riley said, it can feel really overwhelming when you're looking at everything you have to get done. It's just like a mountain of impossibility. It can be really hard to know where to start. By breaking down even just one assignment into smaller steps, this can help to keep motivation and build resilience. Prioritizing tasks such as by what assignments do first, which tasks have to be done before you can even start on others, or which assignments are the biggest portion of your learning or grade or something that you're even just excited about can also be a really helpful part of goal setting.

35:34
And while in school, it is also important, extremely important …

35:38
Very incredibly important!

35:40
… to prioritize your self-care and taking breaks from schoolwork. I think this might be the most important thing when dealing with stress, and obviously sometimes this is a lot easier said than done, especially when we are nearing the end of the quarter and finals week is approaching. Breaks from schoolwork don't have to be super long or super elaborate. Even just walking away from your assignment for 15 to 20 minutes can help clear your head. And one thing I personally like to do is just go for a walk, even if it's just around the block or a few blocks, just to kind of clear my head. And I find it helpful as sort of reset.

36:16
Yeah, thanks for highlighting the importance of breaks. I feel like in our interviews, a lot of people, when we asked them how do you deal with stress, they were like, I don't, and that is so real. But this is a really good way to try to implement, like, if you have no ways to deal with stress, I would recommend this one as your first, first thing to try. And I think that, yeah, breaks are important.

36:36
And taking a, taking a walk around the block is such a manageable thing.

36:39
Yeah.

36:40
Yeah.

36:40
To start, it can help so much.

36:42
Yeah.

36:42
And at the end of the day, it only costed you, like, 10 extra minutes. So, like, really, what are you doing?

36:47
Finally, we can never underestimate the importance and impact of a good support system when dealing with stress in school. A 2024 study conducted by Inside Higher Ed found that two in five undergraduate students reported their mental health struggles affecting their ability to focus and study, leading to higher stress levels. Even though it may seem scary sometimes to reach out when you're feeling overwhelmed, I found that talking about my stress can often help. The Counselling and Wellness Center is also a great avenue if you need the support.

37:16
Awesome, thanks for sharing.

37:17
Well, we hope that you have all learned something new and some useful tips and tricks about stress resilience. The key takeaway for today is that stress resiliency is important and it's a buildable skill that everyone is capable of. Stress resilience is helpful in day-to-day life but can especially be useful in times of academic stress and times of transition or change.

37:41
Well, that's it. We've made it to the end of today's episode. Congrats everyone. Today we discuss student experiences of stress here at Western Washington University. We interviewed expert Madison about the physiology behind stress, and we even had a discussion about stress resilience.

37:57
And as we like to say, and we hope that you've learned from this episode, it's OK to talk about it.

38:03
Yeah. We’d love if this sparked, like, conversations with your friends, peers, roommates. Like, spread the word. Anything that you learned today could be helpful to someone else in your life.

38:11
Yeah. Keep talking about it.

38:12
Keep talking about it.

38:13
And we want to also thank the lovely Sorina and Marissa, who are the other members of our podcast crew, and they're doing the amazing behind-the-scenes work to help make this podcast possible. And a big thanks to Madison for her insightful interview. And a thanks to all the students that connected with us and shared their personal experience with stress. Also, thank you to Maggie, our mentor, who has supported us along this whole process in the way of creating this episode.

38:40
Yeah. To stay connected, you can follow our Instagram @bewellwwu for more resources, event information, and to interact with this podcast.

38:49
Additionally, if you have any questions that you want answered related to emotional, mental, sexual, or relational health in our next episode, feel free to fill out our anonymous doodle poll, which is also linked in our Instagram @bewellwwu, again, in case you missed it. We will also have a cute little anonymous question box at future tabling events where you can write any questions you may have on a slip of paper. Our next episode should come out in the next in the last few weeks of winter quarter, so we'll see you then.

39:16
Thanks for listening!

39:19 (outro song)
In the trees and in the forest, in all that’s come before us, we feel to find the wisdom in our bones. Releasing judgement in all stories, remembering our glory, we rest in love and walk each other home. We're not alone. It's campus conversations. It's campus conversations. It's campus conversations. It's campus conversations.

SOURCES:

CAMPUS SERVICES SHOUTOUT

Tutoring Center: https://library.wwu.edu/tutoring-center

Basic Needs Hub: https://basicneeds.wwu.edu/food-resources

Counseling and Wellness Center: https://cwc.wwu.edu/

RESEARCH SOURCES

What is stress resilience?

Signs and symptoms of stress