Campus creates major issues
April 24, 2007
By KATY MATLOCK
Contributor
Before April 16, the topic of stress at Baylor University could have provoked yawns in its predictability.
With final exams, social pressures and looming career goals as the ingredients, stress was an inevitable dish served up to college students across the nation. Occasionally, some deaths that are stress-related suggested a deeper problem stalking the shoulders of students. But in general, the consensus seemed to be that stress is a fact of life on college campuses.
On April 16, Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old English major at Virginia Tech University, killed himself and 32 of his fellow "Hokie Birds."
The university shooting shocked the nation and threw a new stressor onto students' plates.
Over the next few weeks, students on the Baylor campus at the least will be coping with passing final exams, starting summer jobs and accepting a tragedy that shattered a fellow university's campus bubble. In addition, students may be facing difficult situations at home, financial struggles or post-graduation uncertainty.
As trite as it may seem, there are some helpful ways that students can persevere and even embrace life during the stress of the next few weeks.
Rachel Farris, a graduate student from St. Louis, includes a section on stress management in her Health and Human Behavior classes.
She encourages students to include short, fun activities in their schedules.
"Some of my students schedule times in their day to have a stress break where they might color, listen to music, work on art, read or write," Farris said.
Farris also applies these practices in her own life.
"I try to take regular breaks in my schedule to do things that I enjoy," she said.
In these breaks, she said, she may read, write, exercise or listen to music. She limits her breaks to less than an hour so that the break itself relieves rather than compounds her stress, she said.
Corpus Christi sophomore Patrick Roberts allows himself a break one day a week.
"If I don't get that one day off a week, my study time isn't as efficient," he said.
Roberts said he feels for the families affected by the Virginia Tech shootings.
"It was a horrible thing that happened," he said.
However, he said, he isn't personally stressed about it.
"I feel pretty safe on Baylor's campus as far as things like that go," he said.
Some stress can be a healthy motivator for students.
"The problem occurs when we have too much stress, or we do not handle our stress well," Farris said.
Kerry Mauger also teaches sections of Health and Human Behavior.
"Sometimes students spend more time stressing over what they have to do instead of focusing on doing it, which increases the feeling," said Mauger, a graduate student from Angora Hills, Calif.
She said that students also sometimes use alcohol and drugs to cope with stress.
Exercise, sleep and healthy eating habits consistently prove to be significant factors in combating stress. These tend to be the behaviors that students neglect during stressful times, said Carmen Boulton, a Santa Barbara, Calif., graduate student.
Boulton teaches Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Relaxation and Fitness.
"Not taking care of your body is common," Boulton said. "Trying to function on very little sleep, caffeine and no or poor quality food definitely affect performance in a negative way.
"I think one of the most common ways that we deal with stress is avoidance, which in the long run just makes any situation worse when we get up to the last minute and have not prepared enough," Boulton said.
Dallas junior Katie Richardson said going to the lake by her house to sit and meditate helps her when she's feeling stressed.
"Don't stress about things you can't do anything about," she said.
The most common source of stress in her life is finances, Richardson said, and her most common means of handling stress is prayer.
"You've just got to put it in God's hands," Richardson said. "But when you do, you have to really let it go and leave it in his hands."
Against the backdrop of Baylor's Christian heritage, many students on campus rely on their faith during stressful circumstances.
"I believe that faith has a strong place within stress management," Farris said. "Faith can give an individual guidance on how to prioritize the things in life.
Keeping a good perspective on what is important can help minimize stress by allowing that individual to accept when they have committed all that they can afford to commit to an aspect of their life."
Boulton said it is reassuring to know that God is in control during stressful situations.
"Planning specific time to give to God can help keep school in perspective and remind us that there is a lot more going on and we are part of a much bigger plan," she said.
Kyle Dunn, college pastor at Highland Baptist Church, said the college ministry encourages students to turn to prayer and to their Christian friendships amid stress. Dunn, a Baylor alumnus, has worked predominantly with college students in Waco for seven and a half years.
In light of the Virginia Tech shooting, it is particularly important for students not to go through this stressful season alone, he said.
Students can find companionship in the church, Dunn said.
During the upcoming study days, the department will set up a place for students to study in the Highland church building.
On Sunday the college department presented a message titled, "Tragedy and Hope."
"We're really trying to encourage the students," Dunn said.
Dunn said Factors outside of academic life, such as interpersonal relationships with the opposite sex and circumstances at home, can contribute to students' stress.
The Baylor counseling center has included a link to several Web sites to help students cope with traumatic stress after the Virginia Tech shootings. Students who would like to speak with a counselor can call the Baylor counseling center at 254-710-2467.
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Original Source: The Lariat
<a href="http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=45462">http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=45462</a>
KATY MATLOCK
2008-02-05
Kacey Beddoes
Julie Freeman (Julie_Freeman@baylor.edu)
eng
Mantras can't make miracles
<b>Although meditation can help ease stress, it won't cure what really ails students, society</b>
By Lara Loewenstein
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Film director David Lynch has the answer to the itching question of how to stop school shootings forever - he's going to teach 1 million students transcendental meditation. I'm almost waiting for Tom Cruise to announce his plan to convert a second million to Scientology.
Transcendental meditation is a practice in which participants sit comfortably with their eyes closed and recite a mantra for 20 minutes, twice a day. Unlike other forms of meditation, TM is not meant to involve any form of concentration or effort other than finding the time to practice it. Courses to learn TM cost about $2,500.
It almost sounds like nap time. Expensive nap time. But the David Lynch Foundation wants to teach us. For free.
Or rather, they want to fund UCLA to teach us - he's providing the funds for schools that want to include TM in their curriculum in order to end school violence. All the schools have to do is contact him. Unfortunately, I don't think UCLA is going to take up the offer.
Unfortunate because TM does have some proven benefits - namely, reducing blood pressure and stress.
But TM is not proven to stop violence. And honestly, I don't know what problems Lynch thinks people have that can all be eased with TM. Maybe all his frustrations with film directing can be fixed. But TM isn't going to put an end to concrete problems college students face such as paying school loans.
And it certainly isn't going to solve mental instability, seemingly the cause of the recent Virginia Tech shooting.
But even with all the things TM won't do, during the Web cast on Tuesday, Lynch, so-called quantum physicist John Hagelin and singer-song writer Donovan gave me an idea of what TM would do.
After telling their personal stories about discovering TM, Hagelin described specifically how TM works. According to him, meditation allows the mind to settle inward, causing the brain to be more coherent before finally coming to a sense of unity where you realize we are all part of the same entity. He even provided useful charts - to aid those who aren't scientifically minded - that detailed how the state of unity in TM is the same as the "unified field of natural laws of nature."
My, that's an eloquent phrase.
But besides not knowing exactly what a quantum physicist is, I also don't know what this unified field has anything to do with any sense of unity I might achieve through meditation.
But I'll give Hagelin points for creativity. After all, he has a Ph.D. from Harvard.
According to Hagelin, Lynch and Donovan, it's this sense of unity that people achieve via TM that will bring about world peace and consequently end school violence.
They even stressed how by using their technique we won't need to debate gun control anymore. Because once everyone knows TM, nobody will want to use a gun even if they have access to one. They're going to be too busy enjoying their higher consciousness.
I love it; it's so simple and free of politics. And totally fantastical.
Not only is TM not going to cure all ills that cause violence, I don't understand where Lynch, Hagelin and Donovan expect people who are, say, in the process of applying to Harvard to find time to meditate for 40 minutes a day.
Still, methods to reduce stress and blood pressure and increase happiness should be studied.
But considering how much trouble I have sitting still, I'd like to see some non-pseudo, and unbiasedly authored, studies comparing happiness and stress release related to smoking pot on a daily basis, swing dancing or getting laid.
But even with my attention issues, I still want to learn TM. I'm just not paying $2,500.
I quickly sent an e-mail to the David Lynch Foundation on Tuesday requesting to be taught.
He hasn't responded yet. I doubt people requesting to learn TM are the ones at risk for becoming gunmen.
So I started by teaching myself.
But the "how to" for TM is pretty secretive. I suppose they really want that $2,500. I had to settle for plain meditation with a non-unique mantra - "hamsa."
So I sat down in a comfortable position and tried it, saying "ham" when I breathed in and "sa" when I breathed out.
Hammmm ... saa.
I fell asleep after five minutes.
And now I don't have time to do my problem set. Thanks, David.
I'm sure meditation works for some people, but I'm going to go back to my nap.
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Original Source:<a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/may/03/mantras_miracles/>The Daily Bruin - May 3, 2007</a>
Lara Loewenstein
2007-07-15
Sara Hood
Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>
eng