By Camila Alcaraz

SCAB 2410

Dear stress friend

One of the many things that people on this world have in common is stress. Whether you are student, low worker class or senior executive. No matter your age or your education. Stress is something that affect everybody at some point.

People feel stress on different ways. Some people would cry, shake, throw out or just run.

Most of people turned stress into an enemy, they have a bad opinion of it. They associate it to severe decease. In my case I see stress in two different ways: the long/permanent state of stress that comes when you have a new important project, or a lot of work and deadline at the same time, and the one shot stress due to an important interview or an oral presentation.

THE PERMANENT STRESS

Honestly, I don’t consider this kind of stress a bad thing. In fact, I’ve learned how to deal with it and most of all, how to take it, manage it and use it as a positive thing. I would say that in this case, stress has become my partner. It help me to stay focus and not forget my goals.

Usually, in a very stressful situation, I would stay calm, then find a solution and then start panicking trying to make the solution worked. I don’t consider panicking as a negative thing as long as you control it. In my case, if I have to panic, I allow myself to do it only when I feel that I can let it go. But otherwise I stay as clam as I can because I know that panicking won’t help me to solve the problem. Instead, getting stressed might make me do stupid mistakes and forget important things.

This type of stress and anxiety doesn’t affect me. It help me to think clearer and quicker.

THE ONE SHOT STRESS

This kind of stress another story unfortunately. In fact, this kind of stress is the one that makes me feel anxious, that makes my body and my voice want to shake.

However, because in everything bad there is something positive, I tend to feel this way “only” when I have to do something very important like an interview for a job or a presentation in front of a bunch of people, or just a presentation in another language (e.g. SCA!!). Honestly, I have try a lot of techniques and ways to manage this issue but I haven’t find better solution than just doing it anyway, and doing it as good as I can, giving my best.

I’ve learned that when you change your mind about stress, your body takes the same path and change as well. Every time I feel stress I try to keep in mind that yes it is important but it is not vital. And that it always seems bigger in our head than it really is in the real life. I tend to think that every experience that makes you get out of your comfort zone is a challenge from what you are going to learn something anyway. Never forget that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

I think the most important think is not to let stress win you. Not to let stress overwhelm you. Not to let stress makes the wrong decision. Instead, take it, watch it, understand it and then try to manage it in sort of making something good from it.