Social Scene Stresses

Keep a tennis ball or stress ball handy in your back pack or at your study desk. Take off your shoes and rub your feet over the ball for a relaxing foot massage.

Making Friends

The “Social Scene” can be one of life’s great delights AND one of its biggest stressors.
College is a place where you can make life-long friends or where you can simply enjoy some light social contact with fellow students before you head back to family and well known friends.

Whichever is the case for you; friends are one of the great joys in life. One very important factor that determines how healthy a person is happens to be friendships. Studies show that people who have good supportive friends are ill less often and have greater longevity!

Try one or two of these tips:

1. Commit to speaking to one new person every day this week. Or, at least commit to smiling at one person every day and see what happens. Studies show that behaving in a happy way (eg. smiling) can actually promote the feeling of happiness.

2. Be comfortable and be yourself. Other students are just as nervous as you are. Trying to appear something you are not sets you up for discomfort.

3. If you want to make friends – be a friend – offer your help – lend a pen – participate in school sponsored events, set up study groups or meet for coffee.

4. If you are living in res – leave your door open – invite people in for a snack. Don’t use up all your time communicating by email with old friends from home – take some time to get out and meet some new people.

5. Good friends push us to develop the best in ourselves. Encourage others.

6. Like yourself – if you don’t, it is hard for others to spend time with you.

7. Call someone on the phone to share something you think they may find interesting.

8. Develop a variety of interests. This makes you an interesting person to be with.

9. Find activities that enrich your life that you enjoy doing alone. People who can enjoy their own company are not desperate to have people around all the time and tend to make better friends

You can check out this site for ideas on how to develop some friendships, resolve conflicts and improve your communication skills.

http://dev.iamnext.com/people/makefriend.html

Young man gives good info on stress and shows his dragon breathing stress reliever