Students expecting study celebration at UF’s De-Stress Study Fest

“Check out UF’s De-stress Study Fest right before finals week,” Lina Dang said. “They even bring dogs to pet!”

Dang majoring in Nutrition on a Pre-Dental track, finds events like these on campus to be a great resource to relieve stress. Pet Playtime is an opportunity to take a study break by petting some furry friends, she said. Pet Playtime has been a courtesy of Animal People.

De-Stress Study Fest will be hosted at the Reitz Union, which will be open 24/7 from April 18 to 28, offered by the University of Florida Division of Student Affairs. This will be an event from the start of readings to the end of finals week to help you prepare for a successful.

Students will have the chance for tutoring sessions on specific times and study areas in meeting rooms and study lounges for bigger study groups.

Because of the extended hours of food service and the printing lab, students will no longer worry about any complications preventing them from studying. I know cooking food is a reason to distract many of us.

The idea here is to provide students with easy access to help them de-stress for exams. During the event, students are expected to be able to prepare for upcoming finals, papers and presentations.

In addition to other activities, there will be Zumba classes, yoga classes, meditation classes and relaxing massages to help students cope with stress. The game room will offer free movies and free bowling for study breaks.

Dang is amongst the many students excited to study for spring semester with study events like De-Stress Study Fest.

AWARE brings to you Play Day before finals week

Shari Goldwin (middle), and her colleagues seek to promote mental health counseling during Play Day event at Plaza of the Americas, Wednesday afternoon. AWARE coordinators stand in front of what they have called throughout the day as a “bounce house Q-tip gladiator,” which lets students safely step into fun fighting exercises. Photo taken by Maria Espinoza

Students are overwhelmed because it’s almost finals week. That is why the University of Florida Counseling Wellness Center and AWARE team presents students with Play Day event at Plaza of the Americas.

AWARE is an undergraduate program seeking to promote mental health counseling and represent the Counseling Wellness Center. Their job is to recruit students in seeking mental health services, but reduce the stigma of students seeking mental health counseling, Shari Goldwin said.

“You don’t always need to be inside stressing over exams,” Goldwin said. Goldwin, AWARE coordinator, encourages students that they need to take a break sometimes, come outside and play.

In addition to other services partnered with CWC, Gator Well had a hut filled with items promoting stress management as well as health. Students had the advantage to receive free items such as condoms, Frisbees and stress sand balls amongst others.

As students walked out of Library West, it was inevitable for them to avoid Play Day at Plaza of the Americas. The UF CWC gave students easy access to a stress free environment by laying it out in front of them.

What they really want to promote is “play.” They offered juggling, hula hooping, massage therapist, stress sand balls, cotton candy, coloring and painting, and gardening.

Goldwin’s tip on reducing stress: “Take a break every once in a while.”

Kayaking eases depression on a stressful week

Bobbi Leininger kayaks through UF Lake Wauberg on a sunny afternoon. Leininger said she has kayaked for a very long time through the waters of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Fla. Photo taken by Maria Espinoza

If anybody has a day off their busy week, use your spare time to do outdoor activities. I decided to take my roommate to get her personal perspective on kayaking at Lake Wauberg on a normal weekday afternoon.

Bobbi Leininger, 19-year-old Santa Fe College, marine biology major, loves kayaking. Being raised in Miami, Leininger and her family have owned kayaks and would go off the beach of Key Biscayne, Fla., to enjoy a family day off together.

Now as a college student with the amount of stress mounting her shoulders, she feels the need to do something different and proactive. Kayaking for a couple hours took her mind off of studying for the overwhelming upcoming midterm exams.

As she kayaked alone, Leininger felt free in the open lake. “I always think about the ocean or what’s underneath.”

For a while, she forgot she had to study.

Most business people and students skip the gym because of their busy schedules. Dedicating a day of your week to kayaking is a great way for cardiovascular exercise.

While kayaking, you gain other health benefits such as the sun’s UV rays creating a synthesis to build vitamins for your body and easing your depression.

Being inside an office filing papers or studying inside your dorm for several hours a day can become very unhealthy.

Researchers have found studies on a consistent connection between depression and the lack of Vitamin D. The lower the level of Vitamin D in your body, the higher the chance you have of depression.

The Vitamin D Council have reported results on studies linking depression to patients lacking Vitamin D. Other studies provided by The National Institute of Health say sunlight may increasingly improve your mood.

No matter which outdoor activity you decide to do, I agree we should enjoy the free natural resources of fresh air, waters and sunshine nature has provided us for our survival.

Classical music affects your state of mind

Studies have shown that bringing classical music to your ears can help you de-stress. This type of mellow music will relax and sooth you to help the mind concentrate on relaxing muscles, such as breathing more deeply and evenly.  

Classical music helps the heart slow down, unlike other lively energetic music which motivates the heart to race faster encouraging movement. This may be the reason why gymnasiums play upbeat music when people are working out.

Of course, the technique of listening to classical music only works if you’re tired and avoid working out to release anxiety.

People need a break to calm down in the most possible relaxing environment. Instead of listening to random jungle sounds like waterfalls, birds whistling and frogs ribitting your night away when trying to fall asleep, classical music will help get your mind off of your busy day.

The case of a 46-year-old man, who suffered from constant seizures throughout his life, was a success story when he decided to start listening to Mozart. Before the Mozart Effect, doctors had suggested that brain surgery was the best way to improve his deteoriating learning and memory skills.

Roger Dobson, contributer to AlterNet website, quoted Dr. John Hughes from the University of Illinois to find Mozart’s music brilliantly complex, but highly organized that normalizes the functioning of the cortex.

To add on to the use of classical music, the Hereford General Hospital in the UK play Mozart flute music in the operating rooms to sooth their patients.

The brain thinks of the best response to a situation and uses emotions as a catalyst to tell the body to react accordingly. Researchers, Amit Etkin and Joy Hirsh, from the Neuron journal say that emotional stimuli such as feeling happy or fearful affect the processing of emotional thoughts, called amygdala.

Try listening to classical music to calm down from your daily stress. By giving 30 minutes a day to Mozart, your heart and mind will feel much more relaxed.