By Deborah Rozman

Going away to college is one of the most monumental transitions we can make in life. Leaving the home and family we know and love best; entering a new environment without our tried-and-true mentors to guide us; following a new schedule; sharing a dorm room with a stranger; final exams; peer pressure; balancing classes, homework, social life and often a job; living on a tight budget; pressure to get good grades; trying to get enough sleep and eat right … the potential stressors are sudden, abundant and relentless.

According to a 2009 Associated Press poll, 85 percent of college students surveyed reported feeling stressed daily. Worries about grades, schoolwork, money and relationships were the biggest issues. About 42 percent said they had felt depressed or hopeless several days during the previous two weeks. As a result, many are on medication for depression and anxiety.

A little bit of what some call “challenge stress” ~ striving to do your best ~ can make you sharper. But chronic stress without recovery depletes you. College students are often short on adequate sleep, which can harm memory recall and their ability to be present for tests. Anxiety about how well they’ll do also shuts down cognitive functions, so they can’t even access all the answers they’ve crammed for the big test.

Often, college students respond to stressors by looking for quick fixes for their discomfort: going out for happy hour with friends, overdoing screen time, eating junk food, popping pills or skipping class. These can change the way they feel in the moment, but they don’t change their habits or the inevitable wear and tear that accompany them. Learning to manage emotions when they experience stress, not just after the fact, is what gives people the ability to cope with and transform stress ~ and improve academic performance.

At HeartMath, our research has shown that learning to put oneself into heart coherence ~ an optimal state where mind, heart and emotions are operating in sync and balanced ~ can do wonders for alleviating stress and preventing the long-term damage to the body and life that could ensue if left unchecked. Also in coherence, our brains have higher cortical functioning and are more receptive to learning.

Try these tips for acing exams and reducing stress:

1. Practice good health habits year round ~ eat healthy, exercise and sleep seven to eight hours a night.
2. Plan and commit to a study schedule.
3. Review your notes right up until exam time, if possible.
4. Practice HeartMath’s adaptation of the Quick Coherence technique several times a day to shift your response and release stressful feelings in just a few minutes:
   Start with heart-focused breathing. Calm yourself and reduce a stress-producing reaction such as anxiousness over a test by imagining that you are breathing in and out of the center of your chest. Breathe in slowly and deeply for five seconds, and then exhale for five seconds. Next, activate a positive feeling, such as appreciation, caring or love for a special person or pet. You also could remember an enjoyable occasion or a special place that made you feel good.

Learning to release stress at this age will not only help you address what you face now, but help you set a new baseline for building resilience and a larger reservoir of capacity for future stressors.

For more information about transforming stress at college, check out The College De-Stress Handbook by HeartMath and follow HeartMath at twitter.com/HeartMath.

Deborah Rozman, Ph.D., is president and CEO of HeartMath LLC, located in Boulder Creek, Calif. HeartMath provides tools and technologies that activate the intelligence and power of the heart to dramatically reduce stress while empowering health, performance and behavioral change in individuals and organizations.