Managing My Stress

As dedicated students at the Colorado School of Mines, I would say stress is a part of every day life. The average amount of sleep me and my peers normally get is usually less than 6 hours, and the amount of work our professors assign is overwhelming. Sometimes, I feel like I just can't win. If I relax, then my grades suffer. If I excel in school, my mental and physical health suffers. Here at Mines, balance is not important to most students, professors, or administrators. However, balance is important to me, and I struggle with the fact that it seems so out of reach most of the time. So I decided to do a little research on my own about how to manage stress as a Mines student.
Not surprisingly, I found very little information about stress management that I didn't already know. Breathing exercises, journaling, meditation, exercise, and good organization are all stress relievers, and I feel that most students are aware of these stress reducing activities. Nevertheless, I feel that these habits are harder to maintain than most people realize, and in an environment that almost encourages stress, it is near impossible to find the time and the energy to simply stop and take a breather. Instead, most students (including myself) deal with stress by going through bouts of under eating and overeating, by drinking too much, by procrastinating, and by lashing out at others. So how do we integrate healthy ways of coping into our overwhelmingly full lives? My answer at this point is I have no idea. I myself struggle on a daily basis to manage my stress, my schoolwork, my body, and my mental health. In some ways, I believe the school is to blame - why create an environment for students that cultivates stress, anxiety, and imbalance in their lives? In others, we as students are to blame for these emotions when we make bad decisions about coping.
Because of my nearly fruitless research about and experience with coping mechanisms for stress, I have made it my intention to try different and new ways of coping. Armed with an arsenal of experience about how to deal with stress, then I can decide what fits my busy lifestyle and what mechanisms remain as lasting habits.
(http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm)