Get up and move: Battling study week stress

Alexandra Matthews Assistant Life Editor

You sense them lurking in the Library. You run to Matthew’s Bean for safety, but soon your eco-friendly cup is empty again. There’s nowhere to hide.

No, you’re not starring in Jurassic Park 4. Final exams are approaching and students are stressed. But put down your coffee and take out your yoga pants, because there’s a plethora of stress-busting activities and pro-health organizations on campus to help you survive the next two weeks.

According to Life Fitness Director Roman Czula, getting yourself up and moving is one of the best ways to battle stress.

“There is nothing better than getting a good workout, regardless of what the workout is,” said Czula. “Being active is the bottom line. The problem is that too many things come up that make it easy to avoid physical activity.”

Czula, a member of Vassar’s physical education department since 1975, started the Life Fitness Program in 1991 in order to put a stop to campus-wide lethargy. Since then, the Athletics and Fitness Center has hosted free stress-busting classes each semester to ease the anxiety of finals; this semester they began on Dec. 3 and will last until Dec. 20. Classes range from aqua fitness to yoga and even include ballroom dancing. A complete schedule can be found in the Life Fitness Program’s newsletter In the Pink or on the program’s Web site: lifefitness.vassar.edu.

“The purpose [of In the Pink] is to make people aware of all the opportunities there are to get active, learn new skills and take new classes. We can get people started at any level and in any physical condition,” said Czula.

For Jeanne Allen ’08, reducing stress isn’t only pertinent during finals season. As the president of Wholistic, Allen aims to help the Vassar community lead healthier, more balanced lives. Wholistic has been an official Vassar Student Association organization on campus for over a year and is now affiliated with the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.

Allen said that Wholistic’s “mission is very broad in the sense that we serve the whole campus [and help] with issues of life stress, imbalance and try to promise healthy living on campus.”

In addition to regular exercise, Allen believes that meditation is another way to reduce stress.

“Meditation is a huge stress reliever—even 10 minutes a day can be really calming and clarifying. It allows you to better understand [your] emotions and why you’re feeling a certain way,” she added.

You may remember hearing about Wholistic’s recent Silent Dinner of Nov. 9, where members of the Vassar community were invited to sit and eat in meditative, calm silence. If this kind of stress-buster intrigues you, Allen hopes that you might give Wholistic a try.

“We’re very open to anyone. We always encourage people who are interested or don’t know much about Wholistic to come to meetings and talk to us about what we’re doing,” said Allen.

For those who feel that stress is just a natural part of life, there is more at stake here than free time. According to the 2006 National College Health Assessment, stress is the number one impediment to academic performance for college students in the United States, and Vassar is no exception.

“Stress is everywhere. Life is tough and there’s a lot of stress in terms of college and doing well in classes, as well as the stress of teaching and administrating,” said Czula. “There are no easy jobs here at Vassar, and everyone could benefit from these kinds of programs.”

If stress and finals are starting to take the form of a tyrannosaurus rex, taking advantage of what the College has to offer might just keep you from tears and back to a calmer reality.