Popular class helps students better address professional and personal stress

The whirlwind of change accompanying the fall semester’s first six weeks can be overwhelming for students. The adjustments can include living independently, managing finances, building new relationships, and learning to use new technology while simultaneously keeping up with coursework. Even the newfound independence that students often desire can become taxing.

Paresh Mishra, chair of the Department of Organizational Leadership and associate professor, annually teaches an elective class on managing job stress and health. It’s among the most popular in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science. The class studies workplace stress, but also a wide range of stressors such as interpersonal relationships, academic pressures, financial difficulties, health concerns, and societal challenges.

“Stress does not compartmentalize itself—it may start in one area but spill over to other areas of our lives, so we must learn to manage it holistically,” Mishra said.  

He takes an approach to stress management combining evidence-based techniques with common sense advice.

"Attempting to manage stress while in the midst of a major challenge is like trying to win Olympic gold without any prior training," Mishra explained. "It would be an impossible feat. To effectively cope with life's difficulties, you need regular practice in stress management, just as athletes train daily. By building the habit of resilience when times are calmer, you'll develop the mental and emotional strength to handle crises when they inevitably arise."

Anyone can practice to handle stress better, Mishra said. He teaches meditation as a key technique for building resilience capabilities. His family in India engrained in him from a young age the importance of regular meditation, which he teaches, drawing on his training in Vipassana meditation.

It’s not just about learning the technique, but rather the capacity to do the meditation when you need it most, Mishra said. Meditation, he explained, is like building the metaphorical muscles of your brain to become stronger. He believes today’s world has become more open to trying meditation as the practice has become more accessible.

Stress and challenges will always be present in life, Mishra said, sometimes increasing—but we can also increase our capacity to handle them.

“Stress arises when the demands placed on us exceed our capacity to cope,” Mishra said. “So, we can either decide to focus on enhancing our capacity or we can decide to reduce the kinds of demands on us. A lot of the demands are self-enforced. Through consistent practice, we build our capacities, alleviating stress in what used to be anxiety-provoking scenarios.

Just as experiencing stress, handling it is also a learned behavior, a conscious effort and part of selfcare. One way to handle stress is focusing on long-term goals, Mishra said. Yes, learning about this profession or field of study is difficult, but succeeding at the goal will be positive and is worth the sacrifice.

“The class was extremely helpful in teaching me better ways to manage my stress with everyday life, and I plan to use his many great methods to help my future staff for my own business,” said junior Lorelai Genth, who took the course last spring. “I learned that I tend to hold on to problems too tightly, and Dr. Mishra's class helped me find better ways to cope.

“We had to interview a leader with questions about stress—and it ended up being one of the most eye-opening assignments I've ever done. It helped me learn more ways to cope with the stress I currently go through and may go through in the future. I also learned that while I am a highly stressed individual, I have the ability to overcome all the stresses I endure.”

Long-term perspective also helps. The challenge in the moment may look relatively trivial from the viewpoint of our future self.

“Having difficult experiences can still be hurtful and painful, but with time you gain perspective and no longer perceive them as the end of the world,” Mishra said, adding that they can become almost fond memories, providing confidence after fighting through the challenges to push ahead to higher levels.