Academic stress can become an overwhelming burden for those who face an opposition or study a doctorate. The pressure to achieve excellence and comply with adjusted deadlines can affect both emotional well -being and intellectual performancewhich does nothing but aggravate his situation.
However, there are strategies based on experience and scientific evidence that can help recover mental control and enjoy that training process instead of suffering it.
Rory Lambe, is a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, and explained in Nature How he faced academic demands without being consumed by stress, through strategies that have allowed him to maintain motivation and mental health.
Seek social support and share experiences
LAMB emphasizes the importance of not isoking and seeking support in colleagues, friends and family. “Talking to other doctoral students helped me realize that I was not alone in my concerns,” he says. Sharing experiences and emotions with people who are going through similar situations can relieve the feeling of loneliness and provide practical solutions to problems that you could not solve for yourself.
Research from the University of Michigan have shown that social support is a key protective factor against academic stress. According to these research, students who have a solid support network present a 40% less of anxiety and depression symptoms compared to those who feel isolated.
In this sense, socialization with other people who share that situation of opposition or doctoral preparation helps empathize and feel more supported.
Clear limits between work and rest
According to Lambe, “working late, or even the weekend, can be inevitable when the demands are maximum, but should not become the norm.” Therefore. Strictly separating the time dedicated to the work of free time makes a big difference in mood and mental clarity.
This strategy is supported by Sabine Sonnentag and Charlotte Fritz studies, which shows that the ability to mentally disconnect from work during free time is associated with a significant reduction in cortisol levels and other physiological stress indicators.
Disconnection helps recover psychological resources and physical, improving mental health and cognitive performance when it returns to work or study and returning the ability to concentrate.
Lambe had in his article that maintaining a good routine at his schedules and practicing Mindfulness helped him maintain work discipline, avoiding extending the study days until high in the morning or holidays. In addition, by maintaining that order in his routine, the researcher claimed to be more resilient to the problems that arose.
Celebrate small achievements
Preparing oppositions or a doctorate is not a sprint but a background race, so it is relatively easy to lose sight of the long -term purpose. Learn to value small daily advances Help stay in the road map. “It is easy to lose motivation if you only focus on the ultimate goal. Celebrating small achievements helps maintain high morals,” said Lambe.
The gradient objective effect is a key element to maintain motivation in long -term projects. The scientific literature on this psychological phenomenon describes that the perception of closeness to the goal influences behavior and effort level, so the motivation is increased to obtain a reward in the form of dopamine.
That is to say, if very long -term objectives are raised, the perception of progress is diluted and, therefore, the motivation to continue and the discouragement is increased. On the other hand, set short -term objectives as small achievements, this advance is perceived better. Recognizing progress, however, helps to strengthen self -esteem and reduce the feeling of failure.
Enjoy what you are learning
Maintaining the perspective with a list full of tasks and objectives to meet or issues that study is not easy. Lambe recognizes that he often hit the day to day and forgot something fundamental: “I was so focused on what I would like to do once I finished, that I forgot that it is important to enjoy what I am doing now.”
The knowledge derived from studying the agenda of an opposition or a doctorate will be the foundations for the future of your professional career in the future. The self -determination theory of Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci describes the benefits of the change in perspective it implies Convert the “I have to study” for “I want to study”reinforcing psychological well -being and motivation by assuming the process as a personal and genuine choice, not as something imposed.
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