If your palms sweat and your heart races when people ask about your summer plans, you are not alone. Waiting to hear back from employers after sending your resume to seemingly everyone — or no one if procrastination has taken hold — naturally causes stress, especially if classmates around you seem to have their plans all figured out.

While it’s tempting to wallow in the stress, that won’t help. It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself and question why you’re not getting the opportunities others do, but constantly dwelling on your summer plans can have adverse effects on both your mental and physical health.

According to the Mayo Clinic, stress can cause headaches, muscle tension and pain, fatigue, upset stomach and sleep problems. In addition, people may experience restlessness, lack of motivation, irritability, sadness or depression, social withdrawal and even more draining feelings. While stressing over internships, you just make yourself less productive, even more upset about your lack of prospects and may turn yourself away from social situations during the precious time you have left in school.

Instead, try implementing some strategies to ease stress into your daily routine.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is all about “moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experiences without judgement” and studies have shown it reduces stress, boosts memory and focus, leads to less emotional activity and brings people in tune with their own bodies. The benefits of practicing mindfulness offset the effects of stress and allow people to function with more rationale and a clearer mindset as they go through their day.

When you feel stressed about the future, take a moment to practice some self-awareness — meditation will bring the focus and perspective back to the moment. Over time with practice, people can gain more control over their emotions and focus. However, mindfulness is not about ignoring negative emotions or problems, but instead acknowledging them for what they are and moving on. It mediates a healthy strategy to deal with stress instead of letting stress dominate all other emotions. Apps to get started with mindfulness are Headspace and Calm.

Exercise

Finding time to squeeze in a daily workout is difficult, but doing so can have positive effects on stress levels. While stress makes people feel fatigued, exercise produces endorphins to reduce tiredness, improve concentration, help with better sleep and regulate mood. Even as little as five minutes of aerobic exercise can decrease anxiety. So when you feel yourself becoming overwhelmingly stressed, get up and talk a walk, do some stretches or just take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Do something you love

Listen to music, see your favorite movie, watch a YouTube video that makes you laugh or dance around. Music has proven to lower heart rate and anxiety, and laughing boosts endorphins to improve mood. While these tactics will not solve the problems causing your stress, they take you out of a stressful moment and allow you to calm down before returning to the issue at hand.

Keep it in perspective

While internships and jobs out of college may feel like the end-all-be-all of everything, it’s still a privilege to attend a school like Syracuse University and even have a shot at these opportunities. When feeling stressed, it becomes easy to spiral into your own world of panic and problems are blown out of proportion. Taking a step back to recall what you’re grateful for will help you calm down and avoid more unnecessary stress.

After you have calmed yourself down, returning to the internship search is still possible. Chuck Reutlinger, an associate director at SU’s Career Services, offers comforting words for students still searching:

“It is certainly true that some employers use the fall semester to identify and recruit interns for the following summer making spring seekers ‘late,’” he said in an email. “However, Career Services receives notices of current internship openings throughout the spring semester and even into late May and June, so students should continue to examine postings on Orange Link or other internship-focused websites even after classes have ended.”

The good news is if you miss out on your number one internship or job prospect, the world will keep on spinning. Panicking gets you nowhere except to a more negative state of mind and will just end up taking time away from more productive tasks like continuing to apply to internships or jobs. So breath, relax, and keep on trying. The sun always comes out.

Caroline Maguire is a sophomore television, radio and film and psychology double major. Her column appears biweekly. Contact her at cpmaguir@syr.edu or on twitter at @carolinemags22

Published on April 4, 2018 at 10:24 pm

Contact C.M.: cpmaguir@syr.edu