Relaxation techniques offer students a way to cope with stress and anxiety

18 | SELF CARE MISINFORMATION 19 | WORKING OUT

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Exam season is upon us and that means stress season is also in full swing. Between the late-night cram sessions, the mountain of assignments and actually writing your exam, everything can seem like a mountain that seems to get a little taller every time you take a step.

Luckily there are ways to manage your stress and learn how to deal with the anxiety that comes along with it.

Kathy Somers is a University of Guelph alumni and a Kinesiologist. During her time in university, Somers suffered from stress-related headaches frequently. She was introduced to a program that was started in the 70s and continues to operate today.

“I was very lucky to be taking a particular class where we had to do projects and one of the projects, I joined the relaxation skills class and learned relaxation skills, and was very surprised to find that they're having an impact on my headaches,” Somers said. “I tried all kinds of other treatments and nothing worked for those headaches. So I couldn't believe that something was having an impact.”

Somers went on to study biofeedback and self regulation strategies in her fourth year. She then went on to learn stress management education and became board certified in biofeedback. Currently, Somers provides the same relaxation skills class that helped her to the next generation of students.

“I'm really just trying to share with people what some of the possibilities are here if they haven't heard of it, and if they haven't explored this avenue,” she said.

The original programs were typically made of ten sessions or classes. In the 90s, Somers started hosting smaller workshops with less of a time commitment.

“If you're personally experiencing headaches and you just go to a four session program, but you're motivated, you're intelligent enough to figure out what the information is all about and you're actually integrating it,” she said. “That could be enough for many people.”

During November, Somers is offering a few different workshops on topics ranging from better sleep, reducing stress headaches, as well as managing stress and anxiety.

When it comes to managing stress headaches, Somers said she wants to share drug-free alternatives to dealing with the throbbing pain.

“[I teach] things that you won't necessarily hear if you go to other healthcare professionals in our region, because they know very much about medication,” she said. “Perhaps they know very much about chiropractic or physiotherapy, but what about the things I can do for myself in my everyday life.”

Her anxiety-related programs help address the physical symptoms of panic and anxiety.

“These things are very physically uncomfortable,” Somers said. “They definitely get our attention and the factors that work on decreasing them may be working with our body because certain things are happening with our muscles and with our breathing that may turn on or perpetuate these symptoms…There may be very physical reasons and lifestyle reasons, short on sleep, et cetera. We'll talk a bit about that.”

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around her. During the pandemic, she hosted programs on Zoom fatigue and getting better sleep during the pandemic.

This year, she’s focusing on re-entry anxiety in a post-COVID climate for her free session on International Stress Awareness day, Nov. 2.

“It started a little bit last year and it came more to the forefront this year in Canada as restrictions began decreasing as more people were becoming vaccinated,” Somers said. “A lot of people were excited. Some people were afraid. So, people we're both excited and afraid, stressed, anxious, and it is possible to hold all of those emotions at the same time.”

Somers also said a big part of anxiety and stress is uncertainty. This is something she focuses on when she teaches about test and exam anxiety. She suggests doing one healthy thing daily that is uncertain such as sitting in a different place on the bus, or raising your hand to ask a question.

“It could be a healthy, yet uncertain kind of situation that would be good exposure. Rather than avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid,” she said. “Really trying to get people to build up that muscle of being more brave and facing it. It's a little bit easier if every day I am doing something small, medium or larger that has some uncertainty associated with it.”

She compared the techniques she uses to calm to the mentality of an olympian. The olympians train constantly, and sometimes the big difference for them is their mental game and their ability to calm down before and after a big game, or take on one event after the other.

“I think that's what life is like, especially in life for a student,” she said.

Students interested in learning more about the classes Somers offers can visit stressregulationskills.ca or email ksomers@uoguelph.ca.