April is Stress Awareness Month! Daily stress has the ability to take an enormous toll on our mental/physical health. Managing our stress levels is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and well-being. MSU has a multitude of different resources to help reduce your stress:

Activities

• Campus Meditation Map: Beal Scholar, Anhad Viswananth, created this incredible meditation map to highlight the best spots to meditate around campus. 

• Live Music and Connection: University Health and Wellbeing invites you to join them on April 25, 26, and 28 from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. to take a break, connect with the community, and enjoy time in the beautiful spaces across MSU. Bring your lunch, relax with colleagues, and enjoy live music from local artists.

• Staying Active: Watch your stress dissolve as you become more active this spring. Warmer weather is on its way and it’s the perfect time to get outside and run, kayak, walk, or swim. Join a biking group in the Greater Lansing area or an MSU Recreation group fitness class to stay motivated. 

• Walking at MSU: There are many things to see and do on MSU’s 2,100 acre campus. Follow these various MSU campus walking tours to make the most of our beautiful campus. 

Learning Resources

• Taking Time Away from Work: Taking time away from work, in the forms of breaks, vacation time, or strengthening boundaries around employees’ workdays, is important. View these resources to learn more about balancing your time and work schedule. 

• The Importance of Decluttering: Check out this article from the WorkLife Office to learn more about how mess causes stress and the importance of decluttering your space and mind. 

• Stress Reduction: MSU Health4U has plenty of resources to help you reduce your stress levels. Learn more in their Stress Reduction series of articles. 

• Employee Assistance Program: The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a confidential short-term counseling and referral service provided at no cost to MSU faculty, staff, graduate assistants, retirees, and their insurance-eligible dependents who are located within the state of Michigan. Classes and resources to help reduce stress are updated on the EAP website often.

• Avoiding Burnout: This article will help you learn how to avoid burnout and what to do if you’re experiencing it.

Stress can look different for each individual so be sure to take care of yourself using these resources and beyond. Have another resource you’d like to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!