Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Is online learning stressful? Have you lost your enthusiasm and motivation to study lately? As how a regular human life is, it will certainly not be separated from problems or challenges of change. These problems sometimes become unbearable and lead to stressful conditions. Like just any other ordinary people, students are also vulnerable to stress that can be caused by many things, such as college lectures, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

To help students deal with stressful conditions in the midst of this pandemic, the FEB Invinity webinar was held with the theme "Stress Management 101: Keep Your Move During Online Class'' which aims to facilitate students to be able to manage stress and demotivation on Friday (19/11). Stress is a condition that makes us feel depressed and the pressure exceeds the normal tolerance capacity of each individual. This event presented Annisa Poedji Pratiwi, M.Psi., Psychologist, as resource person/speaker. Annisa is a Co-Founder, President Director, and Clinical Psychologist of Charisma Consulting. On this occasion, she shared and discussed how to manage stress with the mindfulness method.

At the beginning of the session, Annisa invited participants to regulate and practice breathing more consciously which aims to provide a more comfortable feeling when tuning to the event. Participants were then invited to know themselves. The first is to recognize what is going on in the mind. The second, recognize the feelings and emotions that arise. Then observe the body and feel every part of it. Then become aware of the urge to behave. Knowing yourself is important because if we want to manage stress we must first know the current state of mind, feeling, and body. If we do not know what is happening inside us, it will be difficult to manage it properly and make stress a positive condition (eustress).

Explained in her presentation of the material, mindfulness itself is a skill/ability for us to be able to fully live in the present, here and now. With mindfulness we learn to accept whatever we feel as it is without judgment of right or wrong. The benefits that we can feel if we apply mindfulness every day for at least 2 months in a row in daily life include cognitively affecting memory capacity and flexibility, affectively affecting emotion regulation and empathy, physically affecting the immune system, and personally affecting self-insight and self-compassion.

One effective way to relieve stress conditions is to practice mindful breathing techniques. You do this by breathing through your nose instead of your mouth and using diaphragmatic breathing. At the end of the webinar session, Annisa invited the participants to practice the technique. However, keep in mind if this condition gets worse then immediately consult a clinical psychologist or the nearest psychiatrist.

Reportage: Kirana Lalita Pristy/Sony Budiarso.