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English Language Center Blog

, Filed Under: ESL, Social, UT, Weekend Attractions

Stress Relief

Pink lotus flower floating on water.

Coming Up in ELC:

Final Reception: TALENT SHOWBrightly colored neon sign reading talent show.

Last Day of Class

  • Monday, July 29
  • Last day of Summer 2024

Grade Packets

  • Final grades and certificates.
  • Available for pick up at the Texas Global front desk. 
      • Friday, August 2 & Monday, August 5
      • 8 am – 5 pm (ELC not available from 12-1 pm)
  • You MUST BRING PHOTO ID to pick up your grade packet.
  • Texas Global, 2400 Nueces St. Suite B (on the corner of 24th St. and Nueces St.)
      • The remaining packets that are not picked up by Monday will be mailed to the local address we have on file for you. It may take several weeks for these grade packets to arrive in the mail.
      • If you are traveling outside of the US and would like us to mail your grades to a DIFFERENT address, email your new address to elc@austin.utexas.edu by 5:00 pm on Monday, August 5.
      • If you are traveling outside of the US during the break, leaving before August 2, and returning to the US to study in Fall 2024, we can hold your grade packet for you to pick up when you return to the US. You must send an email to elc@austin.utexas.edu by 5:00 pm on Monday, August 5.
      • If you want someone else to pick up your grade packet for you, then you must send an email to elc@austin.utexas.edu with your name and EID, and the first and last name of the person picking up your grade packet. This person must bring their photo ID with them to pick up your grade packet. 

Continuing Student Applications

  • For Fall 2024
  • Application available online HERE
  • We would love to see you again!

Upcoming Social Events:

Talk Time

  • Practice your English conversation skills with native English speakers!
  • Wednesday, July 24
  • – 
  • CBA 4.340

 

 

Texas Global ISSS Social Hour

  • Join ISSS for a fun-filled evening at Dirty Martin’s Place for the ISSS July Social Hour! This in-person event is the perfect opportunity to meet and mingle with fellow members of UT’s international population.
  • 5:00 – 6:30 pm
  • Dirty Martin’s Place
  • 2808 Guadalupe St. 
  • REGISTER HERE!

 

Stress Relief:

Stress is our body’s reaction to a challenging situation. Stress can be helpful in the short term. It can help us meet a deadline or avoid danger. As humans, we all experience this occasionally. But, longterm stress can get in the way of us meeting our goals and can even contribute to physical or mental health problems.

Now that we have reached the end of the semester, we all need to relieve our stress and anxiety. Here are some helpful ways manage it.

 

Yoga:

“Yoga is a discipline with spiritual origins that has motivated many in the United States to attend to their mental and physical health, often as part of a larger motivation to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Yoga [can be] an inclusive and individualized practice of attunement of the mind with the body in a way that fosters health and wellness. The science behind cognitive behavioral therapy, the relaxation response, meditation, exercises, etc., all support yoga practices that are part of a more than 2,000-year-old wisdom tradition.” – Dr. Darshan Shah and Dr. David Ring, “Health Benefits of Yoga.”

Yoga with Adriene

  • Adriene’s mission is “to connect as many people as possible through high-quality free yoga videos.”
  • Her videos are “designed to give you the tools to build a happy, healthy at-home yoga practice.”
  • She encourages her students to “do your best, be authentic, and find what feels good.”
  • It can be healing to acknowledge whatever emotion and feeling we are having. The videos below are a good example of that.

Yoga For Vulnerability:

Yoga for Anxiety and Stress:

Yoga for When You’re Angry:

Yoga for Bedtime:

Longhorn Yoga

UT students holding a yoga pose.
courtesy of Longhorn Yoga
  • This UT student organization is “dedicated to promoting mindfulness and well-being through weekly yoga sessions!”
  • The student organization describes their yoga sessions as perfect for both beginners and experienced yogis.
  • This group has a few extra mats available, but they encourage you to bring a mat if you already have one.
  • They do not charge any dues or fees. “There is no required commitment – simply join whenever you like!”
  • They hold free yoga classes every week during the Fall and Spring semesters. Sign up for their weekly newsletter to stay updated.

Mindfulness & Meditation:

3-Minute Body Scan to Cultivate Mindfulness

  • You can do anything for 3 minutes, right? I like to start small with anything. If I bite off more than I can chew, sometimes I’ll become disheartened and give up. But 3 minutes is nothing, right?! That’s about how long you spend brushing your teeth!
  • So spend 3 minutes on yourself, just 3 minutes!
  • If you liked that, even a little bit, click here to find out more about Mindfulness!
  • I’ll even tell you the biggest secret! It’s not about emptying your mind! Not at all. It’s about paying attention to the present!

CMHC Resources

  • Mindful UT
    • “Use this guide to find a list of mindfulness and stress reduction activities you can do at home to help manage your emotional well-being. Please note that some of these techniques may work better for you than others and that’s okay. Explore and find what mindfulness and relaxation techniques work best for you.”
  • Self Care Activities
    • “Self-care is more than an occasional treat, but a way of living each day that incorporates practices and behaviors that help you feel refreshed, re-energized, and rested. Self-care helps you deal with the daily stresses in your life—from academic pressures, to interpersonal relationships, to future plans, and others. Everyone deals with stress differently, and everyone’s preference for practicing self-care is different as well.”
Comfortable black chair in relaxing office space.
courtesy of CMHC, MindBody Lab

MindBody Labs

  • “MindBody Labs are self-paced environments designed to help UT students explore resources for improving their emotional and physical health. The labs currently feature audio and video instruction on a variety of topics. Most material is experiential, enabling students to follow along and practice skills as they are being discussed.”
  • MindBody Labs currently contain information and guided exercises on: breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, meditation, relaxation imagery/relaxation sounds, guided imagery, health and well being, sleep issues, food and eating issues.
  • They also offer these tools for biofeedback: RESPeRATE, and Galvanic Skin Resistance 2 (GSR2) – only at the SSB location.
    • According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Biofeedback is a mind-body therapy that can improve physical and mental health. During a biofeedback session, a practitioner will use painless sensors to measure certain bodily functions. You will see the results on a screen, then test ways to change the results. With practice, you will be able to make adjustments without the equipment.”
  • Campus Locations:
  • You can try a few guided exercises online from your home. Exercises include deep breathing, muscle relaxation, meditations, and more!

Sleep:

  • Many of us experience trouble sleeping.
  • Try these Healthy Sleep Tips for a good night’s rest.
  • Sleeping and Napping section devoted to help you understand and improve your sleep. “Getting an average of eight hours of quality sleep per night is an important part of overall health and academic success. The benefits of sufficient sleep are numerous, especially for students, as sleep is essential for increased memory consolidation, learning, decision making and critical thinking. Studies show that students who receive seven to nine hours of sleep had higher grade point averages than students who didn’t get seven to nine hours of sleep regularly (Yu & Arendt, 2017).”

The Study Cycle:

  • Study Smart, Not Hard
  • “Spend two to three hours studying outside of class for every hour in class. Listen to the lectures and read the texts, but balance those activities by finding ways to write, speak about, and graph or draw the content you are learning.”
  • Check out UT’s Sanger Learning Center’s study strategies page.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing this information. In current society, because of various factors, people nowadays are under a lot of pressure, this article is exactly what most people need right now. I think the methods in this article may help many people to deal with their difficulties, and reduce some sad things that happen.

    Reply

  2. Thanks, Jack, for the information, nowadays it is important to have a healthy mind and your recommendation helps to avoid or reduce stress levels.

    Reply

  3. Interesting and helpful blog, cause it not only gives you problem about stress, but it gives you many solution.

    Reply

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