Krystal Gillespie

Stress is everywhere. Being a freshman in college is especially stressful. In today's society people are losing sleep, not eating, and reporting more mental illnesses that fifty years ago because of stress. Why do we stress? Because we feel like the pressures of the world are on our shoulders. As a student I have stress over the worries about getting good grades and trying to make the right decisions to make my future bright. As a society we have stress over standards to live the perfect life and to fit in. Stress is sometimes a good thing, in little doses, but too much and it starts causing problems. Stress can lead to high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and eating disorders. Not good stuff. Since spring is starting and finals are just around the corner, it is the perfect time to manage and help control the stress in our lives. Thing to try that have helped me are being active because when being active it release endorphins in the brain that send little do

I started swimming around 11 years ago. One summer I decided to join a local YMCA swim team and fell in love with the how accepting the team was and the competition, with the fact that swimming is considered a team sport, but at the same time can compete individually. Going swimming was my favorite part of my day. I loved everything about it, the way it made me feel when I would exercise, on how it would get rid of the stress that was inside, it would just disappear. Along with noticing a difference in my mood when I did compared to when I did not swim.  At the same time, while swimming I felt relaxed and had comfort. It is proven that swimming has multiple benefits on the body and mind. The obvious one, being it helps keeps the body in shape, but it does much more than that, it is a high intensity as well as a low impact sport, meaning it less harsh on the joints and pounding with the body's weight hitting the ground. swimming also is calming to the mind, as being surround by