Room HSS 122 was bursting with students who assembled for a stress management lecture.

Dr. Laura Forsyth began by explaining how people react in stressful situations. She then involved the audience by interacting with them to uncover the many precursors of their stressors. Once there was an agreement that a multitude of situations can cause one to feel tense, she explained there is a specific part of the brain that mitigates the levels of stress experience in day to day lives.

One interesting piece of information she gave about stress was that there is a need to know peoples’ statuses. This is one reason why Facebook and other social media websites are so popular.

An interesting tip Forsyth recommended to combat stress is being resilient. “Resilience means bouncing back from difficult experiences. You bend but you don’t break!”

Some other tips were maintaining good health, engaging with positive people, and laughing.

Most importantly, Forsyth said, is to take baby steps to achieving stress goals. In other words, don’t have an expectation of being a full-fledged pessimist one day and being an optimist when you wake up the next morning. She recommended that by taking a few positive baby steps each day, one will soon realize that his or her stress is greatly decreased.