Talking Points: being a HK teenager is tough, so what’s the best way to reduce stress?

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Chan Sum-to, 15, Ma On Shan Tsung Tsin Secondary School

In my opinion, listening to music and doing exercise are the best ways to deal with stress. After we have done a lot of homework and revision, listening to music lets us relax and we can release our pressure. Then, we can have energy to do homework and revision again.

Also, doing exercise helps to strengthen our body, so we can relax our body and get fit at the same time. Moreover, we can make new friends when we do exercise. We can talk with our friends to reduce the stress.

Margaret Chau Suet-ha, 16, Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School

People, or deadline fighters, are more prone to getting stressed when they cannot reach their goals by their deadlines. Therefore, the best way to deal with stress is not to finish your work quickly, but to rest or to daydream. The true meaning of rest is to revive oneself to continue working. Daydreaming can help free your brain and calm yourself down. With more energy, one can feel motivated to finish the task. So now, stop all your work and JUST DAYDREAM (don’t do this if you are in class)!

Edward Wong Kwan-ho, 16, Law Ting Pong Secondary School

I think the best way to deal with stress is to try yoga. This is because yoga can help to control your breathing and the focus allows you to throw away all the problems in the world. Try this when your parents are out because you might break something at home!

Kylie Chang Ho-yan, 14, Maryknoll Convent School (Secondary Section)

“I’m fed up with it!” “I’m going to give up!”

Our lives are getting more difficult and complicated as we grow up. Worry, anxiety and stress often appear in our way when we pursue our goals. However, there’s always a solution to every problem. I think the best way to deal with stress is to voice our difficulties to the elderly.

The elderly are experienced in life. They have been through the ups and downs and somehow always know how to tackle the difficulties you have faced in life. They can inspire you to release stress. Communicating with them gives you an opportunity to learn some of their stories and lessons, and eventually, you will learn how to let stress go.

Besides, they are easily satisfied with the small things in life and always want to fill up their grateful hearts. Remember that they have faced numerous challenges in life. This may give you another perspective in dealing with the stresses ahead of you. A step towards a joyful and stressless day is actually very straight forward.

In conclusion, talking to the elderly is a good outlet to release stress. Having a chat with them may broaden your mind, help you stay calm and say “tomorrow will be a better day!”

Michael Kwok Pui-hin, 16, Law Ting Pong Secondary School

Managing time is important as we can’t do everything at once. We can make a list and prioritise our tasks. Stress pushes us to do more things. If we manage our time well, we’d be more systematic. If not, everything will be out of order.

Jodie Tang, 14, St Francis’ Canossian College

I think the best way to deal with stress is sleeping. Most of our stresses come from school, family or work. Sleeping can relax your body and brain. You can solve problems with the energy from your sleep. So, I recommend sleeping to deal with stress.

Eunice Yung Po-yiu, 15, Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School

The best way to deal with stress is by listening to music. This is because music can help people to relax. You may feel happy after it. Also, I think doing exercises can help deal with stress too. When you are doing exercises, you will not think about anything. There are so many ways to deal with stress. If you know how to deal with your stress, you will live more happily.

Tiffany Wu, 14, Tak Nga Secondary School

Don’t over study. Once you have a good grasp of the concepts, let confidence take over. Take enough rest. Sleep is very important and helps your memory. Know that marks and grades only go so far. If you’re a good problem solver and a team player, the top companies and employers will find you! Also, read the newspaper! As strange as it may sound, the mind freshens when it is aware of the realities outside your own domain. A brief skim through can help keep the mind alert and relaxed - key for examinations.

Hoffman Tse, 15, Salesian English School

Stress is a problem that confused most of the 21st century teens and I had also been dealing with this issue for about half of my life. However, I soon found a way to minimise my stress and have used this technique since Form 1. Listening to music . Usually, I tell my friends to listen to some soft music - not pop music. I personally think that pop music is too exciting and will cause more stress instead of reducing it! I close my eyes when I listen to music because it makes me feel more relaxed.

Kimmi Lam, 13, Tak Nga Secondary School

In my opinion, I think doing exercise is the best way to deal with stress because you do not need to think about anything while you are doing it. You can also develop a new hobby. Furthermore, doing exercise can solve one of the big teen problems - being dissatisfied with our weight. Exercising can help deal with stress and is good for our bodies. Let’s exercise now!

Carlson Law, 14, Law Ting Pong Secondary School

There are many ways to deal with stress. I think the best way to deal with stress is by doing sports. This is because you can feel relaxed and also keep fit. I recommend that you to play basketball because it is a very healthy sport that you can play with friends. I enjoy running, cheering and interacting with my team mates during competitions. After playing basketball, I feel a sense of achievement and forget about all the stresses I have.

Natalie Chak Wing-kiu, 12, True Light Middle School

“It is not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.” It is inevitable that we face stress in our lives. To a certain extent, stress can motivate us to perform at our best. However, if we fail to handle it properly, it can be detrimental to our lives.

Stress mainly comes from studying. To meet parents’ expectations, students often study very hard to strive for academic excellence. The key to deal with stress is learning to relax. By having better time management to reserve yourself some free time, you can engage more in your hobbies, such as listening to music and eating your comfort food. It helps you to calm down and reduce stress. When you feel that you are really stressed out, talk to people you trust, like your teachers and friends. Do not keep it inside you.

In a nutshell, we must strike a balance between work and leisure. Learn to relax and share your feelings with others. After all, it is you who should control stress; do not let stress control you!

Esther Lai Hing-yi, 12, True Light Middle School of Hong Kong

Nowadays, students in Hong Kong are suffering from stress mostly because of their studies and friendships. Therefore, knowing how to deal with stress is important.

Firstly, we need to find out the problems that make you suffer. After knowing, you can easily solve it by finding a solution. If you cannot, you can ask a trustworthy friend or relative for help. Always keep a positive mind.

Apart from this,we can also eat or drink to decrease stress. If you have insomnia, you can have a glass of milk to relax and calm down. You can also eat your comfort food for happiness and relaxation. Just do something that makes yourself happy.

There are many way to deal with stress, but the result depends on your mind. Always have an optimistic attitude and everything will be fine!

Ko Jun Hao, 10, St Francis of Assisi’s English Primary School

A lot of people may not be able to deal with the tremendous stress from study or work. However, there are many different ways to deal with stress. My favourite way is to go jogging. I always go jogging with my family and friends. After exercising, I have more energy to deal with my problems.

Hifsa Zaidy, 15, St Margaret’s Girls’ College, Hong Kong

Stress is the most common problem in our daily life nowadays. As they say, “treat the cause, not the symptom”. Anxiety, grief, mental stress or fear are the common stress factors. Our imbalanced food intake also plays an important role in increasing stress level. There are various remedies to fight stress, such as counselling with close friends and family and indulging in physical activities. Regular exercise will also improve the quality of your sleep. Try to eat healthy and keep a well balanced diet to avoid stress!

Adrian Kwok, 10, St Francis of Assisi’s English Primary School

Many people think that avoiding caffeine, keeping a stress diary or talking to someone would help in reducing stress, but these are a “no-no” for me. Actually, we don’t need force to face stress. It wears off after a period of them. I believe the best way to deal with stress is to try relaxation techniques. Try self-hypnosis, which can be done anywhere. Once you can concentrate on a positive word like “peace” or “calm”, you’ll be able to relax. Do some therapeutic laughter, listen to music or even take a walk! Just remember: don’t overdo it.

Bobo Cheung Hok-yu, 15, Ma On Shan Tsung Tsin Secondary School

It seems like there is nothing you can do about stress, but actually there are lots of ways to deal with stress. First, you can exercise regularly because while you are exercising, your body’s endorphin levels will increase and you will feel happy. Second, you should get enough sleep. When sleeping, your body will be relaxed and you can forget about all the stress. Third, eat properly. Our bodies need to be healthy. When our body is healthy, we will feel happy and relaxed. In addition, you should do things you love because you will enjoy yourself more. The most important thing is to think positive because a positive mind can help you deal with stress.

Yani Chan, 12, True Light Middle School of Hong Kong

I think the best way to deal with stress is to do the things that you like. You will feel much better and happier if you are doing your favourite things. When you are sad, spend some time to enjoy yourself. You can do whatever you like, such as drawing, reading (my favourite) and singing. You can also write your emotions in to your diary. Just tell your diary what you are thinking, what happened on that day or how would you act if you did this or that.

Of course, there are still many other good ways to deal with stress. Mine is just one of them, but we must have a good way to express our feelings, mustn’t we?

Ady Lam, 11, Island School​

Stress never really goes away. That’s why we need to be able to combat it. I think the best way to deal with stress is by doodling. Just a little drawing of a tap dancing dog or a scribble of a talking piano can calm someone down. Never underestimate the power of a pen.

Kelly Lo, 13, St Francis’ Canossian College

I think the best way to deal with stress is to talk about our stresses with our teachers and parents. They know how to solve the problem and how to help you. They always know the best way to help you.

Kalvin Lee, 17, Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School

Exercising, like running, is undoubtedly the best way to deal with stress. While we concentrate on doing exercise, not only can we release our muscle tension, but we can also be relaxed mentally. With a view to cope with our stress, the prerequisite is to be in a good mood. Therefore, the most simple and suitable way to release stress is to exercise.

Cherry Fung, 12, True Light Middle School Of Hong Kong

Sports is a good way to eliminate stress. It also helps us gain muscles to make our bodies stronger. After exercising, we feel tired and we can easily get some rest.

Eating can also let our body feel relaxed, especially when eating sweets, desserts, or other food that makes us happy.

Lastly, I think that the most important part of eliminating stress is by getting enough rest. A lot of students can’t get enough rest due to the ridiculous amount of schoolwork. They sleep in class and can’t concentrate on learning so they have to study until midnight. So, getting enough rest is really important.

In conclusion, I think everyone should treat themselves better instead of satisfying others. That way, we would have less stress.

Sunny Hon, 17, Workers’ Children Secondary School

The best way to deal with stress is by jogging. When quizzes and exams are approaching, there is no other technique to relieve my stress but to jog. The scenery passes by me from both sides, and no matter what happens, I can just keep moving on. Every time I am dripping with sweat, I feel an indescribable relaxation in my mind and I can then smile and face all obstacles. Therefore, I think jogging is an effective way to combat stress.

Phoebe Chow, 13, St Francis’ Canossian College

The best way to deal with stress is by listening to music because it helps me relax. Sometimes I even dance to the music when the pressure is on overload.

Rachel Ma, 12, True Light Middle School Of Hong Kong

To deal with stress, I think the best way is to pour one’s heart out to others. You will be comforted by the listener. You can also talk with social workers because they will cheer you up and give you support. You can also seek their advice about reducing stress. After you confide in others, you will feel relaxed and comfortable. Also, always keep yourself in a happy mood.

Jacqueline Wong Cheuk-lam, 15, Methodist College

I would say opening up to teachers and friends. Not only can they find solutions, they can also give us support and make us smile again. It’s of great importance to open up rather than weeping alone behind the scenes.

Pamela Lee, 13, St Francis’ Canossian College

Definitely talk with your friends and family as they are your important buddies. They are always willing to listen to you, support you and give the best advice to you. We receive consolation after chatting with them.

So Yuet-yu, 15, Tung Chung Catholic School

Stress always comes from finding out that we don’t have enough time to finish our tasks. So, in order to deal with stress, I think the best way is to have a schedule. We can plan and organise our time well and we will then be able to take control of our time. Remember to write down exams dates that are coming up. That way, we can revise a bit every day and we won’t be in a panic when the day arrives.

Erica Adriana, 16, St Margaret’s Girls’ College, Hong Kong

Firstly, you have to convince yourself to calm down. Otherwise, you’d have chaotic thoughts stressing you out. Secondly, take a second to organise your thoughts. It wouldn’t help if your thoughts are jumbled up. Lastly, just do it. Simply stressing out and not starting your work does not make progress and will make you stress even further.

Wong Wing Yan,16, Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School

Changing your mind is the best way. Research has found that when people look at pressure positively, the stress benefits those people in some ways. Therefore, don’t think that pressure is completely harmful. More importantly, you can believe that stress means you want to have a valuable life. Let’s hug pressure!

Winnie Yik, 13, St. Francis’ Canossian College

I think the best way to deal with stress is through hanging out with friends. This is because I can talk to my friends and play with them. My friends will listen, give some advice and help me solve my problems. I don’t need to care about too many things. This makes me feel relaxed and happy and I can forget all my troubles and worries. Just enjoy yourself.

Asmita Tamang, 15, St. Margaret’s Girls’ College, Hong Kong

For me, it would be taking a nice, hot shower. It helps me relax and ease the tension in my stiff body. After showering, not only do I feel fresh, but I am also able to concentrate more.

Sabrina Cheng, 13, True Light Middle School of Hong Kong

Nowadays, people in Hong Kong have a lot of stress. The main causes are work, school results and family. If you don’t deal with them well, it will become a very serious problem.

Because we work and study overtime, people don’t always have enough sleep. Rest can remove stress and people will handle their own things in a better way.

However, many people face the problem of insomnia. To improve this , drinking hot milk before sleeping is a good solution. It relaxes the nerves so that you can fall asleep easier.

Abby Chan Yat-nok, 10, St Francis of Assisi’s English Primary School

Most people like myself in Hong Kong are living with high levels of stress. I need to deal with it all the time. For me, I think the best way to deal with stress is to do something that you enjoy most. For me, playing volleyball is the best way. During the game, I can enjoy the fun in teamwork. All my anxiety can be put aside for a while. After the game, I feel more relaxed and I can deal with my problems with a positive mind.

Leung Wing Lam, 15, True Light Middle School of HK

We have different kinds of stress in our daily lives. Most of them are from our school. Stress is not really bad at all, because it gives you the motivation to work harder to get good results. However, we have to find a way to deal with it when there is too much stress. In my opinion, I think listening to music is the best way.

First, according to some university studies, it has been proven that listening to soft music will make you relax and sleep better. But here’s a friendly reminder: never listen to music using headphones because they may hurt your ears if the music is too loud.

Second, relaxing music will help you learn better because it helps you concentrate during your studies. I know some schools are starting to use this method to help students learn more efficiently and, as a result, the students really concentrate more on the topics.

You may want to know the best kind of music you can listen to. Actually, you can choose whatever music you like, as long as it is not too loud and the content is “healthy”. There are many other ways to deal with stress, but none of them will work if you don’t have the courage or optimism to face it. We should believe that there is always hope in the difficulties and stress and we should never give up.

Jessi Lam Yan-yin, 13, True Light Middle School

Everybody feels pressure nowadays. However, we have to solve the problems or there will be too much pressure on us. In my past experience, here are some suggestions to dealing with stress. Listening to music, sleeping and showering are my suggestions. First of all, listening to music relaxes me since I like music a lot. Secondly, sleeping is a great way to deal with stress because I can relax my brain and get away from the sources of my stress. Last but not least, showering is also useful because it means warm water. Warm water does not only relax my brain, but also my body. The suggestions above are my favourite ways to deal with stress.

Abby Au, 13, St Francis Canossian College

I think the best way to deal with stress is running because when we are running, we can do exercise and deal with stress at the same time. Running can relax our whole body. Therefore, I think running is the best way to deal with stress.

Chloe Chan, 12, True Light Middle School of Hong Kong

Most stress comes from school and parents. We should deal with stress. Here are some suggestions.

The first suggestion is relaxing yourself by sleeping, watching TV or doing things that you like. The second suggestion is talking to others to release our stress. You could also ask them how to deal with stress. The third suggestion is you could take a hot shower. It is relaxing to take a hot shower. The fourth suggestion is keeping a healthy diet. Never skip meals. This regulates your body. The fifth suggestion is exercising. Exercising will make you healthy and release stress. The sixth suggestion is eating sweets. It produces glucocorticoid. Glucocorticoid is something that releases your stress. Also, bananas are strongly suggested. The seventh suggestion is always think about things in a positive way. Do not think negatively. That would increase your stress! The eighth suggestion is to manage your time in order to do your tasks. Never have a tight schedule. That would increase your stress. These are some ways that you can deal with your stress.

Our topics always get a lot of responses. In our next Talking Points, we’ll discuss: Is two years a fair sentence for police officers convicted of assault? We are now accepting your answers for this topic. To take part, email your answer with your name, age, and school, along with a nice, clear selfie (make sure it’s not blurry), to [email protected] by lunchtime on Monday. Don’t forget to include “Talking Points” in the subject line.

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