Episode 1 - Study Without Stress.

July 31,2021.

"In times of great stress and adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive".

LOKOPAKAR is an organization dedicated to Youth Development. Lokopakar focuses on the growth of youth by providing skill-sets and freedom to be themselves. It provides a non-judgmental platform where they learn from their experiences. With a vision of bettering the lives of youths, Lokopakar works to create safe spaces, support platforms, and activity-oriented programs that help youth express and experience their collective growth.

It currently runs programs like - Margadarshan, Strength TogetHER, Episodes, and Mental Health Awareness. These virtual programs were created to discuss unique points of view, thoughts, insights, experiences, and stories.

Margadarshan offers both individual and group mentorship.

Strength TogetHER is a girls-only peer-to-peer self-development group.

Online discussion sessions, as well as a forum for questions and answers, are available in Mental Health Awareness.

Episodes

Episodes is an hour-long topic-based session by Lokopakar which is focused on unique topics. It takes place once a month, catering to 60 individuals. Episodes provide participants knowledge on undiscussed topics as well as share their stories and get feedback from experts.

The theme of the first episode was, 'Study without stress’, under the direction of Miss Rosy Karna who is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology at the PGSP Stanford Psy.D.Consortium Program. Her current objectives are to obtain more expertise in treating and assessing at-risk youth families from socially and culturally marginalized groups utilizing evidence-based treatments.

Our episode began with warm greetings and a smile on every participant’s face, as well as their eagerness to learn. We started the episode with a short perspective video on a study from the different age groups of students. Here are some of the conclusions drawn after watching the video-

• Pleasurable
• Pressurable
• Engaging
• Stressful
• Uninteresting
• Tedious task

After knowing the different perspectives on the topic, our moderator felt the need to remove all the stress and myth of the word STUDY.

Then, based on facts provided by our moderator, we discussed which age group has the most stress. As a result, we learned that ‘Millennials’ are more stressed, followed by Gen-Z. Millennials are the age group of people who are born between the year 1981-1995 and Gen-Z are the age group of people who are born between the year 1996-2010.

After identifying the age group which was most stressful, our moderator asked us to lay down comes of the reasons for the stress. Following are the few responses given by the participants-

• Money
• Job stability
• Relationships
• Health problems

Most importantly, Academic Stress-Assignments, exams, expectations of family and teachers, GPA, limited access to available resources, etc.

This gave rise to another question, what is STRESS?

Stress is basically a body’s reflection of a change that requires a physical, mental, or emotional adjustment to respond. Stress can be positive, negative, or toxic. Stress has a variety of side effects. According to the school stress statistics,

Teenagers report stress levels of 5.8 out of 10 during the school year.

1 in 5 college students have thought about suicide

45% of college students have sought counseling due to stress

9% have made a suicide attempt

The prevalence of stress among undergraduates in Nepal is 24 %

Then we moved on to the issue for which this episode had been conducted and i.e. a sensible and enjoyable technique to learn in order to lessen stress. We have various exciting ways to study as a result of the participants’ interaction. They are:

• Practical self-care
• Schedule study session
• Use spaced repetition
• Depth of processing
• Finding our productive study space 
• Cut out the distractions
• Increase your motivation to study
• Build effective study habits
• Know what it is to focus on
• Work hard
• Study like a lecturer

Lastly, our moderator declared open ground and many active participants present in the virtual room shared their technique of studying which further added charm to the session. These include- Group study, avoiding bad things that give us unpleasant vibes, practicing frequently asked questions, taking breaks, highlighting important terms.

Starting with stress and ending with no stress, this session was a success for everyone who took part in it. This episode gave a fantastic opportunity for all of us to learn and unlearn new concepts, as well as a lively and proud conversation. The episode came to a close with joyful faces and a lot of new information. We were all ecstatic to be a part of such a wonderful family with such inspiring boys and girls. 

Written By -Manaswi Agarwal.