Being a college student can be stressful, and managing the stress can be a challenge. Eric W. Hayden, part of The University of Akron’s Counseling Center, gave a lecture on biofeedback training to help reduce stress on March 30 in Simmons Hall.

First, to begin de-­stressing, it is needed to find out what the stress triggers are. A lot of the time, people perceive all stress triggers to be external, like time constraints, school, or work and forget to take into consideration the internal stresses each person has, such as thoughts of worry, anxiety, negative feelings etc.

As said by Hayden, biofeedback is the “use of electronic devices and software programs to measure and feedback information about physiological activity (normal and abnormal) in form of auditory or visual feedback signals.” Also, the goal of biofeedback is to decrease stress and “develop greater awareness and increase voluntary control of physiological processes that are related to stress response.” There are many different types of biofeedback, such as heart rate, skin temperature, and blood flow changes.

Heart rate is a very important piece in biofeedback. It affects things like our breathing and thoughts. Since heart rate plays a very big role in setting our emotions, responses, and perceptions, it can be important that we monitor and really try to keep ourselves at a healthy heart rate.

Biofeedback can be used by anyone who has stress in their life, and can help them socially, academically, and mentally. Make an appointment with Hayden at the Counseling Center to have less of a stressful day.