Stress from school, work and relationships are a problem that most students will face in their years at the University.

And after graduation, other obligations will fill the stress void where school and homework once were.

Sometimes it takes more than a weekend to get back the balance, control and simplicity that gets muddled up by life’s demands.

“Balance, Juggle and Control – Finding your Nanosecond of Zen,” held in Hanna Hall Friday, was a discussion workshop, led by a panel of three women: Ellen Nagy, director of first year experience at Heidelberg College; Annette Badik, assistant director at the BG Career Center; and Michelle Simmons, the Senior Associate Director at the University.

The central message was that most of us are overworked, stressed out and ignoring our basic needs as people.

After a briefing about how they found individual balance in their own lives, the panel quizzed the audience on some every day activities a person could engage in that would lead to being overwhelmed.

“How many of you have talked on a cell phone, driven and drank a beverage at the same time?” Simmons asked.

Every hand in the room went up, showing that doing too many things at once is a habit which society has geared us to accept as normal.

“We think, here is an obligation, something I have no choice over, but we do make choices on that all the time,” Badik said.

Taking a few moments out of a day for “me time” is one way to restore order and a sense of control in a busy life.

“When I was in graduate school, me and my friend would go to the gift shop and look at greeting cards and have a good laugh whenever we would have a small break,” Nagy said.

In a society where having it all is a common goal, having it all at once is a misconception.

“You can’t have it all at the same time, think of having it all as a buffet,” Nagy said.

So if multitasking has become habit, and there are crumbs in the keyboard from a night of cramming, take heart – there are things that can be done to bring back the balance.