Bowling: More than a Friendly Game

Stress is “a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension”. When dealing with stress it is good to have stress management skills and activities you can do to help relieve stress. Stress management and relieving stress is something that is very important, especially when you're in college. This is the time when we are juggling school, jobs, social life, and family which can be overwhelming at times. Relieving stress pertains to health and wellness because it deals with you taking care of your physical and mental well being. San Jose State University is a school that cares about their students. The school takes pride in being helpful of its students and they also have resources to help students like myself deal with stress management and to help relieve stress.

The bowling center in the Student Union is one of the resources that SJSU has to help relieve stress. Bowling pertains to the physical dimension of wellness which deals with taking care of your body. This is because you are not only physically active, but you are also relieving stress. Bowling not only acts as a stress reliever, but it also has many other health benefits. Since bowling is a form of exercise, it “lowers your risk of stroke, heart attacks, diabetes, increases bone density, improves circulation, lowers cholesterol levels and blood pressure, and helps your body utilize oxygen better” . Bowling can also be used as a mental stress reliever when socializing with others. The bowling center is open from “8am-11pm Monday through Wednesday, 8am-12am Thursday, 10am-12am Friday, 12pm-12am Saturday, and 12pm-11pm Sunday” This gives students ample amounts of time to head to the bowling center and relieve some stress, whether they are alone or with friends. They have really great prices as well because they know college students are on a budget. It costs $3.25 for a game with $2.50 for renting shoes or if you’re in a group you can pay $16.00 per lane, for the hour. I personally have gone bowling on campus and it definitely has relieved my stress. I feel that when I release the ball, I am also relieving stress that I have and it is also super inexpensive and fun.

Exercise is defined as “bodily exertion, especially for the sake of developing and maintaining physical fitness” . Exercise/ physical activity is a way to help relieve stress. The reason exercise is able to help relieve stress is due to the fact that our bodies “produce endorphins--chemicals in the brain that act as natural painkillers--and also improve the ability to sleep”. In addition to exercise being very helpful in regards to relieving stress it can also help improve our quality of life which is very important. Relieving stress is not just about mental but it also pertains to your physical and as college students we need to take care of ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally. With that, bowling is an excellent way to help relieve stress physically and mentally. It is something that our school offers and a way to not only relieve stress, but also a way to hang out with friends at an inexpensive price.

A counter argument would be that people feel that the price of bowling at the bowling center is still out of their price range. They could also go on to say that they do not have time to go bowling because of classes and work. Also many people commute and they might not want to stay and bowl after class because they want to head home before there is too much traffic. The solution for this would be to take bowling as one of their PE classes. It is a requirement to take PE in order to graduate from SJSU and it would be a good way to relieve stress from their other classes. This way they do not have to go through the trouble of paying to bowl after their classes. The problem of not having time to bowl would be solved and it would be incorporated in their school schedule twice a week.

Works cited

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