Panhellenic speaker gives advice on stress management

Professional campus speaker Erin Foley emphasized that happiness should be a “manner of traveling,” playing on the words of author Margaret Lee Runbeck .

On Monday evening, nearly 100 sorority women gathered to listen to Foley present a talk entitled, “The Triple S: Self Recovery, Stress Reduction and Strength Building” in an event in Bodek Hall hosted by the Penn Panhellenic Council.

A day after the death of College junior Amanda Hu , the event began with a moment of silence.

Foley outlined three key problems — mental blocks, workload and exhaustion from avoiding issues — that, especially in an environment like Penn’s, can create and aggravate stress.

In discussing mental blocks, she addressed what she called “reptile brain,” the part of the brain which is the source of constant thoughts perpetuating a negative self-image. She urged students to both recognize the patterns of these negative thoughts and to question them.

Foley opened up about the difficulties that affected her own college years.

“My college experience was not the best four years of my life,” Foley said. After suffering from anxiety for many years – specifically, from her understated perfectionism, she said — Foley finally addressed her issues and at the same time discovered her love of helping others conquer their problems.

Foley left her job as a professor of Communication at the State University of New York at Oneonta to pursue this passion and to teach people, particularly young women, nationwide about the essentials of strong and confident living.

In addition, she emphasized the importance of pursuing goals for the sake of oneself and not for others. She defined strengths as when passions and interests meet talents, and explained that “what we focus on grows” — the opportunities that people pursue will lead to many more in turn.

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