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HW410 Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

Stress Management and Prevention Program Resource Guide

Kaplan University

Stress Management and Prevention Program Resource Guide

By

Jessica Wright

Kaplan University

HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

03-05-14

Table of Contents

Unit 1 The nature of stress

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing

Unit 2 the Body as battlefield

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing

Unit 3 feast or faminine

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing

Unit 4 one planet under stress

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing

Unit 5 under stress: what now?

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing

Unit 6 ageless wisdom of meditation

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing

Unit 7 sight, sound, and body work

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing

Unit 8 the wellness mandala

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing

Unit 9 applying stress: critical management and prevention to your professional life

Information to Remember

Resources: Exercises

Tools: Journal Writing

Additional Information

(End of the Guide)

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Unit

1

Unit 1: The Nature of Stress

Information to Remember:

▪ Causes of stress aren’t always clear. Sometimes there are “several biological and ecological factors that may trigger the stress response in varying degrees, some of which are outside our awareness” (Seaward, 2009, p. 10). People don’t realize the gravitational pull or solar flares can affect our biological rhythms. Seasonal affective disorder is an example of bioecological influence.

▪ The general adaptation syndrome, introduced by Hans Selye, is adaptations in the body in order to accommodate changes caused by stress.  There are three stages of GAS: “the alarm phase, the resistance phase, and the exhaustion phase” (Seaward, 2009).  This is specific to chronic stress.  The first stage is when the fight or flight response kicks in, the second stage is when the body tries to maintain a state of balance, and the third stage is when the balance of the body is lacking and leads to organs that fail to function properly.  Stress can kill if the right organ becomes dysfunctional.  It’s important to keep it under control.

▪ Healing and curing mean different things. Curing is when the symptoms of a disease or illness have been eliminated and healing is “bringing a sense of inner peace to someone’s life, even in the face of death” (Seaward, 2009, p. 28). Healing may also cure someone, but it isn’t curing. Just because someone is healed, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are cured.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ My Health Philosophy – This was chosen to serve as a reminder of what my health philosophy was at the time it was written. I want to look back at it to see what has changed as well as what has stayed the same.

▪ College Student Daily Stressors Survey – This was included to look back on and see how the stressors have changed over time. It will be revisited in the future.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ Are You Stressed? – I would like to take this survey periodically to see just how stressed I am at any given time in life. It’s simple yet informative.

▪ Personal Stress Inventory: Top Ten Stressors – This is included to occasionally take a personal stress inventory and to see what has changed over time.

Unit

2

Unit 2: The Body as Battlefield

Information to Remember:

▪ Improving your memory during stress is important because “when a stressor is occurring, it is a good time to be at your best in memory retrieval and memory formation” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 211). By improving your memory during stress, you’ll remember what happened and be able to avoid it, or at least be prepared for it, if it were to present itself in the future.

▪ Short-term stressors usually enhance memory while long-term stressors inhibit memory. “Chronic stress is thought to wither the fragile connection between neurons resulting in brain shrinkage” in the hippocampus part of the brain (Seaward, 2009, p. 39).

▪ Stress can cause nervous system related disorders. “Several states of disease and illness first appear as stress-related symptoms that, if undetected or untreated, may result in serious health problems” (Seaward, 2009, p. 73). Some of the more common ones are: bronchial asthma, tension headaches, migraine headaches, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ Immediate, Intermediate, and Prolonged Stress Effects – I wanted to include this so I can retake the quiz at a later date. It helps draw attention to how the stress in my life is affecting me.

▪ Are You a Product of Your Culture? – This is a questionnaire with 34 yes/no questions. It helps you see how much culture has influenced your behavior.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ Physical Symptoms Questionnaire – This lists stress related symptoms. You score yourself on how often, how severe, and how long a symptoms lasts and learn how stressed you are.

▪ My Health Profile – I’d like to be able to compare my present health profile to a future one. Including this will help me remember to do it.

Unit

3

Unit 3: Feast or Famine

Information to Remember:

▪ There are five building blocks of psychological stressors. They are outlets for frustration, social support, predictability, control, and perception of things worsening. “These factors play a major role in explaining how we all go through lives full of stressors, yet differ so dramatically in our vulnerability to them” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 264).

▪ When stress has some predictability to it, the perception of stress may change. Things to consider are how predictable the stressor is and how advance of a warning might you get. There’s a lot of variables to stress because each and every one of us will perceive it differently than the next.

▪ The sense of control over stress is “highly dependent on context” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 268). When someone feels they are in control of everything around them, they have a stress-response that is far greater than those who don’t.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ Anger Recognition Checklist – This helps to understand how stress affects a normal day and how you might mismanage it.

▪ Anger: The Fight Response – This has a list of the different ways people mismanage their anger. It helps to put it in perspective.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ The Psychology of Your Stress – This journal helps you come more aware of your perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors during stressful times in life.

▪ Mismanaged Anger Style Indicator – After checking the statements that are true for you the majority of the time, you take note of the numbers that you have marked. You then see which category you fall into, somatizer, exploder, self-punisher, or underhander.

Unit

4

Unit 4: One Planet Under Stress

Information to Remember:

▪ Self-esteem plays a huge role in a persons stress response. When someone has low self-esteem, they “often feel powerless, are easily influenced by others, express a narrow range of emotions, become easily defensive and frustrated, and tend to blame others for their own weaknesses” (Seaward, 2009, p. 148).

▪ Stress-prone personalities include codependent, helpless-hopeless, and Type A. Another personality that has developed fairly recently is Type D. These types of people are all more likely to have more stress in their lives than others.

▪ Stress-resistant personalities include the hardy, the survivor, and the sensation seeker. These types of personalities tend to have much higher self-esteem than the stress-prone personality types. They don’t necessarily have less stress in their lives they just handle it better.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ Distractions of the Human Path – This was included because it helps you to understand what might be a distraction and without having it to guide you, you might not realize it’s a distraction.

▪ Your Personal Value System – This exercise helps you to visit your values and think about what supports those values. It really gets you thinking.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ Stress-Prone Personality Survey – I included this because it will be interesting to go back, retake the survey, and see how I’ve changed over time.

▪ Stress-Resistant Personality Survey – This is included for the same reason. I want to go back and retake the survey to see how I’ve changed.

Unit

5

Unit 5: Under Stress: What Now?

Information to Remember:

▪ Vulnerability to learned helplessness is when “animals of many different species show some version of giving up on life in the face of something aversive and out of their control” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 392). They feel like they aren’t in control and that things are too much to handle. Their perceptions are off, as they can’t tell if a rarely made coping response worked.

▪ Not smoking, keeping drinking to a minimum, getting regular exercise, and maintaining ideal body weight can achieve successful aging. Other factors that can aid in successful aging are healthy eating habits, close friends and family, and good coping skills. Studies with rats have shown that by being handled regularly from birth, resulted in less glucocorticoid production as they aged.

▪ We can change the way we cope with stress, both physiologically and psychologically. Exercise can lower blood pressure and relaxation techniques can modulate the pain and stressfulness of childbirth. “Sheer repetition of certain activities can change the connection between your behavior and activation of your stress-response” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 395).

Resources: Exercises:

▪ Positive Affirmation Statements – This is a great one because it helps you think about positive affirmation statements and how to use them appropriately. They could help boost your self-esteem.

▪ Assertiveness training 101 – This gives you several situations and asks that you note your initial reaction and then what your assertive response should be.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ The Time-Crunch Questionnaire – I chose this because it’s interesting to see where my time management skill are at and I’d like to see how they change over time.

▪ Reframing: Seeing a Bigger, Clearer Perspective – This is a great tool to use to get yourself thinking. At first it’s a little difficult to think about situations and their reframed perspective, but once you do, it’s enlightening.

Unit

6

Unit 6: Ageless Wisdom of Meditation

Information to Remember:

▪ Two types of meditation are exclusive and inclusive. Exclusive meditation is when you focus on one object without any other thoughts to help increase self-awareness and promote relaxation (Seaward, 2009, p. 356). Inclusive meditation is when all thoughts are invited into awareness without emotional evaluation, judgment, or analysis (Seaward, 2009, p. 359).

▪ Diaphragmatic breathing is one of the easiest ways to relax. Just stepping back and taking some deep breaths can do wonders for your stress levels. Breathing deep in your belly is key. This is how we breathe when sleeping and when we’re a baby.

▪ Mental imagery and visualization are similar but not the same. Mental imagery is using your imagination to observe images in the unconscious mind in the first person. Visualization is a more directed exercise that consciously creates images.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ Three Short Guided Visualizations – This includes three visualizations to help promote a sense of rest and relaxation. I’d like to record these so I can listen to them and get, what I feel would be the full benefit of them.

▪ Bridging the Hemispheres of Thought – This is interesting to learn a little about which hemisphere you use more when thinking. It asks three questions to help you think about your left versus your right-brain dominant thinking style.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ Dolphin Breath Meditation – Another meditation I’d like to record so I have an audio guiding me though it is easy enough a recording isn’t necessary. It helps you relax and I’d like to recall it at a later date.

▪ Too Much Information – This helps you to realize if you’re one who tells too much information to people. It helps you decide how to decrease the quantity of information you’re bombarded with everyday, if you’re one who shares too much information, and helps you to come up with ways to bring balance back to your life.

Unit

7

Unit 7: Sight, Sound and Body Work

Information to Remember:

▪ A person’s eating habits will change when they’re stressed. The hypothalamus control both emotions and appetite control. “When food is placed in the stomach, a calming message is sent to the hypothalamus to decrease the intensity of neural stimulation throughout the rest of the body” (Seaward, 2009, p. 503). 

▪ Caffeine, processed sugar and flour, salt, and alcohol are among the food substances known to increase sympathetic drive or other physiological responses that keep the stress response elevated. This is one of the four dominos that increase the chances of health related problems (Seaward, 2009, p. 490).

▪ The gastrointestinal tract is very sensitive to stress (Seaward, 2009, p. 494). The flight or flight response kicks in during times of stress and slows down digestion and absorption so blood can be redirected to the large muscle groups for movement.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ The Rainbow Diet – This is a good reference to have on hand (after it’s filled out). This gives examples of what foods corresponds to what chakra and where on the body it’s located as well as the color.

▪ Frankenfoods: The Monster Called GMOs – I chose this exercise because it gets you thinking about the food you buy. It then has you jot down your thoughts on the topic of frankenfoods.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ Stress-Related Eating Behaviors – This is a questionnaire to find out if your eating habits are conducive to reducing stress. I want to take it in the future because currently, my eating behaviors are terrible.

▪ Self-Assessment: Nutritional Eating Habits – This is just a questionnaire about what your eating habits look like. The last question makes you think about other eating habits that you associate with a stressed lifestyle.

Unit

8

Unit 8: The Wellness Mandala

Information to Remember:

▪ Physical exercise uses the stress hormones the way they are intended, however it is stress on the body. “Even though exercise perpetuates the stress response while one is in motion, when physical activity ceases, the body returns to homeostasis” (Seaward, 2009, p. 512).

▪ There is a mind/body connection when it comes to exercise. Exercise helps reduce stress and shape our bodies. Our mind and body are interconnected.

▪ It’s important to flush the stress hormones. Those hormones can be damaging if left hanging out in the body. They are needed for the fight or flight response but need to be used up to reduce the risk of the body reacting in a way that could make you sick, or even worse.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ Physical Exercise – I included this because it asks several questions regarding your exercise habits then you jot down an exercise schedule.

▪ My Body, My Physique – I like this because it makes you think about your own body. It not only has you think about the bad, but also the good.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ Your Circadian Rhythms – This has you track several circadian rhythms. You track things like when you go to sleep, when you wake up, when you eat meals, even when you have bowel movements, exercise, and have sex.

▪ My Body’s Rhythm – This exercise gets you thinking about your own rhythms and your internal schedules. It can help open your eyes to your body’s rhythms.

Unit

9

Unit 9: Applying Stress: Critical Management to your Professional Life

Information to Remember:

▪ Hobbies can help reduce one’s stress because it gives your mind something else to think about other than the stress. While you don’t want to use a hobby as a way to avoid a stressor, healthy diversions offer a temporary escape from the sensory overload that can produce the stress response (Seaward, 2009, p. 329). This can help clear and refocus the mind and leave you ready to deal with it better when you return. 

▪ Information seeking can both reduce and promote stress. Knowing about a stressor can help alleviate some stress. On the other hand, if you get the wrong information or it’s information that’s negative, it can increase the stress.

▪ Forgiveness is an effective coping skill because it can lessen the grip the stressor has on you and help you focus on other, more positive parts of your life. It brings you peace that allows you to go on with life (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2011). Forgiveness can lead to a healthier body, mind, and soul.

Resources: Exercises:

▪ The Art of Calm: Relaxation Through the Five Senses – This is included because you list ten ideas in each of the five senses that help you relax. You have to get creative because it might be heard to think of so many different relaxation techniques.

▪ Relaxation Survival Kit – I included this because you are to list two different relaxation techniques that help you in each of the senses. You can pull out this simplified list when you’re having a bad day to get you back on the path to inner peace.

Tools: Journal Writing:

▪ Autogenic Training – I chose this one to use as a refresher. I found it an effective meditation technique. This asks questions about your experience with it and gets you really thinking about it.

▪ Progressive Muscular Relaxation – I like this because it has you listen to an exercise then answer questions, as the autogenic training one does. It helps you learn where you can participate in this when you’re not at home but need to reduce muscle tension.

Additional Information

Primary Source

Holzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramesetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2010, August 11). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Retrieved from

- I chose this article because it is an interesting study on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. They found that gray matter concentration changes in areas in the brain associated with learning, memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.

Secondary Source

Institute of HeartMath. (n.d.). Expanding heart connections. Retrieved from

- I chose this website because they are focused on helping people reduce stress, self-regulate emotions, and build energy and resilience for health, happy lives. They teach people how to rely on their hearts as well as their minds in their every day lives.

Spangler, B. (2003, November). Reframing. Retrieved from

- I chose this website because it’s an essay on reframing. It talks about what it is and gives the reader some reframing techniques.

References

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2011, November 23). Forgiveness: Letting go of grudges and bitterness. Retrieved from

Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why zebras don't get ulcers: The acclaimed guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping. (3rd ed.). New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin.

Seaward, B. L. (2009). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being. (6th ed., p. 541). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers

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