Davison, kindra unit 9 assignment

KAPLAN UNIVERSITYStress Management and Prevention

Program Resource Guide

By

Kindra Davison

Kaplan University

HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

October, 2016

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Table of Contents

U N I T 1 T H E N A T U R E O F S T R E S S

Information to Remember............................................................3Self-Assessment Exercises...........................................................3Journal Writing.............................................................................4

U N I T 2 T H E P H Y S I O L O G Y O F S T R E S S


U N I T 3 P S Y C H O L O G Y O F S T R E S S


U N I T 4 P E R S O N A L I T Y T R A I T S A N D T H E H U M A N S P I R I T U A L I T Y

Information to Remember..........................................................11Self-Assessment Exercises.........................................................11Journal Writing...........................................................................12

U N I T 5 D E A L I N G W I T H S T R E S S : C O P I N G S T R A T E G I E S

Information to Remember..........................................................21Journal Writing...........................................................................21

U N I T 6 R E L A X A T I O N T E C H I Q U E S 1 : B R E A T H I N G , M E D I T A T I O N , A N D M E N T A L I M A G E R Y


U N I T 7 N U T R I T I O N A N D S T R E S S

Information to Remember..........................................................28Self-Assessment Exercises.........................................................28

U N I T 8 P H Y S I C A L E X E R C I S E A N D A C T I V I T Y


U N I T 9 A P P L Y I N G S T R E S S : C R I T I C A L I S S U E S F O R M A N A G E M E N T A N D P R E V E N T I O N T O Y O U R P R O F E S S I O N A L L I F E

Information to Remember..........................................................35

A D D I T I O N A L

I N F O R M A T I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6

R E F E R E N C E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . 3 7

Unit 1: The Nature of StressInformation to Remember:

Key Learning Point: What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is the ability to be present in the moment,

without judging the situation. Mindfulness is the practice of being aware of our mind, body, and spirit

simply as it is now. There is no inherent component of change, mindfulness is simply awareness.

(Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

Key Learning Point: What is stress? Stress is our body's reaction to a perceived threat. This can include

threats to our physical, mental, or spiritual well-being. Eastern cultures consider stress to be the

absence of inner peace. Western cultures consider it to be any degree of loss over emotional control.

(Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Journal writing can be a useful tool to increase self-awareness. It can also help with

coping during stressful situations by providing an outlet for emotions, and helping the writer to

process events. (Seaward, 2015).

Self-Assessment Exercise:For this assignment, we created our own well-being “mandala”. We described the relative

importance of the different aspects of our life, the mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional parts, based on

an example on page 22 of the digital book. (Seaward, 2015). We also described a situation in our daily life

that contributes toward a balance in these different areas.

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Unit

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Journal Writing:Situation Start Midway End

My sister’s impending marriage to a man she doesn’t know very well.

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When people ask me what I do for a job, or where I live.

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Living out of a suitcase.

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My brother’s wife no longer being interested in raising her children.

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When my ex contacts me.

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When I see family or friends that I used to know.

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When I think about my future: where will I live? What will I do?

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The idea that I might be alone forever.

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When I do not get time to myself in a day.

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When I cannot be in control of what I eat.

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(Stahl & Goldstein, 2010)

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Unit 2: The Physiology of StressInformation to Remember:

Key Learning Point: There are five main purposes for cultivating good coping skills. They are to reduce

the impact of harmful environments on our life, to better be able to tolerate negative events, to

establish a positive self-image, to maintain control of our emotions, and to establish positive

relationships with others. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: There are seven major chakras in the human anatomy. Chakras are arrranged from

the top of the head to the base of the spine. They connect to various endocrine glands, and emit

energy. Whenever a chakra is closed, distorted, or congested, stress or even illness may occur as a

direct result. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Western science has long considered any mind-body connection to be pseudo-

science at best, but advances in neuroscience are starting to show a real connection. Thoughts, and

most importantly, stress, does indeed influence changes in hormone production and other physical

reations in the body that can effect our health. (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

Self-Assessment Exercise:This assignment focused on making a connection between stress and physical disease. We

discussed diseases that occur because of a stressed nervous system, such as coronary heart disease and

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irritable bowel syndrome. We also discussed diseases that occur as a result of an immune system affected

by stress, like rheumatoid arthritis. (Seaward, 2015)

Journal Writing:How is stress or anxiety about people affecting your life?

This stress is the biggest one in my life. I have never really been outgoing, but I never had a

problem with people until the past few years. My social anxiety is probably different than most. I am

afraid of my friends and acquaintances. I have no problem at all with strangers, even crowds of them.

Going through an abusive relationship affected my interactions with men. I don’t trust anyone who is

good looking or friendly. Not being where I imagined I would be with my personal life and career has

affected my interactions with innocent friends and family who just want to know how I am. I get

terribly anxious because I don’t have an answer for them that I think they want to hear, so I try to

avoid all contact with anyone but my closest family, closest friends, and strangers.

How is stress or anxiety about work affecting your life?

Since I quit my job four months ago and spent 4 months abroad, now that I’m back I am

having a bit of anxiety about work. I know I will be able to find a job no matter where I go, but the

question is whether it will be something that I enjoy. Most likely not. Also, I don’t know where I will

live, so I don’t know where to start looking for work.

How is stress or anxiety about the world affecting your life?

I definitely find that my life is significantly more peaceful when I don’t read the news of the

world on a regular basis. I do get a big upset by world politics and issues, but it usually only lasts a

few minutes, and I’m able to let it go because I realize it’s out of my control.

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How is stress or anxiety about food and eating habits affecting your life?

My life is controlled by my anxiety over my eating habits. I obsess over my diet every

moment of every day. I have strong beliefs about nutrition that are not in line with the food pyramid,

so that creates even more stress when people ask me about my diet and then proceed to think I’m

crazy because they can’t be bothered to do any research beyond what the government tells them. I try

to eat a strict anti-inflammatory and high fat diet because I have some auto-immune responses to a lot

of foods. All of these things are stressful and affect my life nearly every moment.

How is stress or anxiety about sleep and sleeplessness affecting your life?

This is one area that I am generally free from stress. I have never had trouble sleeping. In fact,

I probably use sleep to escape my troubles.

How is stress or anxiety about exercise or lack of physical activity affecting your life?

The past few months the inability to exercise has greatly affected my life. I was living in

Hanoi, Vietnam, in the summertime and it was too hot to move, let alone exercise. I don’t really love

exercising, but I do know how my body feels when I haven’t had any exercise for too long, and it isn’t

a good feeling. Hopefully now that I am back in a moderate climate, this will no longer be a stressor

for me.

Summary

I have a lot of anxiety in my life right now. I think of anxiety as stress caused by the idea of

something that hasn’t even happened yet. How completely useless that is, and yet I allow it to control

so many aspects of my life.

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Unit 3: Psychology of StressInformation to Remember:

Key Learning Point: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross noted the five stages of grief. These five stages occur in

everyone, in every situation of loss, from trivial things like missing the annual sale at Nordstrom, to

life-changing events like a terminal diagnosis or sudden death of a loved one. The stages are denial,

anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Anger and fear are natural emotions that we all feel. They are survival emotions. If

we learn how to channel them into healthy outcomes, they can also help us grow emotionally. If not,

they can be major stumbling blocks to maturity. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Mindfulness practices can be both formal and informal, which means that we can

practice mindfulness at literally any time. A formal practice includes a calm, quiet place where you

can be comfortable and attempt to rid the mind of thoughts. Informal practices bring insight and

mindfulness to any situation that we are already in. (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

Self-Assessment Exercise:This assignment brought us into contact with things that can block our path to well-being. Fear and

anger, as well as other negative emotions, can be hindrances to our progress. From the Tibetan culture,

we learned about the importance of healthy desires (in short, desires that extend beyond ourselves) to

bring joy and keep negative emotions in check. (Seaward, 2015) We discussed other ways to cope with

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anger and fear, such as desensitization, and we discussed ways in which we could improve

communication in our relationships.

Journal Writing:Having taken voice lessons as a child, I am a staunch stomach-breather. I focused on the rise

and fall of my stomach as I began this meditation practice. Of course the first thought that popped

through was “I’ve got to lose more weight.” Pushing that aside, I went back to my breathing. For the

remainder of the time, thoughts that came to me were mostly whiny reminders of my physical pain in

my joints, the gassy feeling in my stomach this morning, and the dryness of my skin ever since I’ve

been here in the desert visiting my parents. These thoughts were not exactly calming, but they were at

least real sensations, and not self-centered pity thoughts about my emotions or future.

This was not my first attempt at mindfulness practice. I became interested in this type of

practice about a year ago and began listening to guided meditations while I was out exercising, using

my steps, breathing, or heartbeat as the focus points. Needless to say, I never became very good at it,

but my body did get in the best shape I’ve ever been in because of the increase in exercise. Slowly the

outside world put its demands on me again, and by now I am sadly out of practice. The short practice

was a good reminder of how nice it is to get outside of my own thoughts every once in a while.

The attitude that I try the hardest to cultivate during mindfulness practice is non-judgment.

Both toward myself and toward others. Some people feel strongly that if we don’t judge things as

good or bad, then we can fall into doing things that won’t be good for us, or we won’t be able to make

sound decision for our own lives. I do not believe that this is the case. Very rarely is something

inherently evil for the sake of it. There is always a reason behind things, and if you take the time to

get into the mindset of the person who made the particular decision that seems so evil, we can often

gain a measure of understanding, whether or not we are willing to admit that we ourselves would have

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made that same decision if we had experienced the same life experiences as that person. With the

thoughts that come up in my own head, some disappoint me and some are definitely setting me back,

but while I am mindful of them my only job is to understand that they are there, and later on I can

analyze and decide what path to take in order to change them. Sometimes this freedom allows my

mind to show me deeper areas that I never would have given my conscious mind access to if I

continued to judge myself harshly.

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Unit 4: Personality Traits and the Human SpiritualityInformation to Remember:

Key Learning Point: Personalities are thought to be molded early on in life, and have not been shown to

change very significantly. The one aspect of personality that may change is behavior, but the

underlying qualities of a person tend to remain the same throughout life. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Self-esteem is a very important aspect of personality for dealing with stress. There

are four components of self-esteem: connection, uniqueness, power, and models. If all of these

aspects are present in a life, then that person is much more likely to be hardy and to respect

themselves. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Emotions are held in the body as pain and other physical sensations. Using a

technique called body scanning, we can examine our physical body for signs of any discomfort that

may be caused by something other than physical injury. This is a useful mindfulness practice. (Stahl

& Goldstein, 2010).

Self-Assessment Exercise:For this assignment, we discussed stress and personalities. We learned about Prochaska’s

Stages of Change, (precontemplation, contemplation, determination, action, maintenance, and relapse) and

demonstrated those stages with a hypothetical person and a hypothetical lifestyle choice that they

eventually were able to change through Prochaska's model. (Seaward, 2015).

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Journal Writing:FEAR: apprehension, anxiety, distress, edginess, jumpiness, nervousness, panic, tenseness, uneasiness, worry, fright, feeling overwhelmed.

Anxiety – I feel anxiety everywhere in my body. Maybe it begins in my jaw and shoulders, and

progresses to my arms and hands, and then my whole body is involved. Anxiety is to me the irrational

fear of something that we imagine may happen in the future. This could be a rational anxiety or

irrational, but the commonality is that it interferes with your life. Mine is generally irrational because

I imagine that encounters with people will go much worse than they do. I know in my rational mind

that people actually like me and want to see me, but my irrational anxiety remains that the discomfort

I feel from seeing them will outweigh any joy they may feel from it.

Jumpiness – This is a learned behavior. Nobody becomes jumpy without having first either brooded

about what could possibly happen, or having had something traumatizing happen. If someone has

lived a peaceful life with nothing to jump about, then nothing will make them jumpy. I am not

generally jumpy, but when I get in a situation where someone I’m close to is angry, I can feel the

jumpiness building in my chest, preparing me to flinch or run at the slightest movement.

Panic – This is a purely negative emotion. Nothing good can come out of panic. Sometimes we can’t

help but experience flashes of panic during crisis time, but it clouds our thought processes. The

feeling of panic is an adrenaline rush. For me, it’s shooting numbness from my heart out to my limbs.

Actually, that feeling indicates to me now that I have a choice to make. It would be an appropriate

time to panic if ever there was one, or I could choose to be in control of my body and use the

adrenaline to my advantage.

Tenseness – A familiar feeling that causes headaches for me. Tension builds in my shoulders and my

temples. Sometimes it feels like my hair is pulling too hard on my head, but I have to remind myself

that when I’m not too tense, it doesn’t feel like that, so that’s obviously a distorted feeling. Tension is

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closely related to anxiety for me. While anxiety can be constant, tenseness tends to set in when the

thing that makes me anxious is inevitable and in the near future.

Feeling Overwhelmed – This is also a closely related emotion to anxiety and tenseness. Feeling

overwhelmed is a bit illogical for me. Depending on what condition my mind and body are in, I can

be overwhelmed by small things or big things, or even become overwhelmed by the idea of the future.

CONFUSION: bewildered, uncertain, puzzled, mystified, perplexed, chaotic, foggy, or unaware.

Uncertain – For me, uncertain is a personal feeling. I feel uncertainty most about what decisions I

should make for myself. Uncertainty is like a focused confusion.

Puzzled – To be puzzled, you must be a bit detached from the subject. If you are too involved in

something, it won’t puzzle you, it will give you stronger feelings, like bewilderment or perplexity.

Being puzzled is a sort of trivial feeling that doesn’t require action. It’s a vague interest in something

that you don’t understand, but if you can’t figure it out you know it won’t matter much. As the word

indicates, it can even be a fun feeling, rather than something upsetting.

Mystified – To me, mystified indicates a feeling of confusion that’s so deep you can’t even begin to

identify how something happened. It’s as though the event, action, words, etc. just came out of

nowhere. It’s a mystery.

Chaotic – Some people claim to enjoy a bit of chaos. I think these people must be very sick indeed.

Just the thought of chaos causes anxiety to well up in my body. Chaos as an emotion is terrifying. I

prefer an orderly mind.

Foggy – “Brain fog” is something that I think and talk about frequently in my nutrition and health

research. Thinking of fogginess as an emotion illuminates the link between our health, in this case our

diet and what we allow into our bodies, and our emotional state. I am already partial to sleep, and a

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foggy feeling sets of a bit of hopelessness in me, at least for the near future. I know I won’t

accomplish anything, so I might as well go back to bed.

ANGER: aggravation, agitation, annoyance, destructiveness, disgust, envy, frustration, irritation, grouchiness, grumpiness, rage.

Disgust – Disgust is a visceral emotion. I feel it in my gut. I’m sad to say that I feel disgusted toward

other people fairly often, and it’s a hard feeling for me to overcome once it sets in. Disgust can be

caused by bad sights or smells, but more often for me, it is caused by thoughtless actions or intensely

rude behavior. I really don’t see any use in trying to deal with people who have acted in a way that

disgusts me.

Envy – Envy is the feeling of wishing you had what someone else has. There’s an element of greed

there. Many people think it’s the same as jealousy, but they are quite different. Jealousy is thinking

that someone else it trying to take what you have. If another woman is flirting with my man, I would

be jealous if I get upset about that, indicating that I think she’s actually trying to take him from me. If

I envy her, that’s another step further, indicating that I think she is good enough to actually take him,

and even that I may wish I was as pretty, or outgoing, or rich as her. I think envy is potentially much

worse than jealousy because it doesn’t require any real motivation. I could envy that woman whether

she flirted with my man or not. I could become envious of everyone I pass on the street if I let myself

think in that way.

Irritation – Similar to annoyance, but more immediate. For me, annoyance is usually concentrated on

one specific annoying thing or person, but once I’ve crossed over to being irritated by that thing, then

my anger begins to be taken out on others. This is something I hate in other people. There’s

something so ignorant about someone who treats innocents badly because they are upset about

something else. People like that have no control over themselves and I don’t want much to do with

them, so I try hard not to be that way.

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Grumpiness – This is such an indication of emotional immaturity. To be grumpy is to go about your

day and daily interactions with a general air of anger and irritation. The actual cause of this

grumpiness is far removed from the subjects of the anger, as it is with strong irritation.

Rage – Rage is not a familiar emotion in me, but I am familiar with the results of it in another person.

It seems to short-circuit any brain function and turn people into destructive monsters for a period of

time. Rage in others creates unstoppable fear in me, and I cannot respect anyone who will allow

themselves to become enraged. Rage is so far beyond anger that it could be redirected at any of the

many stages before the rage explodes. If a person cannot do that, then they are lacking in even the

most basic self-awareness and self-control. Maybe they can be helped, but I won’t be sticking around

to do so.

SADNESS: alienation, anguish, despair, disappointment, gloom, grief, hopelessness, insecurity, loneliness, misery, unhappiness, rejection.

Anguish – Closely related to grief for me. Anguish is the immediate first sensation when I experience

a serious loss. I would say it is something akin to the adrenaline rush of panic. A rushing, intense,

horrified, and all-encompassing sadness in my body. It usually passes quickly, thank goodness, to be

replaced with commonplace grief.

Disappointment – This can be aimed inside or outside. I’m often disappointed in others, but I’m just

as often disappointed in myself. The key to disappointment it to have an expectation. If there is no

expectation, then there cannot be any disappointment.

Loneliness – I enjoy my own company and lived alone for several years. During that time I never felt

lonely. When I traveled to a country that I loved and had a strong interest in, I was alone and didn’t

feel lonely. When I traveled to a country that I only had a mild interest in and which turned out to be

far below my expectations of cleanliness and culture (expectations cause so many problems) I was

lonely before I even got off the airplane and went out of my way to seek connections with people who

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were like me in some ways that I had never done before. For me, loneliness is connected with a

feeling of not being in control.

Misery – Another emotion that I experienced acutely in the same country that gave me

loneliness. Misery is beyond sadness. It’s a combination of physical pain and emotional pain with a

dash of hopelessness for good measure.

Rejection – I have an adopted brother who fears nothing more than rejection. His whole life is spent

trying to conform to whoever is around him so that they will like him. This makes me feel very

negatively toward him, so clearly that approach isn’t working. For myself, I have never been rejected.

In fact, I’ve had to opposite experience, where I’m not allowed to leave when situations become

unbearable to me. This has caused me to begin rejecting others before attachment can grow. I don’t

really know what being rejected feels like, but I know the feeling that I get when I’m about to reject

someone. It’s close to disgust and disappointment.

SHAME: guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, invalidation, regret, remorse, mortification.

Guilt – Guilt as an emotion depends a lot on other feelings. For me, in order to feel guilty I need to

also feel like I had some degree choice in the matter, and that someone else was affected by my

choice in some way. Some people feel guilty about a lot of things that they really have no control

over. That is a waste of emotion and helps nothing. Guilt can only be productive if it encourages you

to make a different choice in the future. If you waste guilt on things that you can’t control, that’s just

senseless.

Embarrassment – I’m terribly guilty of misappropriating embarrassment. I am constantly

embarrassed by the actions of others. I turn off shows, leave rooms, and refuse to try things because I

don’t want to feel the embarrassment for others. This is pointless and costs me a lot of potential

experiences in life.

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Humiliation – The next step up from embarrassment is humiliation. This one is a bit more personal.

A humiliation is something acute that doesn’t go away quickly. It’s a feeling of wanting to fall into

the ground and be buried, or to hide in your room for the rest of your life. There is a component of

pride involved here too. If you are already humble, then less humiliation can befall you.

Invalidation – I feel similarly about invalidation as I do to disappointment. If there isn’t some sort of

prideful feeling, then there cannot be invalidation. Keeping a humble spirit and simply doing your

best rather than hoping for something better than you may deserve can prevent this feeling.

Regret – Closely allied with guilt. Regret is the sick feeling of wishing you had done something

differently, or not done something at all. Regret doesn’t require guilt though. It can be attached to any

situation. Maybe you regret marrying someone, but you had two wonderful children from the

marriage. You don’t feel guilty, you simply wish things had been different. Regret is another tool that

can be used to become a better decision maker in the future.

LOVE: affection, arousal, attraction, caring, compassion, desire, fondness, infatuation, kindness, liking, longing, warmth, sympathy, sentimentality.

Affection – A warm feeling toward someone or something. This is often not for any particular reason

other than that thing is cute or sweet.

Attraction – The next step up from affection. Attraction requires a bit of a stronger feeling. If I have

affection for someone, I want to be nice to them. If I am attracted to someone, I want to be with them

as much as possible and I may even want to be like them. Attraction doesn’t just mean romance, you

can also be drawn to someone for their charisma and just feel attracted to the feeling that their

personality causes.

Infatuation – A short term all-consuming desire for something or someone. This happens at the

beginning of relationships. For younger, or more naïve people, it can last quite a while. You can’t

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know if you’re truly in love until it passes because it clouds your judgment severely. It’s been at least

ten years since I’ve felt this particular emotion, so the idea of it simply brings me annoyance now.

Warmth – I think of warmth as making someone feel like they are wrapped up in your love. Being

warm draws people to you, because it makes them feel like they are really important to you. I

generally feel warmth toward others, it’s not really something that I feel on my own.

Sentimentality – I have a strange relationship with sentimentality. I cringe at it when I see it in

others, but here I am tearing up at the sight of a band of elderly Chinese playing “Yankee Doodle” on

their traditional instruments in San Francisco. The concrete idea of being sentimental is useless to me,

but in practice I can’t keep my soft heart and empathy from overflowing as sentimentality in my daily

life.

JOY: amusement, bliss, contentment, eagerness, elation, enjoyment, enthusiasm, excitement, exhilaration, hope, optimism, pleasure, satisfaction.

Contentment – I think this is what we should all be striving for instead of happiness. Happiness will

pass, but we can learn to be content in every situation. I have only experienced short moments of true

contentment in my life, but contentment and peace are closely related. Both great goals for life. That

doesn’t mean don’t work to better yourself in the future, it just means not to let desires for other

things make you unhappy right now.

Enthusiasm – I read a quote once that said “enthusiasm is what you feel before an experience, and

cynicism is what you feel after.” While I do think this is true more often than not, enthusiasm is a

great feeling and it’s so much better to enter into endeavors with this good feeling. It encourages you,

and it encourages those around you to do your best. It passes, but it certainly has its place.

Hope – Hope is related to enthusiasm for me. Enthusiasm comes out of a hope that something will be

fun, or enriching in some way. We then are excited and want to do it. Hope can come without

enthusiasm though, as it does in the midst of a tough experience. We can be hopeful that we can

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change things even if we don’t have the strength of mind to be enthusiastic anymore. Hope is a little

boost to spur us on when we don’t have much else left.

Exhilaration – This could be a rare emotion or a frequent one depending on your temperament. It

requires a bit of risk taking in order to feel it. Typically exhilaration comes, at least in my life, from

traveling fast, or successfully giving a public speech or performance. There’s a certain chance that

something could go wrong, but it isn’t going wrong. That’s exhilarating.

Satisfaction – Satisfaction comes after decisions that turn out well. It’s a bit of a warm glow feeling.

It’s another emotion that requires expectations in order to occur, and again, the lower the

expectations, the more frequent the occurrence of satisfaction. However, the higher the expectations,

the more strong and meaningful the satisfaction is when we do achieve it. It’s a tradeoff we have to

sort out for ourselves.

Summary

I am someone who sees most powerful emotions as useless. Even the positive ones. Too many

people put too much stock in these passing fancies that we call emotions. It causes turmoil in their

own lives, and causes a lot of grief for the people who have to deal with them being buffeted about by

emotions as well. However, there is a second side to this coin: numbness. There have been times in

my life where I knew having any emotions at all would bring me too much pain, so I’ve been able to

shut them off. I’ve even gone through traumatizing experiences and when I look back, I still can’t

remember having any kind of feeling or emotion. Of course this isn’t healthy either, and at some point

in the future those emotions always come rushing to the surface in a way that is uncontrollable and

upsets my life.

I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person in most areas of my life, as well as in my

judgments of others, but I am beginning to understand that there is a reason we have so many

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emotions and it’s actually okay and healthy to experience most of them sometimes. We just can’t let

them cloud our minds or interfere with how we treat others.

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Unit 5: Dealing with Stress: Coping Strategies Information to Remember:

Key Learning Point: Humor can be a very effective tool against stress. Humor is a defense mechanism,

but it is a healthy mechanism that expands the mind and breaks down the walls of the ego rather than

shrinking them. A humorous perspective can remove us from negative thought processes and take us

outside of our small perspective. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Time and money are both limited resources, and they can be removed from us by

stress-induced disorganization. Prioritizing responsibilities and desires into a list that can be done in a

logical order can help with managing both time and money. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Throughout life, we all fall into habitual thought processes that can be detrimental to

our well-being. We know more about ourselves than anyone else, so we can be our own worst critic.

Mindfulness is itself, simply being aware that we are talking to ourselves in this way, can be the first

step to reversing this kind of negative self-talk. (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

Journal Writing:Walking Meditation:

I did my walking meditation practice on the same path that I normally jog each day. I can

honestly say that in order to run the 3 miles from my home to my mailbox and back, my trick is to get

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outside my body. Running doesn’t feel good to me until after I’m done, so in order to get through the

pain I have to distract myself with music or thoughts. Not so this time.

My surroundings were absolutely stunning. I am in a unique part of the world, the remote

desert of Oregon. The road I walked on was thick with dust and gravel, some areas were even a bit

hard to walk through. I had to consciously lift my feet much higher than usual and could feel myself

being dragged back a few centimeters with each step through the deep gravel. On each side of the

road were miles of sagebrush and occasionally a jackrabbit would hop out onto the road in front of me

and stare at me. When I run, they run too. Maybe they sensed I was more at peace this time.

As I began walking I felt the gravel under my feet. I could feel each sharp rock and I let

myself do so. I felt the difference in the unused sections of the road where the gravel is deep and the

washboard sections where farm trucks often drive over. I felt the sun warming my exposed skin, and I

felt the cool breeze taking that warmth away. A point of contention with myself was my left hip.

Without fail, when I walk at a slow pace that hip makes a loud popping noise. When I heard it during

my mindfulness walking exercise, it set off another round of annoyance and speculation about why

this happens in my mind. I had a hard time letting those thoughts go to get back to reality.

Emotionally, things were a bit messier. My mind was whirring in a dither about how wasteful

this exercise was. I kept thinking “I could be running and increasing my cardio vascular strength right

now.” I was frustrated and glad when the 10 minutes were over and I could start moving like I meant

it. It wasn’t until afterward when I was re-reading the workbook and considering the experience that I

realized how far wrong I went.

Summary

This was not my first time attempting mindful walking. About a year ago, my car caught fire

and I spent a few months walking quite a lot until I bought a new car. During that time, I decided to

23

try mindfulness meditation and began attempting it once a day for about 30 minutes. I wasn’t very

good at it. Eventually, I got dissatisfied with moving so slow and started jogging. My body got in

better shape, but my mind didn’t benefit as much as it could have.

I am the type of person who can’t abide doing things without knowing exactly what I hope to

gain from it. I don’t do leisure activities. They profit me nothing. It frustrated me that when I walked

for meditation purposes, I barely got anywhere and I wanted something more concrete to show for my

efforts.

I was looking at it from the wrong direction. In A Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Workbook it says “with walking meditation, the point is to arrive in the present moment with each

step.” (Stahl, 2010) I was missing the point. I’m really thankful to have had the opportunity to try

again.

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Unit 6: Relaxation Techniques 1: Breathing, Meditation, and Mental Imagery Information to Remember:

Key Learning Point: For true relaxation, there are four things needed: quietness,

something to concentrate on, a non-judgmental perspective, and a comfortable

environment. These are keys to meditation and mindfulness. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: There are three main types of mental imagery: Nature scenes, in which you envision

yourself in a peaceful environment, behavior changes, in which you envision yourself doing whatever

it is that you desire to achieve in reality, and internal body imagery, in which you travel inside your

own body and envision the damaged or diseased tissues being healed. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Loving-kindness meditation solves negative emotions such as fear and anger by

focusing on compassion and love. The first step is to feel the compassion for yourself, and then those

feelings will naturally spread out to others through all you do. One important quality of loving-

kindness is equanimity, which means seeing every person as equally important and equally deserving

of good. Again, start feeling it for yourself, and you will be able to share it with others. (Stahl &

Goldstein, 2010).

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Unit

6

Self-Assessment Exercise:We learned about meditation and some of the more important types in this assignment. One

important aspect of all formal meditations is diaphragmatic breathing. This is a type of breathing from

your stomach rather than your chest, which allows for more freedom of movement and less constriction

in the body. It slows down the body's metabolism processes and creates the perfect environment for deep

relaxation. (Seaward, 2015).

Journal Writing:Mindful of how you interact with yourself?

I send myself unkind messages whenever I have to interact with other people. When I’m on

my own and just living with myself in my head, things generally go well. It’s just when I have to

discuss my life and achievements (in this case serious lack of achievements) with others that I start to

degrade myself.

Unfortunately, I might talk to some people the way I talk to myself. I’m not one to mince

words with people when I think they really deserve a true perspective. There are some things I would

never say to someone else that I do say to myself though, like “nobody worth anything will ever love

you now.” That’s just not something anyone with a heart would ever say, but here I am telling myself

that all the time. When I know that there’s something coming up where I’m going to encounter people

who might inquire about my recent life, I tend to work myself into a hyper state of anxiety. I get

twitchy and need to let off steam.

Seeds of suffering?

If I stopped watering the seeds of my own suffering, I honestly believe that only a few things

would be different. I may have been able to be nice to people long enough to go on a date at some

point in the last three years, and I may have a bit more happiness because I wouldn’t push so many

26

friends and family members away. If I had stopped 10 years ago my life would be drastically

different, but I try not to think about that because I can’t change the past. As for the major events of

the past few years, I don’t know if much really would have changed. I am working on changing them

now.

Day-to-day life feelings of resentment?

I’ll use a former co-worker for this exercise. She was straight up rude all the time. She would

never compromise and had to control every tiny detail of office life. At first I thought about quitting

because I couldn’t deal with her. After a little while I realized that she was simply miserable in her

own body and her own life, and she actually got a bit of pleasure out of making other people

miserable, but then she hated them all the more for reacting badly to her tirades.

With this new understanding, I treated her with kindness yet firmness. When she insulted me I

made a joke and laughed it off, and I always took time to chat with her or give her a genuine

compliment, when I could find something about her to compliment. One day she came at me in a rage

about some trivial thing and I calmly made a sarcastic insult back to her. I wouldn’t have said

something like that to any decent person, but I felt like backing down would have lowered me further

in her eyes. Sure enough, she began treating me as a friend from that moment on. She even checks on

me now that I don’t work there anymore. She must have had a lot of anxiety and self-judgment in her

own mind, and she was physically suffering with undiagnosed diabetes at that time. I was so happy

that I found a way past that to befriend her. If only I had that kind of patience with everyone.

Reflection on writing?

I know my biggest problem in life right now is fear, and as an outcome of that fear, isolation. I

came to my parents’ home in the Alvord desert in order to hide from everyone, and I get irrationally

furious whenever they have company. I’m truly an honest person, maybe a bit too honest at times.

27

The problem is taking the time to quiet myself and actually consider my own mind and heart. I know I

have a rotten personality these days, but I do it on purpose to protect myself. That’s the type of excuse

I have for everything. These journals are a good way of being a bit more rational with myself. When

you see the crazy justifications on paper, it’s harder to deny how childish they really are.

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Unit 7: Nutrition and Stress Information to Remember:

Key Learning Point: The foods we eat can impact our immune system. In order to avoid unnecessary

damage to our immune system, it is wise to drink a lot of water, avoid processed foods, and use

herbal therapies proven to boost the immune system, such as echinacea. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Anorexia, bulemia, and overeating are all eating disorders. They have psychological

and emotional causes, not physical ones. Obsession with controlling eating habits, whether to

restriction or constant consumption, can be an outlet for emotional stress, albeit an unhealthy outlet.

(Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Formal meditation practice allows one to glimpse the transitory nature of all things.

Seeing breath, thoughts, and sensations occur and then dissipate within the body can be a profound

picture of life. Understanding that nothing is permanent can give us a sense of peace and freedom.

(Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

Self-Assessment Exercise:For this assignment, we participated in an activity, mindful yoga, which consisted of about

20 different lying yoga poses. We reported on the thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that arose

during the session. In my own session, I felt a lot of emotions ranging from irritation to pride, and by the

end I found that my whole attitude toward the activity had reversed.

29

Unit

7

30

Unit 8: Physical Exercise and ActivityInformation to Remember:

Key Learning Point: Physical exercise is a form of stress, but it is healthy stress because we can control

the amount. A small amount of stress can strengthen the body, and increase our tolerance for more

stress. This is called adaptation. In this way, we can condition our bodies to be able to withstand other

stressors. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: The all-or-none principle of physical activity says that in order to receive any

benefits from an exercise plan, these four criteria must be met: intensity, duration, frequency of

training, and mode of exercise. The activity must be intense enough that the muscles are required to

work and adapt. It must occur often enough and for long enough during each session, and the mode

of exercise must be aimed at a particular body part of system. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Interpersonal mindfulness is the ability to be present in all interactions and to see

them from multiple perspectives. Living inside our own small perspective only closes us off from

others. Openness, empathy, compassion, loving-kindness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity are all

important qualities to cultivate in order to increase the quality of our relationships. (Stahl &

Goldstein, 2010).

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Unit

8

Self-Assessment Exercises:For this exercise, we created our own proposal for a workplace health and wellness

management program. We discussed goals and objectives, as well as costs and benefits for such programs.

We chose a specific company, in my case the Portland Police Bureau, and created a proposal for a wellness

program that would fit into that specific culture. We also discussed our proposal with a classmate and

included their input into our final proposal.

Journal Writing:For this journal writing assignment, I imagined my sister sitting across from me. While I do

love her as my only sister, our relationship is complicated by many past incidents and family

dynamics. I will be visiting her in NYC for three weeks at the end of this month, so I am hoping to

cultivate some of these qualities toward her in order to make my time with her as harmonious and fun

as possible.

Openness:

This would clearly be a key quality to improve our relationship. My sister is generally a

happy, friendly person who sees the best in every situation. Since I have seen more of her than most

people, I tend to see these as bad things and expect that she will soon be taken advantage of, or at

least the she is possibly not as genuine as she seems. Trying to see her through fresh eyes, I would see

her the way others do, as a refreshingly cheerful, enthusiastic, beautiful lady who truly wants to

please. There's a reason why most people do love her. My cynicism comes from my own inability to

let go of things long past.

Empathy:

Another quality that I lack in relation to my sister because of my own interpretation of her past

and my inability to let her live her life without my interference. In order to feel empathy, I must first

32

be in touch with my own feelings, so that I can identify them and make sure I'm not trying to project

them onto her. (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010) That's easy enough. I am very aware of my feelings toward

her actions. She is currently engaged, and I should be happy for her, but I'm definitely skeptical. This

isn't the first time she's been in this situation, only to have it fall apart soon because she ignores every

sign of issues with the man in a desperate attempt to be loved. It's not even the second time in the past

few years, and I get so tired of the roller coaster.

Putting those feelings aside to think about her perspective is hard, but I can do it. There really

are a lot of things about this particular relationship that seem to be different from all the others. The

man has a lot of good qualities, and he does seem to be genuinely putting her first in his life. She is 39

and just wants something stable and the opportunity to have children before it's too late. If I were in

her situation, I would probably be feeling the exact same way.

Compassion:

Somehow compassion feels easier toward my sister than empathy. I know the abuse that she

suffered at the hands of her first husband 20 years ago and how she still suffers because of him. I

understand that so many of the things that cause her pain now are amplified because of her past

experiences, and I do feel compassion and the desire to protect and comfort her. Sometimes this desire

to protect her from further pain presents as anger and cynicism. I need to focus more on compassion

in and of itself, rather than the desire to fix or protect her.

Loving-kindness:

Despite all my mixed feeling toward her, loving-kindness is not hard. She is my sister, and my

anger toward her is generally a result of her making decisions that don't bring her real happiness. I do

truly wish her well. I wish that she would love herself enough to make decisions that will bring her

33

continued joy and success rather than just desperate temporary pleasure. She is so successful and

talented in some areas such as her career, I would love to see that extend to all areas of her life.

Sympathetic Joy:

There have been times in the past when I felt a lot of envy and jealousy toward my much

older, more successful, more friendly, more beautiful sister. As I mentioned above, I do wish her

happiness and success, but there was a time when she used her age, beauty, and success in ways that

caused me harm. Those feelings have dissipated over the years as she got even older and began to

make decisions that no one would envy. However, I still can feel some of ways that she hurt me over

10 years ago, and they still disrupt my flow of sympathetic joy toward her from time to time, even

though I know it's pointless and silly to retain those feelings. I truly do wish her happiness, but at the

same time I find it hard to share in her joy as much as a sister should. Some serious self-reflection and

forgiveness will be necessary before I can enter into full sympathetic joy toward my sister.

Equanimity:

Intellectually, I know the importance of steadiness of mind and emotions. Unfortunately it's

much harder in practice. Family patterns are especially hard to break down to bring all the members

into equanimity as they get older. I am the distant youngest in my family, and as such I learned to rely

on everyone else for everything. I learned to be adored and praised, and to contribute only as little as

required to stay in everyone's good graces. These are not outstanding qualities in a grown woman, and

my sister has told me that she still thinks of me as a child, although I'm approaching 30. My feelings

about her are just as lopsided. I expect that she will always cook, or at least pay for meals when we're

together. I think of her as almost a second mother, and it seems ludicrous to each of us to consider the

other as a real equal. Obviously this causes friction between us. We are both grown women. We've

chosen different courses in life, but we both have the same inherent value, and I need to remember

34

that. We are sisters, but we can also be friends if we both focus on the true value and equality in our

spirits.

35

Unit 9: Applying Stress: Critical Issues for Management and Prevention to your Professional LifeInformation to Remember:

Key Learning Point: Hobbies can be used as coping techniques in several ways. First, they provide a

diversion from the stressor; a step outside of ourselves. Secondly, they can be a good way to forge

new social relationships, which in turn can become a source of strength and support in times of stress.

(Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: Prayer can be a useful coping tool as well. Prayer is similar to meditation in that it

requires a calm mind and some insight, but it is also very different. While meditation is aimed at

silencing the mind, prayer takes that calmness one step further and invites our higher power to fill the

emptiness. (Seaward, 2015).

Key Learning Point: We literally are what we eat. The food we eat provides the raw materials for the

creation of new cells in our body. If we are not nurturing our body on wholesome foods, our bodies

cannot create a healthy body. (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

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Unit

9

Additional Information McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., & Tomasino, D. (2003). Impact of a Workplace Stress Reduction

Program on Blood Pressure and Emotional Health in Hypertensive Employees. Journal Of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, 9(3), 355.

This primary source is a study conducted over a three month period. Employees of a large

company were offered cognitive therapy classes in order to reduce their stress. These were shown to

greatly improve employee morale and psychological health, as well as physical improvements

including reduced blood pressure.

Smith, A. (2012). Innovative applications for logotherapy for military-related PTSD. Retrievedfrom: www.counseling.org

Logotherapy is a form of psychotherapy created by Victor Frankl. Frankl was interred in

German Nazi death camps for several years, and noticed that people who had identified some higher

purpose for their life we much more likely to remain alive. Logotherapy has proven effective for

many types of stressors and psychological issues. By bringing the person's attention to a purpose

beyond themselves, they are able to cope better and have a desire to go on. This website is a

secondary source.

Klawitter and King (2007) Nutrition Therapy Advanced Counseling Skills, third edition. King and Klawitter (Ed.) Baltimore, MD. Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins.

Klawitter and King discuss their views on Prochaska's model of change. Unlike Prochaska,

Klawitter and King believe that if possible, the issue should be addressed in the precontemplation

stage. The person is of course not ready to change or even thinking of it, but if approached in the right

way, they may be encouraged to consider the change in a more timely manner than they would have if

left to their own devices. This book is a primary source, containing the original ideas of the writers.

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References

Seaward, B. (2015). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being (8th ed.).

Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Stahl, B. & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

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Health & Medicine

Davison, kindra unit 9 assignment