Transcript Slide 1

Stress, Health and
Coping
What exactly is Stress?
A couple definitions include:
 When events are perceived as exceeding
your ability to cope with them
 The collective physiological and emotional
response to any stimulus that disturbs an
individual’s homeostasis (balance.)
What events might cause you stress?
Some examples include:
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taking out a loan
failing a test
Impending birth of a baby
Watching a hockey game
Some form of loss
Finding a new home
Interacting with your in-laws
A new relationship
Traffic
Loud noise
graduating from college
Negative Effects of Stress
Include:
 Impaired Task performance
 Burnout
 Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) –
 Psychological problems and disorders
 Health problems
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Chi/Energy does not flow freely in
body=>energy gets stagnant=>disease
 Relationship with self and Interpersonal
relationships suffer
How many symptoms of excess stress
do you experience?
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Are you easily startled or irritated?
Are you increasingly forgetful?
Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep?
Do you continually worry about events in your future?
Do you feel as if you are constantly under pressure to produce?
Do you often use tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs to help you
relax?
Do you feel as if you have less energy that you need to finish
the day?
Do you have recurrent stomach-aches or headaches?
Is it difficult for you to find satisfaction in simple life pleasures?
Are you often disappointed in your self or others
Are you overly concerned with being liked or accepted by
others?
Have you lost interest in intimacy or sex?
Are you concerned that you do not have enough money?
To help us understand stress, let’s also
consider the biopsychosocial model
The Biopsychosocial
Model Highlights:
The belief that
physical health and
illness are
determined by the
complex interaction
of biological,
psychological and
social factors.
Stresses can be
physical,
emotional,
intellectual,
spiritual,
interpersonal and
environmental.
The Biopsychosocial model is a more holistic
approach to health than simply the biomedical
model.
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The Biomedical Model is unable to fully
account for health because it focuses primarily
on biomedical treatments
We need to also consider the person’s
psychology as an important factor to how one
manages stress
In other words, we need to explore the MindBody, also referred to as psychosomatic,
connection
In this presentation, we will focus on the physical,
emotional, and psychological causes and remedies
for stress.
There are two primary physiological
responses to stress, which include:
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Fight-or-flight response (Walter Cannon)
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
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Alarm
Resistance
Exhaustion
Experiencing fight or flight over prolonged periods
of time, can negatively affect our various bodily
systems including:
 nervous, endocrine, muscular, skeletal,
digestive, reproductive, urinary, and skin,
among others.
 And create disease or “dis-ease”
Let’s first start with understanding how taking
better care of our bodies can help manage
stress:
 Physical exercise (increases endorphins, feel better, sleep more
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deeply, increased potential to wake up more refreshed or catch
up on much needed sleep)
Eat foods that nourish you (complex carbs, protein, fruits and
vegetables) and avoid foods that may make you feel lethargic
(refined sugar, flour)
Breath: diaphragmatic breathing is simple, effective, and doesn’t
have to be done all at one time (ie. 20 min. of meditation at
night); can also be done throughout day (waiting at stop light, in
line at bank, at doctor’s office, or in traffic) build practice of
consciously connecting to breath and bringing self present. This
will also help you to remember to breath when anxiety strikes.
Toning also helps (sound calms and requires us to breath)
Mindfulness: bringing attention to internal bodily sensations and
environment (as we practiced earlier in the semester).
In other words, we need to:
 Learn to use our bodies to deepen our
understanding of what is going on for us.
 And, develop a relationship with body (by
tuning in, trusting and paying attention to it!
Often underlying the physical stress is the emotional and
psychological stress that we can learn to manage better and
consequently positively affect our physical stress.
Our Emotional Life is largely
influenced by:
 Our Relationships, whether they be
professional and personal—with significant
others, family members, children, relationship
with society (including sexism, racism, any
form of discrimination, acculturation=stress
that results for the pressure of adapting to a
new culture).
How do you communicate your feelings in
order to get the support you need?
 What does it take to have healthy conversations?
 You need courage to speak up and communicate how
you feel.
 It takes trial and error, also known as practice, which is
not always comfortable and can be stressful!
 Also, you need to have the tools such as knowledge of
“I” statements, how to bring up a complaint with out
making the other person feel as defensive, how to talk
in a way that promotes win-win vs. win over.
 And, of course show appreciation for the other
person’s willingness to work with you or listen to you
(that is if they do) or at least it is important information
for you to have if they don’t.
Relationships can also bring up a lot
of:
 Fear (even though it can remain unconscious, it can
still cause anxiety!!)
 Important to look at past and see where we left parts
of our vital self behind (ie. Childhood—what is still left
unresolved with parents or others, is there anything
that can help us with our healing process: therapy,
writing a letter to the person, talking to the person
directly?)
 What fears do we have of the present or future?
Might these fears be unconsciously causing some
anxiety?
Additionally, how might we:
 Overcompensate for what we fear
 Often our overcompensation of our fears guide much
of our entire life, without our conscious awareness.
 For example, if we fear abandonment because our
father left us as a child, then we might either continue
that exact cycle or do the exact opposite and go out
of our way to people please and make sure we
rescue others out of fear of another person leaving us
again (like our father)
 Isn’t it amazing how our emotions and psyche work.
This is just one example, what is your biggest
fear and how do you overcompensate for it?
Dr. Margaret Wehrenberg, author of Stress
Solutions: Effective Strategies to Eliminate
Your Stress suggests:
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Feel your feelings: instead of suppressing them “To
know you are angry doesn’t require you to show
you’re angry” And showing anger has its place as
well.
Have a little fun: laughter is the key. Do what you
love and love what you do. When you feel good,
you attract goodness, you perceive good in others
and the world. When you fill up on yourself, can
give more from this full place instead of the depleted
place that leaves little for others and self.
Also, it is said that when you are able to laugh at a
situation, it does not control you.
Lastly, let’s discuss how our
psychology affects our stress:
 Whether or not we experience stress
depends largely on our cognitive appraisal
of an event and the resources we have to
deal with the event (Lazarus & Folkman,
1984; Tomaka & Others, 1993)
 A generic example of cognitive appraisal is
“Do you see the glass as half full or half
empty.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer says Change Your Thoughts
and You Can Change Your Life:
 What he means by this is that our thoughts
are powerful and often go unnoticed.
 However, our thoughts create our reality,
which means we are creating our lives
without conscious awareness, hence the
mess we often create for ourselves.
 He also has two categories of thoughts:
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those that “match” with what will best serve us
those that don’t match up or as he states a “no
match”
 It is important to first catch your negative
thinking and change the thought to a
constructive one that is aligned with what you
actually desire for yourself.
 Once, you become increasingly aware of your
thoughts, then, you can shift them from a “no
match” to a “match.
 For example, you feel you do not have enough
money and your “no match” thought might be: “I
never have enough money.”
 Dr. Dyer would say that what we put our attention on
we create, even if it is negative and unproductive.
 Let’s say, instead we shift our “no match” thought to a
“match” with: “I am always provided for and I live an
abundant life.”
 You can shift your “match” thought to a productive
phrase that works for you. Just make sure you are
stating it in the affirmative of what you do want and
not what you don’t want.
Other psychologists say:
 Worry well, but only once
 Have a designated time in the day to worry
(ie. 10 minutes after breakfast on Tuesday
and Thursday mornings) this way when you
start to worry you can tell yourself that you
already worried and that you will have
another chance to worry at the scheduled
time.
Another suggestion for dealing with
psychological stress includes:
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Learn to Plan instead of Worry
Turning it off: Having a time in the day when you do
not worry. (ie. Al-Anon’s idea of “God Box” to hold
slips of paper, each with a worry written down that
the person is turning over to God or the Universe, or
your higher self, you choose).
Or, Writing in your journal everything that concerns
you and relishing the peace of mind that ensues.
Kabat-Zinn recommends having a time in the day
when you allow yourself to just be and not do
anything (could include meditation, but it doesn’t
have to).
The Importance of Managing Stress:
 To get clarity and increase performance level.
 Easier on your body, when stress level are low, your
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health increase.
Have a clear sense of mind
Give body chance to achieve balance and recover
from Fight or Flight mode
Increase ability to connect to oneself: emotionally,
physically, and spiritually
Increase ability to connect to others: have more
meaningful relationships
Connect more to your surroundings: enjoy the
process and not just the destination
Some Stress-Reduction Techniques
Include:
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Breath
Laugh
Sleep well
Eat nutritious foods
Take one thing at a time
Practice mindfulness
Slow down
Build down time into day
Live more simply (good for you, your wallet and the environment)
Don’t dwell on the future or the past
Be aware of negative thoughts
Review unrealistic expectations
Find trustworthy people to talk to
Honor and express feelings in healthy outlets
Exercise
Find a hobby and make time for it (even if once a week)
Listen to and/or play music
Spend time in nature
Play with children
Develop a spiritual practice (prayer, meditation, yoga)
Next,
please follow assignments listed for this week
on this course’s home page.