Stress Management Reaction

downloadDownload
  • Words 1241
  • Pages 3
Download PDF

Stress Score

According to the Social Readjustment Rating Score in the (name of the book) textbook, I have a stress score of 311. This means I have a “80 percent chance of illness” (Coon and Mitterer 2013) and that I am having a “major life crisis” (Coon and Mitterer 2013) at the moment. Personally, my life has been great over the past year, but a number of events have occurred and transpired thus the high-stress score. What is interesting about the score is, “life changes-both good and bad-can increase susceptibility to accidents and illness. Major changes in our surroundings or routines require us to be vigilant, on guard, and ready to react” (Coon and Mitterer 2013). This is true as when major life changes happen, we all tend to react to them by either becoming more reclusive, which means we’re putting up our defenses so much we don’t even want to talk or interact with people. We can also become more social, which will also have us put up some form of a defense system as we will be new to this lifestyle and even if we like it, we will question our surroundings. We need to get out of the mindset that bad change or stress is the only one that will make you ill as good stress can add to your overall stress level as well. Weddings, vacations, major achievements in your personal life, etc. all add to your stress level. This is because it took planning or a lot of work to be put into making these events or goals happen.

When thinking about myself personally, most of the things on my list are relatively positive, but a lot of work was put in to get them to become true. Therefore, I have such a high score, because I have been busy working on myself trying to better my situation in life. I had changes in my financial situation, living conditions, residence, eating habits, personal habits, sleep habits, outstanding personal achievement, Christmas, and a vacation (Coon and Mitterer 2013). Listing it out and seeing all the changes I’ve been through in the past year really gets me stressed out even thinking about it. I did a lot over the past year and I guess this is all makes sense now, why I can get very stressed out sometimes. I haven’t been ill physically or emotionally yet from all these changes, but if I don’t find a want to counteract all these things going on, I can see myself getting ill because of it. I need to practice more stress management and implement some of the techniques to balance out all that is going on.

Click to get a unique essay

Our writers can write you a new plagiarism-free essay on any topic

Current Stress Management

I have implemented four stress management techniques into my life recently over the past few months and they have helped to keep my stress levels down. These four techniques are working out (running or lifting), yoga, deep breathing, and mediation. For mediation, I have found if I do it for around five to 10 minutes in the morning, I feel more relaxed and energized throughout the day. I believe yoga and working out are one and the same as they are both physical activities that I use to relieve stress. Sweating, excerpting energy, and pushing myself to the physical limit is one of the most difficult but relaxing thing I can do. I started doing this around six months ago and ever since it has made me feel more confident and less stressed than before. Pushing yourself when you are doing physical activities really helps relieve stress as finally being able to reach that goal, climb that mountain, get you to see you can conquer all of your problems, and see your goals are attainable. These two things I would say have relaxed me of the most stress. Finally, deep breathing, whenever I have a sudden wave of stress on me has always helped me if I feel stressed out. I have done this practice throughout my life and it has never failed me. When I get this bad feeling, I take 30 seconds to one minute to relax, take deep breathes and think about absolutely nothing. After this, I feel like a whole new person, and whatever was bothering me before is not bothering me now. Overall, I have found implementing these techniques into my life has relieved a big portion of my stress and has made me into a better overall person for it.

Positives and Negatives of My Stress Management Technique

Seeking out support is the best stress management option as I have a strong base of family and friends that I can rely on. The positives of this are I get to talk to close friends and family who will give me good advice on stressful situations in my life and help talk me through them. Another positive is this can make my family and friends and me closer as they can help me with my problems and my achievements. Also, they can feel more comfortable coming to me with their problems and concerns. This will tighten my bonds with these people. A negative to this is I might get too personal and comfortable with them and start telling them about things they don’t need to know. Trying to get a closer relationship with them might turn them off. Another negative is more applicable with my family as they might become helicopter parents if I start getting to open with them. They might start asking about every move I make or try to take too much of an active role. The positives outweigh the negatives but I do think the negatives do need to be considered as there could be some ramifications to this technique too.

Future Stress Management Plan

To address stress in the future I plan to continue to do the four techniques that I currently do to manage my stress and I plan to add in seeking out support to this plan. I believe using these five techniques will better help me relieve stress in the future and help me keep it under control. I want to ramp up my workout and yoga plan in the future as well as I believe the combination of physical activity and the joy I get out of working out will help get rid of stress and keep me from getting ill. I also will take more time out of my busy schedule for myself, so I can think and find out about my inner self. The textbook was right that “the health of college students is also affected by stressful events, such as entering college, changing majors, or breaking up in a steady relationship” (Coon and Mitterer 2013). College was put extra stress on my life as it has been harder than I first thought it would be, but I think these techniques should help me to power through. The college has taught me that I need to have a plan to take on stress or it can become a real negative on my life. “Stresses add up” (Coon and Mitterer 2013), so coming up with a plan and managing it when it comes on or before it does is better than waiting and having to deal with it later in the future. Like my mom would always say, “it’s better to be safe than sorry”.

References

  1. Coon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. (2013). Introduction to psychology: gateways to mind and behavior. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

image

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy.