Stress Levels, Becoming Aware of Stress, Managing the Stress, Balancing out the Stress - Essay Example

Stress Management Stress can be defined as the natural and logical flight-or-fight response of one’s body to experiences that are seen to be life threatening. These experiences can also be referred to as threats, which can be either internal or external. These activate the hypothalamus to activate reflexive action that can lead to increased metabolic functions. This effects force one into a decision to fight, run, or suppress. Suppression leads to building up of the stress levels, while the other two cause immediate discharge of stress. This paper focuses on a stress management workshop attended and discusses the assessment of stress levels, becoming aware of stress, managing the stress, balancing out the stress, and finally how the workshop can be applied to life. Stress Assessment Stress assessment involves the systematic identification of what might cause stress to an individual to find out if one is doing enough to protect oneself, as well as whether one needs to take steps to manage it. Assessment involves identification of the hazards, evaluation of these risks, and review of the assessment. Various factors are known as stress risk factors. Demands on one’s life are a major fact when assessing the risks of stress. During an assessment, one needs to discover whether there are excessive pressures, for example, at work. Control is another factor that affects the onset of stress and involves the level of say that one has in his or her life or at the place of work. Stress can also be brought about by lack of support, so this needs to be factored in the assessment of stress. Support includes encouragement and support from colleagues, family and friends. Relationships also affect stress levels, and thus, assessment of potentially damaging behavior like harassment aids in the determination of stress levels. Stress emanates from pressure as can be deduced from the factors that need to be assessed for stress determination. The stress assessment balloon gives a perfect visual description of what happens when one is faced by pressure. It involves a balloon being filled with pressure, causing tension in the balloon. The balloon represents one’s life. The bunny chart describes the different levels of stress, with four levels in total. The first level involves an individual with not enough to almost enough stress with level two signaling an individual with perhaps enough stress, enough stress, leaning towards enough stress, and likely to have too much stress. Level three, which the writer is at, involves an individual with probably too much stress. Level 4 involves individuals with too much stress. The bunny chart seeks to identify how much stress is too much stress. Stress Awareness When individuals are stressed, they need to feel that the situation threatens them, and they must judge whether they possess the capabilities of at their disposal are enough to tackle this threat. This is vital if they are going to manage the stress. Awareness is vital since the situations themselves are stressful, with how we interpret the situation driving the stress levels. Various factors make us aware of our stress levels, including physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and relational issues. Relational issues to be aware of include isolation, loneliness, lowered sex drive and a lack of intimacy. Mentally, an individual becomes forgetful, lethargic, bored and negative among others. Physical clues involve appetite changes, tension, headaches, colds, and muscle aches. A balloon analogy can allow one to become aware of one’s stress levels. Pressure, as said earlier, is the major cause of stress. Pressure can be external or internal, with individuals being capable of creating their own internal pressure. Internal pressure affects one’s thoughts and feelings, leading to an increase overall pressure, thus stress. Internal pressure leads to the body’s first response as one prepares to either run or fight with stimulation of hormone releasing glands. This causes one to experience increased heart rate, breathing, sweating and muscular tension. The body then adapts, with specific organs brought, on board, to suppress the stressor, and if this continues, these organs may become fatigued and malfunction. Finally, the individual becomes exhausted as the systems become depleted of energy. The probability that the individual could contact an illness becomes high, with one system failure causing another to fail, which makes diagnosis difficult. Stress Management Stress management involves the removal of stress sources by solving problems, better organization and management of time. It also involves removing one from situations that could lead to stress, such as learning to say no, knowing one’s limits, and learning to delegate. Finally, it also involves equipping oneself to cope better with stressful situations by building resistance. To manage stress successfully, individuals, have to respond to challenges in life via taking responsibility for coming up with solutions for their problems. Those who unsuccessfully deal with stress do so because they respond to these challenges with avoidance and denial. Successful management of stress does not come from the discovery of a fail-proof response; rather, it involves a life philosophy and attitude. Several responses can be used to successfully mange stress. These include issues such as active coping, preparation, suppression of competing activities, waiting for the right moment, to do something, seeking social support from people who have had similar experiences, seeking emotional support, see the positive side in problems, learning to live with changes, turning to religion, and expressing one’s feelings. However, some methods that individuals use for coping with stress actually result in negative outcomes. These are use of depressants, stimulants like cocaine, hallucinogens, alcohol, addiction, criminal activity, distortion of reality, and denial of emotion. In order to live with stress, one has to accept that there is stress and decide on how to live with this stress. The individual also needs to build up resistance to the stress factors, as well as change their perceptions about who they are. In short, stress management involves being chilled out, happy, trying to get more fun out of life, and not living a serious life lest it outsmarts the individual. Balance of Stress Finding one’s own stress level and being able to say no to situations, which can lead to stress helps an individual in balancing out their life in order to avoid stress. The individual needs to be alert regarding the impact of changes in their life. To balance stress levels, an individual, needs to deal with stressful situations by planning and using creative powers to come up with a workable solution. One should also strive for excellence rather than perfection. Additionally, the individual needs to develop an interface between their personal and vocational life, as well as, vary them, for example, choosing when to meditate or jog. One great way of taking care of ourselves is ensuring that we seek out balance in our lives. In addition, one sure way of guaranteeing that one has a balanced life is to plan one’s leisure time to make it complement time that he or she spends at work. Many individuals often make the mistake of electing to take up leisure activities that mirror their activities at work. An office manager could elect to coach a drill team or a garage mechanic could elect to restore old vehicles, while clerical workers could choose to be PTA treasurer or secretary. This does not aid one in dealing with stress. What one needs to do is to elect a leisure activity that differs completely from the routine they take during the day. Finding activities with provisions of different environments and challenges than those one is used to give an individual, much needed rest, as well as allowing one to test fresh facets of life. One way to achieve balance is via use of the teeter-totter, where tension and relaxation are balanced by coping as the fulcrum. When one’s titter-totter is balanced, then one has managed stress, and they can be happy. To do this, one has to be sure of what controls the pressure in their life and how they can keep a healthy balance of relaxation and tension. Application of the Workshop As a mother of four children studying for my master’s degree in a foreign country, I am exposed to quite a number of stress factors. These include time management, financial management since it is vital to live within my budget with four kids and studies, conflict with other people including the children, informational overload, stress from college, stress from work, stress from new weather conditions, traffic snarl-ups, and a new diet. The workshop helped me learn how to deal with stress by taking time out, learning to invent, involve myself in hobbies such as music, shopping, mowing the lawn, and taking a shower when feeling over stressed. It also taught that probability estimate is a vital tool in stress management as it helps one start ahead of time, plan my study time and plan to sleep as much as I can for my college life. To better manage my overall stress, I have learnt to chill out, identify reasons to be happy, have more fun, and finally not to take life too seriously or it is going to drag me down. The workshop made me realize that it is vital that I manage stress, or it will manage me. It is important to find out the most stressful moments in my life, and for me, that was just before I got to class. I also learnt how to cope with it by being relaxed and seeking help from my classmates. Work Cited Gregson, Susan. Stress management. Mankato: LifeMatters, 2010. Print Read More