- Take the College Life Stress Inventory on page 448. Do the results surprise you?
- What do you consider the most valuable advice in the sections of text entitled "Managing Bodily Reactions", "Modifying Ineffective Behavior", and "Avoiding Upsetting Thoughts"? Remeber to explain your reasoning so we can all discuss it.
- If you were going to put together a "tool kit" for stress management, what items would you include?
- Finally, tell us a story about when you or someone you know experienced a stressful situation: what strategies did the person use? What was the end result? What can this experience teach all of us about ways we might manage our stress in the future?
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Unit 6 Reflection
Some final thoughts about stress and coping with stress...
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23 comments:
I find the most valuable advice in the "Managing Bodily Reactions" is the part where it explains Guided Imaginary. This helps when your somewhere where you can't work out or meditate. In the "Modifying Ineffective Behavior" I enjoyed the Slow Down part. Being a very impaient person this helps me realize to just slow down. One stressful situation was when this lady deliberately cut me off which alost caused me to crash. At first I reacted very agressively and I believe fliped her off and honked my horn. Then I caught myself and took a breather and just got in the slower lane and let it pass. I just realized its not worth getting so worked up over.
i think that meditation in the "managing bodily reactions" is a good way to relax. this can help you learn to just breathe and relax before getting to worked up over things. under the "modifying ineffective behavior" i found that keeping organized can help instead of having everything scattered and mess. it may help to make sure every thing is neat and makes your mind more organized as well. for example when im sitting down to do home work i tend to get very irriated and stressed out because all my work is scattered every where and somthing is not where it should be when i need it. but after a while i clean up everything and make curtain piles of the different classes and it makes it easier to work.
I am just slightly suprised with how low my stress is. I feel like it should be higher honestly. I think avoiding upsetting thoughts is the best way to go. When I get upset, I tent to think really negative, which is not good, so I try to keep my mind on happier things to prevent myself from falling into that situation. One of my friends friends got raped not too long ago, and this person took some of it out on their partner, and their partner gave them a few drinks. After the victim drank, they got drunk and ended up sick on my friends couch. I don't think that was exactly the way to go. I say just calmly talk to someone about the issue and figure out how you can stay safer and prevent the situation from happening again.
According to the college life stress inventory my stress levels are average, which doesn't really surprise me. I think the most valuable advice in the managing bodily reactions section is exercise. Im a very active person and i love to play sports. I notice that when i don't have practice or don't go to the gym every day i get stressed faster. I think the organization section was the most important section in modifying ineffective behavior because if you're organized you can avoid events that lead to stress, like forgetting an important apointment. I think the lighten up section in upsetting thoughts was the most important because i think laughing is a great way to relive stress. If i were to make a tool kit for stress management it would include some kind of exercise (running/walking/swimming), a social outing with friends (seeing a movie), and to always think positively.
Sarah Y
I'm really surprised how low my stress rate was. I knew that I wasn't overlly stressed or anything.
well one of my beothers just got arrested for a D.U.I and he thought he was going to lose his job and stuff like that so i guess he got so stressed that he just went out anad partied again and drove home drunk again.
I know that was a stupid thing to do and it was really not the way to deal with his stress, if I was in that situation I would have just paid the consenqueces of my actiona nd then tried to stay away from things that would have made me more stressed out.
Jill D.
first off, i want to say that i was pretty surprised/mad that car wreck wasnt on this list.lame.another thing i was really upset about was that my score was average.1263.im insanely stressed,to the point where it shows physically.this test thingy is inaccurate, besides, some people would get extremely stressed out speaking in front of a class,during finals week, or starting a new semester....i dont.those things dont bother me at all.so its incorrect. the most valuable sections are exercise, and coping statements. i agree with the idea that people shouldnt freak out over things they cant control. when i get stressed i just figure out what i can and cant do about it and then thats it. like ok i need to leave for work but my tank is empty. i simply decide i will its better to be 5 or ten minutes late than an hour late because my car ran out of gas on the way to work .and the end result is i never get in trouble for being late, probably because i sneak in all ninja-like
I scored a low stress level which I agree with... I normally don't have many things to worry about. As for the Managing Bodily section... I find it all to not be very useful, as I already have many different techniques to deal with everyday situations. As for a streesed out situation... the most recent was the 4th of May during the San Jose Sharks game. It went to 4 overtimes during which i was totally stressed hoping for the best end result of the Sharks winning but avast, it did not happen. Throughout the game i was up out of my seat when anything close to a goal was happening but when Dallas finally scored i fell silent.... i thought it was strange the way I reacted.
None of the topics on the list surprise me with their ratings.I think the most valuable advice is meditation. Though you may not be able to meditate at your current location, I still think it's the best one. Organize is definitely at the top of my list. If I'm not organized when doing something I just get confused which leads to me being stressed.
i agree with what martin said none of the results surprised me at all. and i also think the most helpful advice would be the meditation, only cause that is a relaxing tool to help people calm down and realize they were stressed for no reason.
SHELBI
The results I got were not surprising at all. I am more than aware that I have little to no stress. I am average. I'd love to keep it that way although that wouldn't be looking into reality. We all sooner or later are going to deal with stress one way or another, this simply means that it's inevitable. But we can find ways to make it more managable in our day to day lives. We just need to know how to take it into a postive form.
I remember how stressful my mom can get. She loves to ,in my point of view "nag" about little things which is a constant annoyance.I like to do things last minute but as she is a paralegal, she has been taught to do things on time and in an orderly fashion, which is fine by me, but I just don't like doing things her way, I have a way of doing it and that is how it shall be =]
in the end i guess youcan say, she is more tolerable of me and understands how it is to be human and not always do things on time. Which makes things easier on the both of us in the long run.
I think we can all learn that some things take time, whether that be change in ourselves or around us.
We can all do various things to make things easier on everyone. In final note, stress can be managed due to our surroundings or environment.
********
On a side note, in my "tool kit"
I would love to have a book, a cellphone(in case I needed to talk to a friend/vent to them) and i would have my ipod so I can calm my nerves! Maybe even some english tea too.
I would always have a journal maybe to vent about my problems/stressors,which could help sort out my problems in the process. I would be able to cope with stress by seing myself as the problem and not use someone as a scapegoat.
In the "Managing Bodily Reactions" I would think that exercise would have to be a good way to relax and get your mind of things. Under "Modifying Ineffective Behavior", to slow down would help you less stressed in what people have to do in their busy days of their life. A stressful situation I went through was when I had to move from an old house in a month. It wasn't just stressful for me but for my whole family because we didn't have such a very long time to look for a house and to pack everything. We eventually all got through it together and are finally settled in and not so stressed anymore.
The college life stress test was interesting because it really gave me an opportunity to reflect of each question and think about what stresses me out. I am just barely in the "High" range and I guess this doesn't really surprise me because lately I have been under tremendous amounts of pressure; with moving, applying to colleges, waiting to hear from the colleges, getting rejected and finally trying to get everything done in time for graduation. Jeez I am already stressing just writing all that down.
The way I deal with these anxieties is to really start what I have been putting off. I make a plan of what I need to get done and how I am going to do it, so it makes me feel like i am and I am going to be accomplishing something.
The most interesting and helpful part of this chapter was learning about frustration and stress and how intricately linked it is with our health and well-being as people.
--Claire B
I'm not very stressed out. this doesn't surprise me, because i don't often feel stressed out I try my hardest to stay out of stressful situations.
According to the "College Life" quiz thing, I turned out to be average and that seems about right to me because I really don't feel that I suffer from stress at all other than volleyball. Speaking of volleyball, I immediately thought of game situations when I read those sections in the text. It talks about muscles tensing up and that's exactly what you don't want to do in volleyball; it's a must to remain calm at all times, especially when the game gets really intense. Sometimes I have to just stop what I'm doing, and take a deep breath in between plays to just go through everything and slow down for a bit, just as it says in "Modifying Ineffective Behavior". "Avoiding Upsetting Thought" is just like, "YES!!!". I'm constantly having to avoid thinking about everything that went wrong on the play that just happened and just think about what we can do to efficiently fix it.
I am not surprised with my results on the stress rating. I have an average stress level which I am happy about. The best advice is probably the "Managing Bodily Reactions", this helps us take a breather and not got so worked up. On occasions when I get upset or stressed out because I get in an argument with my dad, I try and relax so that i don't make things worse than they are. Afterwords, i will be glad that i handled the situation carefully.
What I cosider the most valuable advice from "Managing Bodily Reactions" is, Any full-body exercise like swimming,dancing,And most sports can be effective. "Modifying Ineffective Behavior"-Trying to deliberately do things at a slower pace especially if your pace has speeded up over the years. "Avoiding Upsetting thoughts"-The best advice is to use a technique called stress inoculation.
The College Life Stress Test was very interesting because it gave me an idea on what certain things i get stressed out about. I scored low on the stress test which is kindof hard to believe. I just try to relax and make things better.
I dont really use any stratagies i just live in the moment and let life happen. Just because im more prone to a stressful environment doesnt mean im going to avoid it. Life is stressful isnt it, if it werent why would god put it here?! I am not really surprised on how low i scored on my stress test. what do i have to be worried about? I work a few days a week, play golf everyday, and go to school once a week common! if im not living the life i dont know who is!
-Marcus
The results did not surprise me. I scored high in the "normal" range. I think, for me at least, the most valuable advice was exercise. It just really helps me mellow out and relax(after the work out, anyway) It's a good way to blow off steam. I have had plenty of stressful situations. One that I always remember is when I was taking my flying test to get my pilots license. It was very hot in Merced where I was taking it. The test was getting really tough, and I was having a hard time with something. That, along with the heat, made my nose bleed. I had to wait two weeks to take the test again. I just remember how stressed out I was when that happened and how bad I felt shortly after. I ended up passing when I went back.
Derk H.
On the College Life Stress Test i scored average which is interesting because I feel more stressed than that, but then again the test has a lot to do with college and most of the questions don't apply to me yet. I think the most valuable advice in the "Managing Bodily Reactions" was the guided imaginary.
Michelle G
The results don't suprise me at all. I was at the average, and that sounds about right. I agree with the meditation in the "managing bodily reactions". I think it allows you to just relax and let go of the stresses around you. I agree with Destiny, if i was making a tool kit i would want my cell phone to talk to my friends. I would also want pictures of just memories and friends, just to show me I'm loved and don't need to trip.
One time my friend was having a tough time communicating with her parents and was stressing. She ended up moving out and actually then, gainging a closer relationship with them. This helps me see that if you make the right choices it will turn out for the better.
My stress levels are average which is okay to be. I realized that if I am getting stressed out i just need time to stop and slow down so that my stress level does not increase.
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