| TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright 1992, 2005 Lamon H. Small Text used by permission. |
Chapter 8Managing StressStress is a condition, situation, or state of mind which is in some way discomforting to the individual and affects normal coping abilities. Stress is usually a condition of uncertainty and feelings of having no control or of having a lack of control over a situation. It can also be a fear of the unknown. Stress is not viewed or interpreted by everyone the same way, nor is it handled by everyone in the same way. Once stress is recognized, there is then a need to discover its cause or causes. Stress can show itself in many ways; from being anxious, to being upset or even feeling ill. Too often the cause of stress is not apparent. You will find that in college, as with anything you are trying to achieve, there will be a certain amount of stress involved. The more important something is to you the better you will want to perform. Stress is a fact of life and a condition that you will need to recognize and learn to deal with. It can and will have a positive or negative effect on the outcome of your efforts. It is also an important aspect to consider in forming productive study skills. All students experience stress to some degree while studying or preparing for tests. For those students that are not properly prepared for a test, this stress is interpreted as negative and is usually detrimental to their performance. Each time this state of stress is experienced with a state of being unprepared, the stress level increases. If this continues, this unrealistic feeling of stress becomes a conditioned response to stress. This conditioned state is then often interpreted and referred to as test anxiety. This is not to say that all stress is bad. There are basically two types of stress, positive and negative. Negative stress (also referred to as distress) is that stress you want to avoid if at all possible. It is this form of stress which does harm in a number of ways. It can affect mental and physical health or, even worse, both. It can lead to both mental and physical laziness. Symptoms of negative stress can be headaches, shoulder aches, muscle tension, nausea, and diarrhea.
Positive stress on the other hand can be beneficial. A certain amount of stress is needed to be productive and active. Everyone needs a certain amount of positive stress to function in everyday life. It is when stress gets out of hand that there is a feeling of no control. At this point positive stress can become negative stress. Stress must first be recognized before it can be dealt with effectively. This sounds much easier than it really is. In fact the most difficult task in dealing with stress is identifying its cause or causes. Stress comes in many forms and for many reasons. Going to college, working, and juggling family and social life will contribute greatly to your stress. Everyone deals with stress differently. As with learning styles, you must discover a method that best suits your needs.
Stress is often based on your individual perception of the situation. A situation is only stressful if you think it is. A situation that is stressful to one person is not necessarily stressful to another. What is stressful in one situation may be a motivator in another situation. Therefore the way you perceive something determines how you respond to it. The more in control of your life you are the less stress you will experience and the better equipped you will be at handling it. The control you feel is determined by what you think or believe to be true or real, not necessarily on what is actually true or real about the situation. In other words you act and respond based on how you perceive the situation.
Everyday life’s stressful situations have an affect on studying abilities and motivation. Most stress is self-imposed. This means the situation would probably not be considered stressful if it was not perceived to be so. Continued stress can lead to a condition of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is created when you have tried something, then failed a number of times, and then are conditioned to accepting the fact that you have no control on the outcome of that situation or any similar future situation.
I know how to deal with stress. yes no I usually can control my stress. yes no Answering no to either or both of these questions could indicate you may need help in learning how to deal effectively with stress.
WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS The best way to reduce stress is to be aware that it is occurring and then deal with it effectively. The sooner you are aware of feeling stress, the sooner you can begin dealing with the symptoms. When dealing with stress you should be able to do the following:
Prevention is the best way to control stress. There are a number of techniques and strategies available to help combat stress before as well as after it is experienced.
Nutrition It is very important to maintain a well-balanced diet. Nutrition plays a big part in the control of stress. It is a known fact that college students have poor diets. A good nutritional diet will aid the body in dealing with the physiological and psychological effects of stress.
Physical Activity Physical activity is considered one of the best ways to relieve stress and to aid in its prevention. Physical activities consist of anything that causes you to exert yourself physically. Some forms of physical activity are aerobic exercise, jogging, walking, playing sports such as baseball, tennis, or throwing a frisbee, among many others. The best activity is one that you enjoy. Physical activity is effective for two reasons:
Progressive Relaxation Progressive relaxation is a process of training yourself to relax. The first step is to learn how to relax through a progressive process. The next step is to condition yourself to relax through a cognitive process. This is where you can create a state of muscular relaxation just by thinking through the process. The first step is best achieved by lying down in a comfortable position, preferably on a bed. Lie on your back with your arms and legs in a comfortable position but not touching your body and with eyes closed. A good time to practice this is at bed time. Take a minute and try to clear your mind. Concentrate only on what you are doing. You are going to be concentrating on and tensing certain parts of your body from your toes to your head. Once you are in the proper position, start by concentrating on your toes. Now tense your toes as hard as you can for three to five seconds, then relax them. The purpose is to experience the difference between a tensed muscle and a relaxed one. You are now going to progress up your entire body one part at a time. You will be focusing on as small a group of muscles as possible. The order of progression is toes, feet, calves, thighs, buttocks, pelvic area, abdomen, fingers, hands, forearms, upper arms, chest, shoulders, front of the neck area, back of the neck, chin, jaw, eyes, forehead, and then the scalp. Each time you tense a muscle group, concentrate on the difference between the tensed and relaxed feeling. All the time you are progressing through this exercise, mentally repeat to yourself—RELAX. The purpose of this exercise is to learn to recognize the difference between a tense and relaxed state and to condition this learned relaxed state with the concept of relaxation. Always reward and reinforce yourself mentally by realizing and enjoying the difference between the position of the muscles before you start and how much more relaxed and limp they are after they are relaxed. With practice, this method will take less and less time to achieve the desired relaxed state. Each time you practice this exercise, try to set a goal to achieve a more and deeper relaxed state of relaxation. After you complete a progressive relaxation session, lie there and concentrate on the differences between the relaxed states. Now think of your whole body relaxing at one time without tensing. You should experience a feeling of sinking a little further into the bed. If your body is truly relaxed, you will not experience any muscle tension. This method works. Use it and constantly practice it. You should incorporate this technique of relaxation into other techniques for reducing and controlling stress. When practicing this at bedtime you may find it hard staying awake through the entire exercise. That will be an indication of success. After you become proficient at this method, the next step is to practice while sitting upright in a chair. Simply close your eyes, assume a comfortable position, and begin the technique.
Breathing Exercises This is a way of learning to relax through the simple process of breathing. As with the progressive relaxation technique, a good way to begin learning this exercise is lying in a bed just before going to sleep. Start by assuming a good comfortable relaxed position. Now start concentrating on your breathing. Start by clearing your mind of any and all usual thoughts of everyday events. Concentrate on breathing in and out. Focus on the movement of your chest as you breathe. Begin to take slow and longer breaths while mentally repeating to yourself—RELAX. After you feel that you have achieved a certain level of relaxation, simply take a good slow and deep breath. While exhaling this breath, allow your muscles to relax even more than they already are. Each time you practice this exercise, try to set a goal to achieve a more and deeper state of relaxation. Always be aware of the difference of the tension and change in the muscles as you relax. Being aware will allow you to become more relaxed and to achieve deeper states of relaxation. As with the progressive relaxation technique, you may find it hard to practice this exercise for very long periods without falling asleep. Again this will be an indication of success. After you become proficient at this method the next step is to practice while sitting upright in a chair. Simply close your eyes, assume a comfortable position, and begin the technique. Once you become proficient at this process you can incorporate it into a stress reducing maintenance program to use in everyday situations that prove stressful.
Object Focusing This is an extension of the above techniques. This method uses meditation and self-hypnotic techniques and combines them with relaxation. As with the relaxation techniques, first assume a comfortable relaxed position. In the beginning this can also be practiced while lying down, then in a sitting position. Next focus on an object. This can be a close object such as your hand, a poster, or just a spot on the wall, or a distant object by staring out a window at a tree or cloud. Select an object that will not distract you while you practice this exercise. Clear your mind of all thoughts while you are focusing on this object. Constantly repeat relax, relax . . . Once you have perfected this technique you can let your mind wander and think of a pleasant mental image instead of just the word relax.
Alcohol Alcohol is a very popular and usually acceptable way to relax and relieve tension and stress. A word of caution: alcohol is a temporary fix and may, and probably will, prove to be costly in the long run. What you solve with alcohol today may become more serious tomorrow. At its best, it is only a very temporary quick fix.
Know Your Own Limits Be truthful with yourself. Know what you expect of yourself. Be realistic about what you can and cannot do. Once you are realistic about your expectations, you are then in a position to take control of them. You should be aware of your needs and expectations and act accordingly. You may feel that there are circumstances that warrant accepting lower performance such as a course outside your major that is very difficult for you. You may also be self-supporting and between work and college, you may feel that you do not have enough time to devote to your studies. This will change after you learn Productive Study Techniques. Know when to quit. If you get too far behind or take on more than you can handle, seek help and advice. Sometimes dropping a course that is dealing you problems can be the best solution. Do not let this become a habit. Learn from this and plan your schedule better for the following terms.
Be Prepared As already discussed, the best way to do well on a test is to be prepared. Being prepared is also a way to alleviate or at least minimize stress. Being prepared promotes self-esteem and confidence. It gives you a sense of being in charge.
Talk About It Talk about what is bothering you. Discuss it with a friend, classmate, family member, or even a counselor. Just talking about a problem can be very therapeutic.
Humor Humor and laughter are probably the best and most natural way to alleviate the symptoms of stress. Try to inject as much humor and laughter into your life as you possibly can.
The Small Closet method This is not a way to do away with stress totally but instead it is a way to recognize, deal with, and control stress. In fact, the small closet method is a temporary storage system. It is concerned with both the conscious and the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is that part of the mind which you are aware of all the time. It is the reality part of your everyday world. The subconscious mind is the part which you are not aware of but which still has an influence on you. This subconscious area can be considered the storage spot for those things that, for whatever the reason, you do not want to deal with consciously. I consider the small closet method to be a short-term subconscious storage bin for all those things which you just do not want to or cannot deal with at the time. This system is a way to temporarily delay dealing with an unpleasant or potentially stressful situation. It is a method which will allow you to continue to feel in control while in a stressful situation. You are not ignoring or denying that the situation is unpleasant or stressful. You are only storing it so you can deal with it at a more appropriate time. This approach will allow you to continue your planned activities until a designated and predetermined time that will be more appropriate to deal with the stress that was generated from the situation. It is not designed to eliminate or ignore the responsibility of the situation. Basically what you are doing is subconsciously and temporally storing what may be perceived as stressful until a time that you are prepared to deal with it. Make sure you set aside time to deal with it appropriately. All of this stress is only being stored for a short period of time. Following a very important test you may have to go straight to work or even to another test. It is obvious that a very stressful situation is going to affect your performance on other tasks. With practice this technique will allow you to be in control when you are in most need of being in control.
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