Students, workers, and parents - actually almost everyone - experience a substantial amount of stress. Not all stress is necessarily bad. It is perfectly natural and an important part of life. This kind of stress is called eustress. However, stress in its negative forms, or stress that continues for too long (distress), can affect health, productivity, and one's outlook on life.
Stress can manifest itself physically and psychologically. Life changes or events play a big part in the amount of stress that is present. Increasing one's knowledge of stress and how it is perceived is an important part of managing it. Therefore, the more you know about yourself, your habits, your strengths, and your weaknesses, the easier it is to take control when possible -- or cope and manage when it isn't possible.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
The goal of this module is to introduce you to the things that cause stress in your life and to help you acquire basic skills for managing stress in your academic, professional, and personal life.
Upon completing the Stress Management module you will be able to:
- describe different kinds of stress and their effects
- list and prioritize stressors
- use and explain ways to manage or cope with stress
Watch the following video defining the different types of stress we experience.
You Perceive Your Stress:
Watch the following video on how we control our stress through the perspective we take.
How Can I manage My Stress?
The following video has suggestions for how to deal with our stress.
Assess Your Stress:
Half of the battle of managing stress is identifying how your body reacts to stress. The following worksheet from Penn State University, lists many different signs of stress that you should be aware of in order to deal with them. Download the PDF file, SIGNS OF STRESS, and identify your own stress indicators.
Also accessed from the Penn State University iStudy webstie, the STRESS DIARY will help you begin to record descriptions of the triggers, the situations, your reactions, etc. to stressors that occur during the day. Use this form to record information about yourself for 6 days.
Build and Post Your Plan:
Using the "Signs of Stress" checklist and your "Stress Diary", set measureable goals for managing your stress in a healthy manner.
Step 1: Access Your eFolioWorld Account @ https://login.efolioworld.com/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fOwner%2fAdminUI.aspx&ui=mouse
Step 2: Create a New Content-Basic Artifact and call it "Stress Management Plan"
Step 3: On your Basic Artifact, briefly answer these questions:
- How did you feel about your identifying your stress indicators?
- Did anything surprise you about your stress indicators?
- Looking back at your stress diary, what are some healthy ways you deal with stress?
- What are some unhealthy ways you deal with stress?
- What can you do to change those unhealthy ways of dealing with stress into beneficial stress management tools?
Step 4: Drage and Drop your Basic Content onto your SKILLS SHOP REFLECTION page.
Worksheet References from Penn State University: http://istudy.psu.edu/FirstYearModules/Stress/References.html