KAPLAN UNIVERSITY

HW410 Stress: Critical Issues in

Management and Prevention

Stress
Management and
Prevention
1

Program Resource
Guide

KA P L A N U N I V E R S I T Y

Stress Management and Prevention

Program Resource Guide

By
Jessica Myers
Kaplan University
HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention
June 17, 2014

Table of Contents
UNIT

THE

NATU RE

OF

STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT

THE

PHYSIO LOGY

OF

STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT

PSYCHOLOGY

OF

STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT

PERSONAL ITY

TRAITS

AND

THE

HUM AN

SPIRITUAL ITY

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT

DEAL ING

WITH

STRESS:

COPING

STRATE GIES

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT
AND

REL AXATIO N

M ENTAL

TECHI QUES

IM AGE RY

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing

1 :

BREATHI NG ,

M EDITATI ON,

UNIT

NUTRITI ON

AND

STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT

PHYSIC AL

EXERCISE

AND

ACTIV ITY

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT
AND

APPLYING

PREVE NTIO N

STRESS:

CRITICAL

TO

PROF ESSI ONAL

YOUR

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
Tools: Journal Writing
ADDITI ONAL

INF ORM ATIO N

ISSUES

F OR

L IF E

M ANAGEM EN T

(This page intentionally left blank)

1
Unit

Unit 1: The Nature of Stress

Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Key learning point 2:

Stress is defined as the bodys response to any demand placed

upon it. This response has both physical and psychological
components. Stress can severely damage a person mentally
and physically if not handled properly and if it becomes too much
to deal with.

General Adaptation Syndrome- how doctors describe the bodys

long and short term reactions to stress. There are 3 stages in
this theory: alarm reaction, stage of resistance, and stage of
exhaustion.

Key learning point 3:

Men and women handle stress differently. Men tend to be more

aggressive while women tend to be more nurturing. Men tend to
keep things inside and not talk about their problems which
causes more stress on them where as women tend to look
towards their social support groups (friends and family) to help
them deal with their stress.

Resources: Exercises:

Exercise 1.6 The Wellness Paradigm Revisited

o Health is the absences of disease. The healthier you keep yourself the
more likely you are able to keep diseases away from you. Our bodies
work as a whole (mind, body, spirit, & emotions), the more we are able
to keep these working together the less stress we endure.

Exercise 1.7 College Students Daily Stressors Surveys

o This survey helped to bring out stressors that you think of on a daily
basis (like financial issues, kids activities, ect) but never realize how
much that is causing stress to your body- physically and mentally.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Journal 1.1 Are You Stressed?

o There are so many things that cause stress on a person that they are
not aware of, therefore, this exercise helped to bring some of those
unknown stressors into light so I know where I need to make some
changes.

Journal 1.4 A Good Nights Sleep

o You never realize how much sleep can effect you until you stop and
think about it. After this journal I realized how important sleep was for
a body. Not just to avoid being tired but physically and mentally how
important it is.

Unit 2: The Physiology of Stress

2
Unit

Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Key learning point 2:

Memory plays a big part is stress. The more stress a person has the
more they tend to forget things. Stress can cause difficulty in
concentration, over worrying, poor judgment and many other issues that
are linked with a persons mind/ memory.

Leading cause for death among women is heart disease. This is possibly
linked to women having more stress on them than men do. Not only are
women today working full time but they are also (mostly) the primary
keepers for the kids so that is double the work. The women today are
always stressing about their family and jobs. Men have stress also but
not as much as women carry on them.

Key learning point 3:

Stress can affect a persons risk of cancer. Those that are undergoing
treatments and are less stressed are more likely to get better while
those that are going through treatments and are very stressed are less
likely to get better. Stress deteriorates a person immune system and
when a person is going through these kinds of treatments they need to
be as stress free as possible.

Resources: Exercises:

Exercise 2.2 Immediate, Intermediate, and Prolonged Stress Effects

o This exercise helped me to realize why I have intestinal issues at
certain times. I noticed that when I am overly stressed anything I eat
makes me sick and I start to get major pains in my intestines. There
have been times when I have felt so overwhelmed that I have passed
out. I now know what the signs are for me to pay attention to so once I
start to notice that I am taking on too much I calm myself down before
anything happens.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 3.1 Physical Symptoms Questionnaire

o This specific journal activity helped me to realize that most of the
symptoms I have in my body are due to stress. Some I just thought
were from sitting, or exercising, or just getting older. But after this
journal I realized how many of them are linked to stress.

Exercise 3.3 - My Health Profile

o This journal activity helped me to realize where I am in physical shape.
I may feel good and look healthy, but without really sitting down and
going through each of the health issues. It made me realize my
intestinal problems, vision issues, and why my skin may break out. This
made me really sit down and think about myself physically when I
would never have thought to do that.

Unit 3: Psychology of Stress

3
Unit

Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Key learning point 2:

Social support is one way to help deal with stress. I have always kept to
myself but after reading about how having someone to talk to can help
to lessen your stress I am now working on having someone to talk to. It
does seem to help. Just to have one person just listen while you talk
about what is bothering you and them not say anything is a good way to
vent and it really does relieve stress.

Depression and stress go together. Those that endue a large amount of

stress (more than most people) tend to have depression issues, they also
tend to have little to no social support which also brings on more
depression. Depression is a very hard thing to go through and along with
stress it can be life threatening.

Key learning point 3:

Subleties of Control. When people tend to have that feeling of control

over things they tend to have a less stressful being. Then when
something unpredictably happens that we were not ready for we beat
ourselves up. We go through so many scenarios of things we should have
done, could have done or whatever and that actually makes the situation
more stressful. There are things that can be controlled and things that
cannot. We have to learn to stop stressing about the things we cannot
control.

Resources: Exercises:

Exercise 5.1 Anger Recognition Checklist

This exercise helped me to realize what my reactions are when I get

mad. Half the time we react and dont even think about how we are
reacting. This also helped me to realize signs of things that I do when I
get mad or angry so when I start to behave in these ways I can stop
before I let my anger take over.

Exercise 5.7 Fear This

This exercise helped to point out what some of my fears are. I knew I
had some but you never realize what emotional fears you actually have
until you sit down and think about them. This also helped me to realize
why I am so hard on myself and why I tend to strive for perfection. I
have learned to let some things go and not to be so hard on myself
because that was just stressing me out even more.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Journal 4.1- Psychology of Your Stress

This journal helped me to better understand how I handle things that

are emotional and how I am when I get defensive. Everyone gets
defensive at one point or another, we all just handle it differently. This
helped me to see how I am. It also helped me realize why I was acting a
certain way towards my family and shutting my feelings down.

Unit 4: Personality Traits and the Human

4
Unit

Spirituality
Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Key learning point 2:

We learned about the different stress prone personality types. After

going through them, there in not one that I am specific to, rather I feel
that I have a few traits from each personality. I also think I do carry a lot
of stress so I am not as much the hardy personality.

We also learn the stress resistant personality types. I am more of the

hardy personality for this one. I tend to be committed and dedicated to
things (jobs, family, friends, ect) and I am never the helpless person
attitude. I am alsways doing things no matter how hard they may seem.

Key learning point 3:

We learned how self-esteem can effect a persons stress levels. Those

people that have a higher self-esteem tend to not have as much stress.
They tend to not care what others think so things are less likely to
bother them. Whereas a person that has a low self-esteem will suffer
from stress at a much higher rate. These people tend to worry about
what everyone is thinking of them causing them stress mentally and
then physically.

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Resources: Exercises:

Exercise 7.5 Your Personal Value System

This exercise helped me to realize what I value most in my life and what
matters most to me. I never sat down and thought about any of these
until this exercise.

Exercise 7.8 Distractions of the Human Path

o This exercise helped me to realize the things that are distracting to
me. These things like cell phones, internet, ect are probably why I
stress over other things not getting done on time. There are times
when I try to focus on one things then all these other little
distractions start happening and before I know it I forget what I was
originally doing.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Journal 6.2 Stress- Prone Personality Survey

This journal helped me to realize that I have a codependent

personality, a personality style known to be stress-prone. I can agree to
this, since I feel like I am always stressing about something.
Journal 6.1 Under the Gun : Stress and Personality

This journal helped me to realize how I handle things when I am on a

time schedule. How I manage time and deal with things. It helped me
to point out my commitments, control over things and how I am in a
challenging situation.

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Unit 5: Dealing with Stress: Coping Strategies

5
Unit

Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Key learning point 2:

Humor is actually considered a perception rather than an emotion. I

never knew how complex humor was. There are different types of
humor, different types of personality with humor and also 4 theories of
humor. A person that has a good sense of humor usually tends to have
good health. They have a more positive outlook on life.

Money managing. This was very helpful to me because it helped me to

sit down and really think about my future. 401K, retirement plans, ect.
Money is a huge stressor in peoples lives but as long as we have a grasp
on our finance we can be less stressed. Being able to know when money
goes into an account, when a bill is due and to be able to budget money
and plan for our future is a big stress reliever.

Key learning point 3:

Time management. This was also very important to read about. I am one
who makes plans and then triple books myself that day so I am always
running from place to place and am never having any time for anything.
This helped me to realize I need to prioritize things and keep things on a
schedule. This leads to less running and more productivity.

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Resources: Exercises:

6
Unit

No exercise for this unit.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Journal 15.1 The Time- Crunch Questionnaire

This was a very helpful journal for me. It helped me to realize that
most of the time I am good with managing my time but I still need to
work on it a little more.

Journal 8.1 Reframing: Seeing a Bigger, Clearer Perspective

o This journal helped me to realize that when something is not going
the way I planned it to, to then take a step back and look at it in a
different way. Something may seem like a negative at the time but if
you stop and dont waste your energy on getting mad, you may see
the good in something. Everything happens for a reason so instead of
getting mad just let them happen and rearrange your first thought to
go with what is now going on.

Unit 6: Relaxation Techniques 1: Breathing,

Meditation, and Mental Imagery
Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

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Key learning point 2:

Ways to cope with stress. Exercise, meditation, social support, and

religion/ spirituality are the main ways to be able to deal with stress. All
of these give a person a different approach to helping themselves relieve
stress in any situation and be able to feel good also. Stress is always
going to be a part of a person life, but we dont have to let it control out
life. The more ways we learn to deal and cope with our stress the less it
will affect us.

Mental Imagery is a great way of dealing with stress. Mental Imagery is

like day dreaming. You make up and imagine that you are actually
somewhere else. Instead of being in bed you imagine that you are on a
beach laying in the sun and your mind is actually able to mentally think
that you are on a beach. This helps to relieve the stress from your day
and actually clear your mind. It promotes positive thinking and happy
thoughts.

Key learning point 3:

Breathing is the easiest way to relieve stress. There are a different

kinds of breathing but Diaphragmatic breathing is said to be the best
kind to relive stress. This kind of breathing is done from your actual
diaphragm and belly, not from the chest area. It is a deeper breathing.

Resources: Exercises:

Exercise 18.3 Bridging the Hemispheres of Thought

This exercise made me realize that I am more right brained thinking. I

tend to have a more holistic thinking with things, use humor a lot, and
my imagination. I also go by my intuition a lot, with what my gut feels
because I get nervous about taking chances on some things, and then I
stress over them. Therefore it is better for me to go with my intuition on
things to relieve more stress.

Exercise 20.2 Three Short Guided Visualizations.

These helped me to take moment to try to relax. I never sit and think of
these scenarios to help relieve stress or to help with my breathing. I am
the kind of person that as soon as I lay down I pass out. After this I
realized that I need to start doing more exercises like this to help me
calm my nerves more and to actually get my whole body and mind to
really relax.

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Tools: Journal Writing:

7
Unit

Journal 18.1 Too Much Information

This was very good to do! It helps you to realize how much of an
information over load of a world we are living in. We do not need
to be on the internet 24/7 looking things up and conducting
research all the time. Hearing about the news and other social
media all the time can cause depression like symptoms and can
cause stress.

Journal 17.1 Dolphin Breathing Mediation

o This was also a very helpful technique to help me calm down before I
went to sleep. I actually had a really good night sleep when I did
these breathing techniques before I went to sleep. It helped to really
clear my mind and help to put my head at rest instead of having
thoughts keep running through it of things I had to do the next day.

Unit 7: Nutrition and Stress

Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Every diet should include the following 6 components: carbs, proteins,

minerals, vitamins, fats and water. The most important component for

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the body is water, a person will die without water. Having a balanced
diet with these 6 components will lead to a person feeling healthy and
less stressed. A balanced diet helps to make for clearer decisions and
less feeling of stress because the body has the proper nutrients it needs.

Key learning point 2:

There are certain foods that can trigger stress in a person. Flour,
processed foods, salt and caffeine are some of them. The more a person
intakes foods that contain these ingredients the more stressed they are.
They are also more tired. These foods clog your arteries, cause internal
issues and also increase your stress levels.

Key learning point 3:

Stress can either cause a person to over eat, which can then lead to
obesity, depending on the length of time and amount of stress a person
is enduring. But a person can under eat as well. Both are detrimental to
a persons body. Over eating and under eating causes the body to lack in
the proper nutrients that it needs to have in order to function at its
optimal ability. Their decision making is not as good, their thoughts are
all over and they tend to be more tired, less productive.

Resources: Exercises:

There was no exercises for this unit.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Journal 27.2 Self Assessment: Nutritional Eating

o This helped me to actually realize what my food intake is. I think I eat healthy
for the most part but after this I noticed a few things that made me make some
changes. One is cutting coffee out of my life. I feel much better without it.

Journal 27.1 Stress Related Eating Habits

o This made me realize that when I am under stress I do not eat at all. This can be
just as bad as over eating. A person that over eats when they are stressed tends
to go for foods that are unhealthy for them, but also not eating makes a person
lack in nutrients and vitamins and can also make them feel not so good. Not
eating when stressed is just as bad as binge eating when stressed.

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Unit 8: Physical Exercise and Activity

8
Unit

Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Key learning point 2:

Physical exercise impacts a person physiologically.

It is actually
considered an investment in ones health. The longer a person keeps
exercising the more benefits they have when it comes to health issues.
They have better sleep, decreased cholesterol, decreased blood
pressure, increased efficiency of the heart and many other health related
benefits. Whereas those that do not exercise will have more of a chance
of having major health issues later in life.

4 major components to be able to benefit for exercising. They are:

frequency, intensity, time and they type of exercise. These 4 components
can be changed as a person exercises more to help them achieve their
results. But these also must all be factored into a workout in order to
maintain a healthy person.

Key learning point 3:

Physical exercise coincides in higher self-esteem. Those people that

exercise tend to have less stress and high self-esteems. They feel
physically good and healthy. Those that sit around and do nothing tend
to have lower self-esteems and feel sorry for themselves.

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Resources: Exercises:

There was no exercise for this unit.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Journal 28.1 Physical Exercise

This journal helped me to realize how exercising does clear my head first
thing in the morning. Also, helped me to realize that I may be on a
schedule with exercising but if I miss a day my thoughts and
productivity are all over the place. I cannot function the same as when I
do exercise.

Journal 28.2 My Body, My Physique

o This journal helped me to realize that even though I am not over
weight and am in good shape, I still have to be conscious of what I do
and what I eat. My body may not look like a fitness model for me I am
happy with the way I look. I do not put stress on myself to look like a
model. I exercise for the feeling that I get after. The clear mind and
the ability to perform throughout the day better.

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Unit 9: Applying Stress: Critical Issues for

9
Unit

Management and Prevention to your

Professional Life
Information to Remember:

Key learning point 1:

Key learning point 2:

Hobbies are a great method of dealing with stress. There are so many
different hobbies in todays society that it is impossible for a person not
to find one. Hobbies are a way of people dealing with their everyday
stresses. They can be reading a book, shooting guns, hiking, anything
that a person enjoys doing to help them clear their minds.

Forgiveness is a way to let things go. Often we keep our anger towards
others bottled up inside and that causes internal damage to us. It places
more stress on us. When we learn to forgive we learn to let things go
and then it is like a huge weight is lifted off us. Holding in bitterness
towards someone and not forgiving just causes more stress in the long
run.

Key learning point 3:

Prayer and keeping faith is a way of dealing with stress. When you have
faith in someone or something it gives you a person or thing to hand

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your stress to. It helps you to believe that you can handle what has been
given to you and that you are not alone in the process. When you pray it
is also a way of relieving stress. You are letting your stress go and
getting them out by talking about them. Faith promotes for a happier
way of dealing with stress. Its gives a sense of healing.

Additional Information
References:
Seaward, Brian Luke. Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-Being 6/ed.

(2009) Published by: Jones and Bartlett Publishers

Seaward, Brian Luke. The Art of Peace and Relaxation Workbook.(2008) Published by: Jones and
Bartlett Publishers
Sapolsky, Robert M. Why Zebras Dont Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related
Diseases, Third Edition (2004) Published by: Holt Publishing.
Stress Management Society. How food can affect your stress level.
http://www.stress.org.uk/How-food-can-help-your-stress-levels.aspx
Davidhizar, David & Ruth. Guidelines for Dealing with Stress (or what I learned from the airline ticket
agent). April 2006. Healthcare Traveler
Mayo Clinic Staff. Exercise and Stress: Get Moving to Manage Stress.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/in-depth/exercise-and-stress/art20044469?pg=1

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Aguirre, Lauren; Groleau, Rick; & Krock,Lexi. Nutrients Your Body Needs. Dec 2012. NOVA.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/nutrients-body-needs.html

Wein, Harrison, Ph.D. Stress Effects Our Bodies and Minds. NIH News in Health. Jan
2007. http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2007/January/index.htm

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