Ashley Scott

Kaplan University
HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention
5/27/2014

For Unit 1: The Nature of Stress, the main three keys points consist of
the definition of stress. Stress is defined as anything that can cause anxiety,
trauma, or a constant worry in a persons life. This can be anything that
causes you to feel under pressure such as work, school or even your social
life. The second main point is the stress response your body performs. When
this happens it is your bodys way of reacting to the stressors. This can be an
increase in blood pressure, increased heart rate and increased blood clotting
ability. The third key factor is stressors are anything that raises your stress
and causes an impact on your life. Stressors can cause acute stress or chronic
stress. Acute stress only last a few minutes but the feeling of stress is
intense. Whereas chronic stress can last days or weeks and the feeling of
stress is nowhere near as intense. An exercise that is good to do for you is
exercise 1.2: My Health Philosophy in Seawards, The Art of Peace and
Relaxation workbook. I chose this exercise because it helps you pick up on
what your stressors are in your life. It also helps you realize your bad habits
you perform when you are under that stress. It also gives you the opportunity
to look and see where you see yourself 25 years later from now. Also for the
journal, exercise 1.5: Personal Stress Inventory: Top Ten Stressors in the
handbook is good as well. I chose this exercise because it really makes you
think of everything that is causing stress in your life. It then categorizes if it

a mental stress, emotional stress or physical stress. Next it then asks you
how long you have had this stressor and if you see it as being a fear or anger.
Its very helpful in picking apart your stressors (Seaward, 2008).
For Unit 2 the Body as Battlefield, the three main points are, one is
the immune system. The immune system has its own response system to
fight off diseases and it also recognizes disease which helps in the fight of
them. It consists of two barriers of fighting organisms. The second point is
stress management. How someone deals with stress is called stress
management and people can cope their anxiety with physically means or
psychological means. This can be through eating junk food, alcohol or eve
drugs in ways that people cope with stress. The third point is the definition
of holistic. Holistic is defined as not dividing the person but looking at all of
the physical, mental and social aspects of their life to treat an illness. This in
my opinion is not judging someone based upon their race or religion and still
providing them with the essential care they need to treat an illness. An
exercise I chose for Seawards workbook is exercise 2.2: Immediate,
Intermediate, and Prolonged Stress Effects. This exercise was good in the
aspect of that if helps you define your stress reactions. For a journal I chose
exercise 3.1 Physical Symptoms Questionnaire. This exercise is helpful
because it asks you about what levels of stress you are having and how often

these occur. It also asks as to how long these stressors are lasting for and if
your score is over 30 you have a stress related health problem and need to
eliminate it from your life (Seaward, 2008).
For Unit 3: Feast or Famine, the three main points consist of, one Carl
Jung. Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, who founded the analytical school
of psychology. Jung broadened Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical approach,
interpreting mental and emotional disturbances as an attempt to find
personal and spiritual wholeness. The second point is about anger. Anger is
anything that causes annoyance, irritation or fury in someones life. This is
also a cause of stress. The third point is about Sigmund Freud. Sigmund
Freud was the Austrian physician, neurologist, and founder of
psychoanalysis who created an entirely new approach to the understanding
of human personality. The exercise I chose is exercise 5.4 Anger: The Fight
Response from the workbook. I chose this exercise for one reason is that it
allows you to express how you feel about anything that makes you angry. It
gives you the opportunity to let your feeling out and open up your mind. The
journal I picked is, exercise 4.1 The Psychology of Your Stress. This
exercise is helpful because it asks you what defense mechanisms you use in
order to protect your own ego (Seaward, 2008).

For Unit 4: One Planet Under Stress, the three main points
consists of one, time management. Time Management is a system relying on
time and motion studies, which help determine the best methods for
performing a task in the least amount of time; efficient and effective use of
time to increase productivity. The second point is the greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse Effect is the warming of the lower atmosphere and surface of
Earth. This occurs because of the absorption of long-wave length radiation
from the planet's surface by certain radioactively active gases, such as
carbon dioxide and water vapor, in the atmosphere. These gases are heated
and ultimately re-radiate energy to space at an even longer wavelength. The
third point is ecology. Ecology is defined as the environmental science,
biology and natural science. The exercise for this unit I chose from the
workbook is exercise 7.5 Your Personal Value System. This exercise allows
you to identify what your core values are in your life and what major value
is the center of your values. The journal I chose is exercise 6.1 Under the
Gun: Stress and Personality. This allows you to a stressor in your life,
explain how you deal with this stressor and why it is a stressor for yourself
(Seaward, 2008).
For Unit 5 Under Stress: What Now? the three main points are one,
affirmations. Affirmations are the assertion of support or agreement, a

positive statement or declaration of the truth or existence of something, a

positive statement or declaration of the truth or existence of something;
psychology a positive thought or statement affirming that a desired goal has
been reached or are within reach. The second point is stress reduction. The
mindfulness-based stress reduction is the technique employed by the
University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health
Care, and Society, Stress Reduction Program providing intensive training to
participants in engaging their own individual resources to reduce stress. The
third point is your mindset. Your mindset is the state of mind and beliefs that
affects your attitude. Such as you are going to feel a great discomfort to a
situation because you think the situation is bad. The two journals I chose to
pick is exercise 8.1 Reframing: Seeing a Bigger, Clearer Perspective. This
exercise allows you to deal with three stressors and find your reframed
perspective to that situation. The next journal exercise is exercise 15.1 The
Time-Crunch Questionnaire. This exercise tests you on how well your time
management is and whether or not you need to reevaluate your life skills
(Seaward, 2008).
For Unit 6 Ageless Wisdom of Meditation, the three main points are
one, the monkey mind.

Concentration is necessary to discipline the

"monkey mind''. We must learn to hold the mind steady on a physical object

an idea, or a revered figure, and bring it back when it slips away. The mind
tries to take control, but by carefully watching the process of our thinking
we can learn to ensure that we and not the mind, determines the content and
activity of our consciousness. The second point is meditation. Meditation is
the emptying of concentration of the mind. There are many techniques for
meditation in order to empty the mind and body. The third point is centering.
Centering is the point that is the focus of your attention. An example of this
could be the balloon floating away higher in the sky. The exercise I chose for
this unit is exercise 18.3 Bridging the Hemispheres of Thought. This
exercise allows you to discover what your dominant side of thinking is in
your brain. Left-brain thinking skills are associated with judgment, analysis,
mathematical and verbal acuity, linear thought progression, and time
consciousness; right-brain functioning is associated with global thinking,
holistic thinking, imagination, humor, emotionality, spatial orientation,
receptivity, and intuition. The journal exercise I chose was exercise 18.1 Too
Much Information. This exercise allows you to filter out the information that
is crowding your brain. Ask yourself if it important or pertains to yourself
before remembering it later on. Also it asks you how you filter out all the
unnecessary information (Seaward, 2008).

For Unit 7 Sight, Sound and Body Work the three main points are one,
reflexology. Reflexology is a form of massage in which pressure is applied
to parts of the feet and hands in order to promote relaxation and healing
elsewhere in the body. You can find charts that show you the different
pressure points in your hands and feet and what they relieve when massaged.
The second point is rolfing. Rolfing is a service mark for a therapy using
vigorous massage to alleviate physical or psychological tension. The third
point is visualizing. Visualization is used to create a vivid positive mental
picture of something such as a desired outcome to a problem, in order to
promote a sense of well-being. An example of this is hoping to see your
parent feeling better, when in reality they are terminally ill. For the 2 journal
exercises is chose for this unit is 27.1 Stress-Related Eating Behaviors. This
exercise asks you about your eating habits, sugar intake or anything you do
when you are feeling stressed. A score of more than 30 suggests eating
habits may seriously compromise the integrity of your immune system. The
other exercise was exercise 27.3 The Rainbow Diet. This exercise asks you
to list the seven chakras of food that fill your body regions. You must eat a
food for all of the colors of the rainbow (Seaward, 2008).
For Unit 8 The Wellness Mandala, the three main points are one, your
target heart rate. Your target heart rate is used to increase the strength and

efficiency of the circulatory system, a person performing aerobic exercise

should reach 65 to 75 percent of their maximum heart rate, known as the
target heart zone. This target heart zone is determined by subtracting age
from 220 to find the maximum heart rate. Multiply this number by 0 .60 and
0.75 to determine the target heart zone. As the circulatory system becomes
more efficient with regular exercise, higher levels of activity will be required
to reach the target heart zone. The second point is cortisol. Cortisol is the
steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex, involved in carbohydrate
metabolism and the stress reaction. The third point is the circadian rhythm.
The circadian rhythm describes a pattern repeated approximately every 24
hours. The two journals I picked for this unit is exercise 28.1 Physical
Exercise from the workbook. This exercise allows you to describe your
favorite activities, exercise habits and what you do to keep yourself
motivated to pursue these activities. The second journal exercise was
exercise 28.2 My Body, My Physique. This exercise allows you to really
look at your body and whether or not you compare yourself to someone
elses imagine. It also allows you to look and see if there is any way to boost
your self-esteem (Seaward, 2008).
For Unit 9 Applying Stress: Critical Management to your Professional
Life the three main points are one, biofeedback. Biofeedback is a

physiological control technique. The use of monitoring devices displays

information about the operation of a bodily function that is not normally
consciously controlled. The second point is about progressive muscular
relaxation. Progressive Muscular Relaxation is a technique known as (PMR)
created by an American physician Edmund Jacobsen to deal with muscle
tension among his medical patients. The third point is Tai Chi. Tai Chi is a
Chinese form of physical exercise characterized by a series of very slow and
deliberate balletic body movements. The 2 journal exercises I chose for this
unit is exercise 28.3 Your Circadian Rhythms. This exercise is good because
it gives you a detailed chart of what you do throughout the day along with at
what times. This way it help you fit time in for exercising or doing some
kind of activity. The second exercise was 27.2 Self-Assessment: Nutritional
Eating Habits. This exercise is excellent because it asks you about your
nutritional eating habits like caffeine, favorite stress foods, what your
comfort foods are and if you consume alcohol to relax (Seaward, 2008).
For additional resources, I chose the cdc.gov website for proper
nutrition. I chose this website because it gives you a basic overview of what
proper nutrition is and what it consists of. This source would be considered a
secondary source. The other website I chose was aworkoutroutine.com. I
chose this website because it gives you the best workout routines, programs,

plans, workouts and exercises to explain exactly what will work best for
you, your body, your schedule, your preferences, and your specific fitness
goal. This source is considered a primary source.

References
A Workout Routine. (2014). A Workout Routine. Retrieved from

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/
Nutrition for Everyone. (October 29, 2012). CDC. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/index.html?s_cid=cs_281
Sapolsky, R. (2004). Why zebras dont get ulcers: The acclaimed guide to
stress, stress-related diseases (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Holt, Henry
& Company, Inc

Seaward, B. (2009). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health

and well-being (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Seaward, B. (2008). The art of peace and relaxation workbook.
Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.