--Original published at Carly's College Blog

For this spotlight post, I chose the stress management option. Although the body can cope with stress, a long term build up can be detrimental. These are the tips I found when looking for stress management:

The first website I looked at was Everyday Health, and their article is tips for college students. They provide 10 tips to “tackle” stress. The tips are: to get enough sleep, eat well, exercise, avoid caffeine, get emotional support, avoid alcohol, don’t give up your passions, try not to overload yourself, breathe and get a massage. Although in college it is very easy to overload yourself, I think these tips all hold potential to be successful. This is because they are adaptive tips, they can help decrease stress without presenting any complications or additional stress. They focus on coping with the feelings that come with stress, which is also called emotion focused coping.

The second website I looked at was called archetypes, and they have an article targeted to athletes. They have 3 tips which are: let it go, catch some air, and download relief. Let it go is essentially the idea of only focusing on things that directly effect you, because trying to focus on other issues will cause additional stress. They also discuss the importance of taking time for deep breathing, and downloading music or meditations that will help you relax. These three tips highlight both emotion focused coping, and problem focused coping, which is focusing directly on the stressor. By focusing on the sole area of your stress and letting the rest go, it allows you to work through each problem at a time. i think that since this article is focused towards athletes, they should have included some tips focused around physical release, such as hitting the gym, or practicing their sport.

The last website I looked at is ironically called Stress Relief Choices. The article I looked at is targeted towards teachers. It outlines 7 ways for teachers to manage stress. The #1 tip is to “keep calm.” I think this is funny because if they were calm they would not be googling how to be calm. The other 6 tips are: practice stress relief daily, center yourself before class, be compassionate, laugh with your class, maintain boundaries, and be consistent. I agree with practicing stress relief daily because it is something most people can benefit from. just by taking 15-20 minutes out of each day to focus on centering yourself can help keep your mind on track. Compassion was a tip I didn’t understand until I read the description. It talks about how you need to keep your students in mind because you don’t know what they are going through outside of the classroom and how as a teacher, your mood can effect theirs as well.

One common tip that seems to make it across all 3 websites is to breathe. It’s interesting how even though we know we are breathing, we still get caught up in our own stress that we need to step back take a deep breathe and regain ourselves. I think that these tips can all be successful. Adding a bit of mindfulness to each day can help keep your stress levels in check. These tips mainly fall into the adaptive category, so they won’t cause other complications.

Sources:

https://www.everydayhealth.com/college-health/college-life-10-ways-to-reduce-stress.aspx

https://www.archetypes.com/stress-management-tips-athlete/

https://www.stress-relief-choices.com/stress-management-for-teachers.html

--Original published at Marisa Psych Blog

I chose to look into the management of stress through online sources for this post

https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/perfect-method-reduces-athlete-stress

The first website I looked into was how stress connects to the lives of athletes and how athletes can find better and effective ways to cop with their stress. This article provided a method and seen to help young athletes reduce stress went by an acronym, P.E.R.F.E.C.T.. This method was created to calm performance anxiety, which overall leads to a better quality of performance.  Athletes are constantly under pressure and carrying a lot on their plate. With this method, it allows them to separate each aspect of the game and how to continue moving forward in a positive light with less stress. The P.E.R.F.E.C.T. acronym stands for positive self-talk, embrace adversity, reverse engineer, focus on the now, evolve, chill out and talk it out. One of the biggest parts of this method for most athletes are the categories of positive self talk and focus on the now. When in action of performance players can focus on mistakes they have made throughout their game, or what they have done that could have been better in the pursuit of getting a win. With positive self-talk, you are able to focus on the rest of the game and have optimism for the potential outcome. Athletes can get into their heads easier and quicker than non athletes do to their love of perfection, success, and the feeling of winning the game. Succeeding is more or less a drug to a person who puts all their time and effort into a sport they love. With the P.E.R.F.E.C.T. method, it allows individuals to categorize the most important aspects of stress and how to handle them, creating a positive and excellent athlete both playing in the game and throughout the classroom.

https://www.verywellmind.com/top-school-stress-relievers-for-students-3145179

The second article I looked into touched on how stress connects to high school students and tips that could potentially make things better . This source states that many high school students carry a lot of stress throughout their academic careers, and can take a very big toll of not only ones health, but their grades and even their emotional state. A study done by the American Psychological Association revealed that many high school leveled students feel levels of stress and adult would possess, leading to feelings of being overwhelmed, depressed and feeling as if the stress is taking over their life and a lack of being about to cope effectively is creating more stress. Stress in teens is seen to effect sleeping and diet patterns as well as how much activity and exercise a healthy teen needs to strive. One of the biggest tips that was given throughout this article in relation to reduce stress was taking power naps. With a long list of to dos and what seems like a never ending schedule, students need to make time for rest. Missing sleep can be detrimental to not only a teens health, but anyone of any age category. Finding small areas of time to sleep creates a more productive student who has had time to rest their brain and can use it more efficiently. Couple other tips that seems to be important and popular to teens is eating healthy, getting exercise, positive thinking, and music. All of these things can help with a positive look into facing your day with a reduced amount of stress.

https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-deal-with-stress-at-work-3145273

The last article I used as a source spoke about the stress of employees throughout their workplace. The rate of stress for individuals continue to climb as the years progress, but stress is seen in various different environments. In this case, this is about corporate stress and how adults or others ho have a job are stressed and ways it could be reduced of simplified. According to a statement from the CDC’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, their recent studied have shown that the number of Americans who say they are feeling “extremely” stressed through their work ranges from 29 to 40 percent. Finding a low stress job seems to be a easy solution, but every job comes with its own sources of street, their is no way to fully avoid it, but their are many ways to face and deal with the problems placed infront of someone in a healthier manner. Some ways that workers can simplify their day and better deal with their stress all starts off with how you start you day. Make sure you make time for yourself, eat a proper breakfast and stay positive. Throughout your day, try to steer clear of conflict, stay organized, comfortable, try not to multitask too many jobs, listen to music, and over all just focus on what needs to be done. If you use all of these factors in a regular day it will hep you reduce your stress inside the workplace.

Overall, these articles showed how many different types of people deal with the issue of stress as well as tips to make it better and how to reduce the amount you take on.

--Original published at Chey's Blog

I chose to evaluate online stress management approaches for my post. The first type of stress management that I looked at had a focus on high school students. The article for this website is titled Top 10 Stress Relievers for Students. It was stated that, “An NYU study found that much of high school students’ stress originates from school and activities and that this chronic stress can persist into college years and lead to academic disengagement and mental health problems” (Scott 1). Some tips were provided to help the stress of these high school students. The biggest tip was to take power naps because of a lack of sleep. From what we talked about in class, naps are not the best idea. They should not be frequent and should be less than twenty minutes long because they can greatly disrupt your sleep schedule. Exercise was another option that was given. This could be useful to relieve stress, but as we talked about in class it could also cause stress for some people. So, it is really up to the person exercising to decide whether that works for them.

The next type that I looked at was directed towards athletes. I know we have a lot of athletes in our class that have talked about their stress levels, so I thought it would be interesting to see what coping mechanisms the internet had to offer. The article that I found is called Five Stress Management Tips for Athletes. The number one tip provided here was to get adequate rest. The suggestion was 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night and naps if you could not get that much rest. Now, as we learned in class that specific time of sleep is not necessarily correct and you just need to find what works for your body. The naps were also spoken of previously. Another tip was to check your attitude. The article talked about how having a positive attitude can reduce stress. I’m sure being positive is one way to not have stress, but I’m not sure that just telling yourself to be positive is going to get rid of stress, especially for those with anxiety.

The last type that I looked at was stress management for employees in the workplace. There is a lot of stress in the workplace and I know the way that I cope with it is unnecessary bathroom breaks to get away from coworkers. So, I wanted to see what tips were available that did not include those bathroom breaks. The article that I found for this is called 9 Simple Ways to Deal With Stress in the Workplace.  One tip that was provided is to avoid conflict. I would say that is a very good tip to avoid the stress, but it does not really give you a way to manage the stress you are already feeling. Another tip was to go for a walk on your lunch break. For those of us that enjoy food that might not work, but if you are really stressed I do think that is a good option. Walks actually relieve my stress a lot. I think that moving around helps to keep me calm.

Overall these were pretty good tips. I would not personally do most of them because they would not work for me, but getting a decent amount of sleep and exercising are good tips that a lot of people could use.

https://www.verywellmind.com/top-school-stress-relievers-for-students-3145179

https://nova3labs.com/five-stress-management-tips-athletes/

https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-deal-with-stress-at-work-3145273

--Original published at Marlee's Psych 105 Blog

Website 1 Students– https://www.learnpsychology.org/student-stress-anxiety-guide/

The first website, provides stress management tips for college students through the “5 School Stress Busting Tips.” This method consists of getting plenty of sleep, thinking positively, having a stress outlet, engaging in relaxation techniques and talking to someone. These methods are designed to help you cope with and manage the stress which comes along with being a full time student. Being a college student, you tend to sacrifice sleep in order to socialize with friends or complete your school work. Step one, of the SSBTs tells us to get plenty of sleep because without it, our academic performance is impaired. The second step, tells you to think positively. According to the SSBTs,”positive thinking may improve physical well-being, produce lower feelings of depression and produce lower levels of distress”(Cohen). The next step tells you to have a stress outlet. This could include finding an intramural sport you like or joining a social club. Next you should find a relaxation technique. A good relaxation technique could be slowly counting to ten or meditation. The final step, tells you to talk to someone. Talking to someone is a good way to reduce stress and clear you mind.

I would say all of the steps presented in the SSBT are adaptive strategies to relieve stress. When I say adaptive strategies I mean that all of the tips decrease the stress without other complications such as those of self-indulgence. Self-indulgence is a form of stress relief in which you do something pleasant to compensate for your stress, but it tends to backfire because you are not actually addressing the stressor itself. On another note, all of the steps are also emotion-focused. All the steps focus on how you react to the stressor. I would say the 5 School Stress Busting Tips are effective in decreasing stress.

Website 2 Parents/Children– psych central.com/…/7-tips-for-helping-your-child-manage-stress

In this website, psych central gives us 7 tips to reduce stress in children. The seven tips presents us with both problem-focused and emotion-focused constructive strategies. The tips are also geared to ensure that children don’t lash out. These tips address the stressors in a healthy manner as opposed to maladaptive strategies, such as drugs alcohol or self harm. The tips include stop over-scheduling, make time for play, make sleep a priority, teach your kids to listen to their bodies, manage your own stress, make mornings calmer, and prepare your kids to deal with mistakes. The tips present both forms of constructive strategies. we see problem-focused coping through avoiding over-scheduling and making time to play. Both tips attempt to reduce the stress directly. Tips like teach your kids to listen to their bodies and preparing your kids to deal with mistakes are forms of emotion-focused coping. These tips focus on how the child reacts to the stressor without actually effecting the stressor itself. The fifth tip that we are given also shows us how observational learning takes place. Tip 5 tells us to manage our own stress. We are told to do this because, like Lyon says,”stress is really contagious.” If you are showing signs of stress your child will pick them up through observational learning.

Website 3 Athletes- https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/perfect-method-reduces-athlete-stress 

The last website discussed ways that athletes can cope with stress. These tips are provided in the form of an acronym called P.E.R.F.E.C.T. This method attempts to build and support an athletes self-esteem. Athletes are constantly undergoing mass amounts of pressure and regularly experience performance anxiety. The P.E.R.F.E.C.T. method stands for “positive self talk, embracing adversity, reverse engineering, focusing on the now, evolve, chill out, and talk it out”(Doncaster). That being said, both positive self talks and embracing adversity come into play when talking about secondary appraisal. Secondary appraisal is the way that people cope with their stress. In order to combat their stress, athletes need to have a high confidence level. This confidence will make coping with stressors easier and allow the athletes to perform to the best of their ability. Being an athlete, I know that no matter what sport you play you will always be placed in a stressful situation. It is better for athletes to learn how to cope with the stressors in an emotion-focused approach because the stressor will never truly be gone and if it is another will surface. In sports, problem-focused coping is not effective because there is always another situation to address.

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

Website number one was aimed at how teens could attempt to relieve stress. Most of the ways this article states you can relieve stress can help but there is one suggestion that seems out of the teens countol. This suggestion is allow plenty of time. Some teens schedules are out of their control and therefore this is not an option for them. Other suggestions such as exercising and asking for help are great suggestions. If the teen were to use exercising as a coping strategy, the exercise must be regular and aerobic. Too much will cause harm, while not enough wont help with relief. Asking for help is another great strategy. This strategy is a form of self disclosure but depends on who you disclose to because if information is put into the wrong hands, it may cause harm. Overall, this site focused on stress relief for teens is a good source.

http://www.pamf.org/teen/life/stress/7stresstips.html

Website number two was aimed at how the general public could attempt to relieve stress. The strategies mentioned in this article can be taken as good coping strategies but are not directly good. The suggestion of meditation is a great strategie to use to relieve stress. This can be used to create mindfulness-based stress reduction. This strategy is typically used by Buddhist and focuses on observing oneself. The suggestion to tune into your body could also be considered a mindfulness-based stress reduction also. Getting in touch with oneself is a great coping strategy for stress.  Another great strategy that was also mentioned in Website number one was reach out and talk to someone. To repeat myself, reaching out to someone is a form of self disclosure and is a great coping strategy. This strategie can also be considered an emotion-focused coping method that typically focuses on feelings resulting directly from the stressor itself. Other strategies presented within this article may not work as well. The idea to simply be grateful may not accomplish much. While it is a good idea to be grateful for what you have, it does not take away from the stress you may be experiencing. Overall, this website has some good ideas about how to cope with stress but some may not help at all.

https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/blissing-out-10-relaxation-techniques-reduce-stress-spot#1

The third and final website I visited to assess coping strategies was one aimed at athletes specifically. This website used the acronym P.E.R.F.E.C.T.. Some good suggestions within this site was talk it out. Overall, this can be a great strategy for many people. Another suggestion that was mentioned was reverse engineer. This strategy suggests to recall a time when you performed at your best and you were confident and felt good about how you were playing. While doing this, the author suggests to try to remember what played into you doing so well. Was it your lucky shirt or a certain phrase? This may tap into the idea that if you smile you will start to feel better. Although it may not be fool proof, it may help somewhat. Overall, because these suggestions are athlete based, they will not apply to everyone but most of these could be pretty useful.

https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/perfect-method-reduces-athlete-stress