--Original published at David's Blog

For this weeks spotlight post, I decided to do option number two, which was the prompt all about stress. Our task is to find three different websites that address ways in which to deal with stress. The three that we will go over have to be for different audiences such as college kids or older adults. We must go over each of the websites different strategies and judge how effective or successful each of the tips given would be.

The first website gave me tips for dealing with stress in high school. This is very important for young kids to know how to deal with stress. They have plenty of stressors in their high school carrier. Things like exams, quizzes, and social peer pressures. “academic pressure can get the best of you if you don’t learn how to deal with it properly” (Huffpost). The main topic that I gathered from this online site was that high school kids need to be better organized in their work. They need to do things like take more time during exam periods and take assignments one step at a time. Another thing the site suggests is that high school kids take more time for themselves. I believe these are all good tips for high school kids and have a good chance of being very effective. A lot of them deal with not over working and the main purpose of that is the ability to get good sleep. It’s know to be a common problem among those who go to school. they put things of till last minute and stay up all night doing homework, and lack of sleep can do a number on your stress levels. So I think by getting more sleep, it would be very effective for high schoolers and reduce their stress.

The next website that I looked at gave tips for college age students. College and high school kids have very similar stress related problems, which are being over worked and social pressures.  Only this time, the college kids normally have their stress amplified by more work. Just like the high schoolers, college kids need to make sure they don’t over load on their work. The website also lists that they should eat well, get exercise and receive emotional support. I like the ideas of eating well and having emotional support, but the exercise is the one I have a problem with.  We learned in class that doing exercise can help with stress only if the person actually enjoys doing it. This means that running would be ineffective if that person hated exercise. For example if I exercise or go for a run it’s more stressful since I get tired and run out of breath quick. I do like all the other tips it gives, because they are very useful when dealing with stress.

The last website I looked at dealt with stress in the work place. It’s important to stay relaxed at work so as to get your work done, and there is little chance to lash out at work or at home. Some of the main things the website was going over, was knowing your work and keeping it organized. This is a good idea so as to not be overwhelmed with work. There are two things I have a problem with on this website though. One, is it suggest to walk at lunch and two it says to listen to music on your way home. Like the last one, exercise is only good for those who enjoy it. When it comes to listening to music it can be good for reducing stress, but it depends on what it is. If you listen to very load and intense music it can cause a faster heart rate and even make your stress worse. However, if the music is sooth and calming it can help reduce your stress. In general the website  still gives out other good advice when it comes to dealing with stress.

• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/academic-pressure-5-tips-_n_2774106.html
• https://www.everydayhealth.com/college-health/college-life-10-ways-to-reduce-stress.aspx
• https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-deal-with-stress-at-work-3145273

Citation

Organization. “5 Ways To Cope With School Stress.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Aug. 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/academic-pressure-5-tips-_n_2774106.html.

--Original published at jennacampanellipsych

I decided to first find stress management tips for college students. I found an article from Purdue University, a guide for stress management for college students. Their first tip is to eat well. They back this up by saying when you eat healthy you help your body avoid stress because you have the right nutritions. The next tip we talked about in class as well, exercise. This is proven to reduce stress, but as we discussed in class it has to be regular. Exercise produces endorphins and improves sleeping patterns. They next discuss having a support system, which we also learned about in class. Social support and self-disclosure can help fight stress and have hope for the future. The article also suggests using positive thinking and meditating. Meditating can help, just as we said in class to picture yourself somewhere else relaxing. Their last tip is journaling, they said it can help you process your problems and it strengthens immune cells. The next article I found was tips for stress management for athletes. Their first tip is to get plenty of rest. This is proven to be true, you body needs rest to be able to handle stress, especially if also playing a sport. They recommend to get 7-9 hours of sleep. Their next tip is to engage in fun activities, to focus on something relaxing and fun to destress. Having an outlet can help against stress. Next, they say to manage your time. They recommend having a planner with everything you need to go to or get done to help manage your time correctly. Next, they say to check your attitude. Positive thinking can help reduce stress, and this is what they recommend. Their last tip is getting support, which we know is a good tip, going back to having a support system. The last article I found was aimed toward teachers and stress management for them. Their first tip is to practice mindfulness. This is a tip that has been in each article and in our lecture. Changing you mindset to thinking positively is proven to help and it is something anyone can do. Their next tip is to share experiences with colleagues. This goes back to having a support system. They say relating to someone in your life who is experiencing the same problems as you can help lessen stress. Their next tip is focus on something you can do something about. They say do not waste time worrying about things out of your control. Within this tip, they also add to write down the things behind your stress and list them into things you can and cannot control. The next tip is setting realistic goals. They talk about how you are only human and cannot do everything, even if you want to. Teachers often feel like they need to do everything and more, without thinking of taking care of themselves. Their last tip is a common one, exercising regularly. We already talked about how this is proven to help and is a good idea for everyone and anyone.

Websites used:

https://www.purdueglobal.edu/news-resources/college-students-guide-to-stress-management-infographic/

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

https://truestressmanagement.com/stress-management-for-teachers/

--Original published at Sydney’s Side

It is important to note, to effectively manage stress, there must be a multitude of strategies used. One coping technique it not going to help with different types of stress. The website “Everyday Health” published an article entitled “College Life: 10 Ways to Reduce Stress.” It is targeted toward college students and the tips pertain to activities many college students struggle with. Some examples of the strategies are; get enough sleep, eat well, and exercise. These strategies are likely to be successful if the student does them accurately. Many of the tips are everyday things forgotten or not done correctly due to the student’s workload. By practicing these strategies there is less stress created in the first place.  Many of the tips given in the article are considered problem-focused coping, meaning the strategies are directly aimed at the stressor. One example of this would be, not overloading with course work or a job. If an individual only takes on what they can handle, there will be less stress created in the first place. Overall the strategies can be helpful but will not completely eliminate stress for college students because college is stressful.  

“Child Development” also published an article to help with stress, but it applies more to parents. It is entitled “Stress Management for Parents” and similar to the previous article, the tips pertain to issues that parents struggle with. All the strategies given to cope with stress are emotion-focused coping which means they focus on feelings resulting from the stressor. The strategies would be effective, parents cannot aim their coping strategies to get rid of stress because it is probably their children. Some examples from the article are deep breathing and taking a mental vacation. If the individual pretends to be in a location where they feel calm and involve as many senses as possible. This can relieve stress and take the person’s mind off the stressor. At the bottom of the article there are a list of stress reducers which are all problem-focused coping because they are strategies to avoid stress. They include making a duplicate key to avoid being locked out, preparing a meal plan the night before, and waking up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning. They all would allow a parent to avoid the stress of last-minute complications with kids. 

Finally, Ohio State University published an article entitled “The P.E.R.F.E.C.T. way to help young athletes reduce stress” which applies to athletes. Many of the strategies have to do with practicing mindfulness which focuses on developing nonjudgmental awareness, acceptance, and staying in the present. The tips include positive self-talk, focus on the now, and chill out. The article claims the strategies will help athletes focus on themselves instead of the expectations others put on them. The strategies seem like they will help because there are many studies based on mindfulness-based stress reduction that make it reliable. Also, if the stress if coming from the pressure put on the athletes, practicing mindfulness will allow the athletes to only focus on themselves which will get rid of the stressor. 

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

Parents: https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/family-living/stress/#.W9y4B2hKjrc  

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

--Original published at Jayln's Perspective

For our second Spotlight Blog Post, I have decided to focus on evaluating different stress relieving techniques. As we learned in class, stress is a response to a situation, threatening one’s sense of well-being. Different groups of people, such as students, athletes, and parents, all deal with various types of either acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) stressors, thus it is important to see what kinds of strategies most effectively alleviate stress.

College Students

College students are prone to experiencing large amounts of acute stress. A few examples of acute stress could be an upcoming test, going home over break, or submitting a research paper. Although all of these stressors are different, they are all examples of short-term stress. This means even though college students get extremely worked up and stressed out over these examples, they are acute stressors meaning there is an end in sight. According to Melissa Cohen, who wrote the first website I visited called, “Student Guide to Surviving Stress and Anxiety in College and Beyond,” describes college student’s stress as being episodic acute, meaning they experience short term stress quite frequently. I was interested in this article because it focuses on how stressful testing situations can be, and as a college student, I often feel overwhelmed when I think about my own upcoming tests. Cohen provides many tips on how college students can reduce their anxiety before they go to take the exam. The first tip she discusses is studying effectively and efficiently. Based on what we discussed in class, studying effectively for an exam is a type of constructive strategy known as problem-focused coping. This means by preparing effectively for an exam, the stressor is being tackled directly. Another stress relieving technique she suggests before taking a test is to get a good night’s rest, eat a balanced breakfast, and to limit caffeine intake. Cohen says getting a good night’s sleep and eating breakfast makes college students feel calmer and less stressed going into test day. Also, since caffeine is a stimulate, it speeds up the Central Nervous System, which inhibits the body in terms of feeling relaxed. She then discusses how regular exercise not only provides physiological benefits, but it can also provide psychological benefits, such as easing a stressed-out mind. Cohen then discusses how college students also suffer from negative self-thoughts. Since college can be very difficult at times, she explains students must practice positive self-talk. If stressed-out students go into a testing situation, already feeling defeated, then they are setting themselves up for failure. Just as we discussed in class, she touches on how important social support can be for college students when they are feeling overwhelmed. Talking to someone about stress is another constructive strategy known as emotion-focused coping. Cohen closes by expressing how getting involved in a sports team, club, or pursuing a hobby is not only a great way to alleviate stress, but it is also a perfect way to get involved around campus.

Athletes

Athletes of all types and skill levels are often faced with high levels of stress when they realize what is expected of them during practices and games. Just like in college students, the type of stress athletes face is usually acute stress because their game schedules allow them to see an end in sight. On the Sports Psychology website, Aaron Moffett wrote an article targeting athletes which provides a variety of stress relieving techniques. He begins by saying all stress is not necessarily bad. For athletes, a little bit of healthy stress can actually enhance performance. This “good stress” is known as eustress, which can result from the responsibility of leading the team during practice. The “bad stress,” or distress, stems from poor performance in a big game. Moffett says athletes respond to negative stressors in one of three ways. First, they could have a physiological response, which could mean their heartbeat speeds up before a big game. Second, they could have a specific behavioral response, such as nervously passing back and forth. Lastly, athletes could have a cognitive response to a stressor, which could result in them thinking negatively about themselves. He advises athletes to match how they respond to stress with a specific coping strategy. Athletes who respond to stress in a physiological manner should try implementing certain breathing and muscle relaxing techniques. Inhaling and exhaling deeply and calmly will slow the heart rate, and it can also help get more oxygen to the muscles. Those who respond to stress with a certain behavior should first analyze whether or not it is a positive or negative behavior. For example, when some athletes get stressed, they respond with drinking or smoking. These are two examples of detrimental behavioral responses, and they are also ineffective coping strategies. Instead of responding to stress with a potentially harmful behavior, Moffett encourages athletes to either write “to-do” lists or to exercise. By writing lists, a person will feel more in control over what is stressing them out. As mentioned before, exercise has many positive psychological and physiological benefits. Lastly, those who respond to stress with an “I can’t do this” type of attitude need to utilize cognitive coping strategies. For example, it is important for athletes to practice positive self-talk. If an athlete struggles with defense, they should not respond with “I just can’t do this.” Instead, he should focus on how great his offense is, and continually challenge himself to improve defensively.

Parents

 Parenting is no doubt an extremely stressful job. The type of stress parents feel is not just acute, but they also feel a lot of chronic stress as well. For example, worrying about children is extremely different from worry about an upcoming test. The test anxiety has an end in sight, whereas the stress parents feel for their children lasts their whole lives. The article I visited called, “Stress Management for Parents” describes the constant tension parents feel as “chronic tension.” When parents feel worried, their bodies respond with fight or flight, the body’s natural response to threats. The article’s focus is primarily on techniques that relax the mind. The first tip discussed is called progressive relaxation. Tense parents are instructed to tighten each muscle group, and then after a few seconds, the muscles should be released. This technique relaxes both the mind and the body. The next tip discussed focuses on breathing. When a parent gets stressed or anxious, their breathing often gets shallow, which decreases oxygen flow to the rest of the body. The article instructs parents to spend 5-10 minutes a day correctly breathing. By laying on your back, placing your hands on your ribs, and focusing on taking deep breathes, the mind is relaxing, and the body is then fully oxygenated. The next tip recommended is taking a mental vacation. In class, we discussed how effective this strategy can be. When taking a mental vacation, you first picture a place where you feel calm. Then, using as many senses as you can, you put yourself there and imagine how it must feel. This technique engages the mind and provides relaxation.

The three articles I visited all mentioned how negative stress can be detrimental. Each article revealed healthy techniques, very similar to the ones we discussed in class, for college students, athletes, and parents.

https://www.learnpsychology.org/student-stress-anxiety-guide/

https://appliedsportpsych.org/resources/health-fitness-resources/stress-management-tips-for-good-health/

https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/how-to-be-a-parent/angry_child/stress/#.W92eLi-ZNQJ