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
Kelly Konkus

Kaplan University
HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

Table of Contents
U NIT

THE

NATUR E

OF

STRES S

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
U NIT

THE

B ODY

AS

BATTL EF IEL D

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
U NIT

F EAST

O R

FAM IN INE

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
U NIT

ONE

PL ANE T

U NDER

STRES S

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
U NIT

UND ER

ST RESS:

WHAT

N OW?

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
U NIT

AGEL ESS

WISDOM

OF

M EDI TATIO N

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
U NIT

SIGH T,

SO UN D,

A ND

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises

B ODY

WOR K

Tools: Journal Writing

U NIT

THE

WEL L NESS

M ANDAL A

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
U NIT

APPLYI NG

P ROF ESSI ONAL

STRES S:

CRI TICAL

M ANAGEM ENT

AN D

PRE VENT IO N

TO

L IF E

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
U NIT
YOUR

1 0

APPLYI NG

STRES S:

P ROF ESSI ONAL

L IF E

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
AD DITI ONAL

INF ORM ATIO N

CRI TICAL

M ANAGEM ENT

AN D

PRE VENT IO N

TO

YOU R

1
Unit

Unit 1: The Nature of Stress

Information to Remember:

Stress is relative. An individuals perception of the experience dictates the

level of stress endured. Two people will not necessarily experience a stressor
in the same way.

Homeostasis is a physiological state of complete calmness or rest. This state is

where everything, physiologically, is in balance including blood pressure, heart
rate, and ventilation.

There are several types of stress: eustress (good), neustress (neutral), and
distress (bad). In addition, stressors can be either short-term (acute) or longterm (chronic).

Resources: Exercises:

College Students Daily Stressors Survey: Being a college student presents a

certain amount of stress that non-college students do not have to face (exam
schedules, lectures, reading text, etc.). Having a well-rounded understanding
of what aspects of college life are the most stressful for you will help in
addressing your overall stress level.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Personal Stress Inventory: Understanding your own stressors and what they
evoke within you (anger or fear) is the first step to addressing your stress
level. With a clear picture of what your top stressors are, and how they affect
you, you can begin to reconcile and reduce your stress level.

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Unit

Unit 2: The Body as Battlefield

Information to Remember:

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) consists of the sympathetic and

parasympathetic nervous systems. When stress is introduced the sympathetic
nervous system is responsible for the flight-or-flight response. Once the stress
and/or threat has passed the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible
for the calming of the body.

Psychoneuroimmunology is the field of study that links stress and disease. It

has been recently discovered in this field of study that the immune system is
greatly affected by prolonged stress.

Moderate short-term stressors can actually enhance memory while chronic

stressors can reduce working memory significantly. This reduction in memory
comes from damage to the hippocampus.

Resources: Exercises:

Immediate, Intermediate, and Prolonged Stress Effects: Our bodies go through

many physiological changes during stress and understanding those changes is
key to recognizing stressors and controlling your stress level. If you know that
being in certain situations is stressful, you can actively avoid those situations
(if possible). If avoiding them is not possible, you can take progressive actions
to alleviate some of the stress symptoms.

Tools: Journal Writing:

My Health Profile: Having a clear picture of your physical health is important

for understanding your overall health. Although physical health is only one
aspect of overall health, it is vital. Also many stressors (mainly chronic) can
manifest in physical ways.

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Unit

Unit 3: Feast or Famine

Information to Remember:

Although there are many theories relating to the psychological nature of

stress, they do have common elements: self-awareness and self-acceptance.
These two elements are important resources to manage and cope with stress
effectively.

Fear and anger are two emotions closely related to the stress response. Fear
activates the flight aspect of fight-or-flight. Anger activates the fight aspect of
fight-or-flight.

Depression can impact an individuals stress perception (their response to

stressors is heightened). It can also decrease the individuals ability to
experience pleasure (raising the threshold of pleasure).

Resources: Exercises:

Fear This!: This exercise is a great way to acknowledge what fears trigger the
most amount of stress in your life and how you currently deal with them. The
last question addresses new, practical ways to address your fears that are
causing the most stress in your daily life.

Tools: Journal Writing:

The Psychology of Your Stress: This journal is an excellent way to become

more aware of your own perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in times of
stress. Understanding your defense mechanisms can help you alter them if
your current method is inadequate.

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Unit

Unit 4: One Planet Under Stress

Information to Remember:

It is believed that personality is formed at an early age and to be a fixed entity.

Some personalities are considered stress prone (Type A, codependency, and
helpless-hopeless) and others are considered stress resistant (hardy and
survivor).

Spirituality is considered harmony with self, others, earth, and a higher power.
Spiritual well-being impacts an individuals ability to cope with stress and is
critical to overall well-being.

Personality and temperament are related to stress in that they dictate how a
person perceives a situation and to what degree they interpret the stressor as
positive (eustress) or negative (distress).

Resources: Exercises:

Your Meaningful Purpose in Life: Personality and spirituality both have an

impact on self-esteem. Feeling needed and/or wanted also affects self-esteem.
Self-esteem is directly related to an individuals ability to cope with stress.
Understanding what your own life purpose is (or was) at various stages of your
life can help you increase your self-esteem (and, subsequently, your ability to
cope with stressors).

Tools: Journal Writing:

Stress-Prone and Stress-Resistant Personality Surveys: Having a clear

understanding of your own personality and coping mechanisms is an important
part of self-awareness. These journals explore the various aspects of stressprone and stress-resistant personalities.

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Unit

Unit 5: Under Stress: What Now?

Information to Remember:

Cognitive restructuring is when you change a negative perception into a

neutral or positive perception (seeing the bright side of things). This
technique can help to alleviate the stress response and decrease the onset of
chronic-stress-related symptoms/diseases.

The Stages of Change behavior modification model is widely known and allows
individuals to fall back into old/less desirable behaviors as part of the
process of change. Behavior modification in relation to stress management
typically includes assertiveness training, which is the most effective social
behavior type (as opposed to passive and aggressive).

Humor, like stress, is relative. It is open to each individuals perception which

is why not all people find the same thing(s) humorous. Studies show humor
promotes mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being through the
reduction of stress.

Resources: Exercises:

The Time-Crunch Questionnaire: This questionnaire provides insight as to the

traits of a codependent personality. Understanding your own personality type
(and its associated strengths and weaknesses) is vital to coping effectively with
stressors (and changing aspects as they no longer suit you/your situation).

Tools: Journal Writing:

Reframing: Seeing a Bigger, Clearer Perspective: The ability to view the larger
picture and take something positive from every situation (no matter how
seemingly grim) is essential to successfully coping with stressful situations.
This journal encourages you to think about situations with a new perspective
which will reduce stress surrounding those situations.

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Unit

Unit 6: Ageless Wisdom of

Meditation
Information to Remember:

Diaphragmatic breathing is also known as belly breathing. It creates a more

relaxed state by reducing the sympathetic neural activity. This is similar to the
breathing techniques taught during birthing classes for relaxation.

Meditation is considered the oldest form of relaxation. Research has shown

habitual meditation has extensive physiological effects on the body (such as
reduced heart rate, blood pressure, and ventilation). Improved physiological
processes and a relaxed state certainly play a significant role in an individuals
ability to cope with stress.

Mental imagery has been used as a means to access the power of the mind to
heal the body, mind, and soul for thousands of years. Freud and Jung
reintroduced this concept in the twentieth century.
This technique is
commonly used to help decrease chronic pain and in combination with other
stress-management modalities for an optimal effect.

Resources: Exercises:

Three Short Guided Visualizations: This exercise introduces you to mental

imagery as a means of relaxation and stress reduction therapy. It includes
three short excerpts to appeal to a variety of individuals (all of whom may not
enjoy all three, but one will resonate more than the other two).

Tools: Journal Writing:

Too Much Information: This journal provides an understanding of information

overload which is an important concept in todays society. We are bombarded
with a plethora of information through multiple sources every day. Identifying

ways in which you experience information overload and learning ways to

reduce this phenomenon are vital to reducing stress levels.

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Unit

Unit 7: Sight, Sound and Body Work

Information to Remember:

Optimal nutrition is much more than just the food you eat. It includes
nutrients (carbs, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water), digestion,
absorption, metabolism, and elimination.

A diet lacking in essential amino acids, essential fats, vitamins, and minerals is
itself a stressor on the physical body. This is known as malnutrition.

Food impacts not only the physical body, but the mental, emotional, and
spiritual elements of individuals as well.
Spiritual nutrition suggests
individuals consume a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains that relate
to the seven primary chakras.

Resources: Exercises:

Stress-Related Eating Behaviors: This exercise helps you identify whether your
eating patterns are helping or hindering your stress coping ability. It is
essential to your overall health to recognize patterns that may be unhealthy
when using food to cope with stress.
Unhealthy eating patterns can
significantly impair your immune systems efficiency.

Tools: Journal Writing:

The Rainbow Diet: This journal focuses on the healing aspects of the colors of
fruits and vegetables. It helps you identify foods that fall into each of the
seven chakras (spiritual nutrition). Eating a wide variety of colors each day
enhances your well-being by providing an array of nutrients as well.

8
Unit

Unit 8: The Wellness Mandala

Information to Remember:

Exercise is a form of stress as it induces the flight-or-flight response. This can

be translated into many positive effects on the body such as lower heart rate,
blood pressure, and muscle tension.

Physical exercise is classified into two categories: aerobic (with oxygen; flight)
and anaerobic (without oxygen; fight). Each type of exercise has a host of
benefits, but aerobic exercise is the better choice for relaxation purposes.

Four criteria must be met for an individual to reap the benefits of exercise:
frequency, intensity, duration, and mode of exercise. An individual must
maintain physical exercise for a minimum of six and eight weeks to reap the
maximum benefits. These four elements make up the all-or-nothing principle.

Resources: Exercises:

Your Circadian Rhythms: Your sleep patterns (and other regular patterns of
activity within your life) play a significant role to your level of stress and
overall well-being. This exercise provides a good, detailed look at your
rhythms and offers the opportunity to change any aspect that is no longer
serving you well.

Tools: Journal Writing:

My Body, My Physique: Everyone at one time or another has struggle with selfimage. This journal provides an intimate account of your perception of your
own body, your physique. It also addresses ways in which you can actively
change your perceptions to more positive views regarding your body. This is
an important step in the journey to overall health and well-being (selfacceptance).

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9
Unit

Unit 9: Applying Stress: Critical

Management to your Professional
Life
Information to Remember:

All people are different, and all techniques for coping with stress are not
applicable to all people. You must find the technique (and preferably more
than one) that works best for you.

There are both positive and negative coping mechanisms. Avoidance is

considered a negative coping mechanism because you do not have to process
the stressor. A hobby; however, is a positive coping mechanism because the
intention is only a short distraction from the stressor not an altogether
avoidance of it.

The 80/20 rule can apply to stress management. In this way, 80% of the stress
reduction is the product of the first 20% of effort. Simply acknowledging you
have a stress problem and figuring out ways to handle it reduce stress (even
before the plan is enacted).

Resources: Exercises:

Defining Your Support Group: This exercise provides you with a

comprehensive look at what kind of support system you currently have in your
life to help you cope with stress. It also looks at how support systems change
over the course of your life and ways to cope with that.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Sweet Forgiveness: This journal discusses the toxic effect of grudges and
harboring ill feelings toward someone who has wronged you. It helps you
express your feelings of resentment in such a way that the end result is to let

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go of those feelings and free yourself of the associated stress.

important step to overall well-being.

Unit 10: Applying Stress: Critical

This is an

10
Unit

Management to your Personal Life

Information to Remember:

Stress has many physical symptoms. Muscle tension is the most common due
to the relationship between stress and the fight-or-flight response.

Progressive muscular relaxation (PMR) involves systematically tensing and

relaxing musculature moving from the feet to the head. This process is
believed to reduce susceptibility to disease by reducing the level of physical
symptoms caused by stress.

PMR is still used to promote relaxation and research has since proved this
technique does, in fact, reduce muscular tension.

Resources: Exercises:

Progressive Muscular Relaxation: This exercise introduces you to the

technique via audio recording. Understanding how to successfully participate
in this technique is essential to seeing the results from relaxing the muscles in
your body. It also helps you identify ways in which you can incorporate PMR
into your daily life to reap the maximum benefit.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Focus!: This journal discusses focus and attention. It offers an opportunity to

evaluate the areas in your life that present an issue with mental focus. Mental
focus (attention span) plays a key role in stress coping mechanisms (such as

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meditation and even PMR). Understanding if you struggle with mental focus is
the first step in self-awareness of this area.

Additional Information
Reinecke, Mark. (2010). Little Ways to Keep Calm and Carry On: Twenty
Lessons for Managing Worry, Anxiety, and Fear. New Harbinger
Publications: Oakland, CA.
This book would be an excellent resource for those who wish to discover
new ways to reduce their stress but feel as though they do not have an
abundance of time. Little Ways to Keep Calm and Carry On has only 136
pages and is filled with brief but powerful techniques for everyday people.
Sapolsky, Robert. (2004). Why Zebras Dont Get Ulcers (3rd ed.). St. Martins
Press: New York, NY.
Seaward, Brian. (2009). Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health
and Well-Being (6th ed.). Jones and Bartlett Publishers: Sudbury, MA.
Seaward, Brian. (2008). The Art of Peace and Relaxation Workbook. Jones and
Bartlett Publishers: Sudbury, MA.
The American Institute of Stress. (n.d.). Retrieved on September 23, 2013 from
http://www.stress.org/.
The American Institute of Stress (AIS) is a non-profit organization, which

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imparts information on stress reduction, stress in the workplace, effects of

stress and various other stress related topics. AIS was founded in 1978, at
the request of Dr. Hans Selye to serve as a clearinghouse of all stress
related information. Today, AIS provides a diverse and inclusive
environment that fosters intellectual discovery creates and transmits
innovative knowledge, improves human health and provides leadership to
the world on stress related topics.
TotallyStressedOut.com. (2013). Retrieved on September 23, 2013 from
http://www.totallystressedout.com/.
This website is designed to provide simple yet effective ways to reduce
stress. They provide relaxing pictures (such as beach scenes) to help with
mental imagery and quick exercises to promote relaxation.
WatchWellCast. (2013). Stress Management Strategies: Ways to Unwind.
Retrieved on September 22, 2013 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0fL-pn80s-c.
This video provides a quick and light-hearted view of reducing stress. It
provides practical ways for even the busiest person to reduce stress and
promote relaxation.

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