HW410 Stress: Critical Issues in

Management and Prevention

Stress
Management and
Prevention

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Program Resource
Guide

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Stress Management and Prevention
Program Resource Guide

By

Ashley Ketten

HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

12/19/2019
 Table of Contents
UNIT 1 THE NATU RE OF STRESS

Information to Remember........................................................................4
Assignment...............................................................................................4
Journal......................................................................................................4

UNIT 2 THE PHYSI OL O GY OF STRESS

Information to Remember........................................................................7
Assignment...............................................................................................7
Journal......................................................................................................7

UNIT 3 PSYCHOL OGY OF STRESS

Information to Remember......................................................................11
Assignment.............................................................................................11
Journal....................................................................................................11

UNIT 4 PERSONAL I TY TRAITS AND THE HUM AN SPIRIT UAL IT Y

Information to Remember......................................................................13
Assignment.............................................................................................13
Journal....................................................................................................13

UNIT 5 DEAL ING WITH STRESS: COPING STRATEGIE S

Information to Remember......................................................................19
Journal....................................................................................................19

UNIT 6 REL AXATIO N TECHI QUE S 1 : BREATH IN G, M EDITATIO N, AND MENTAL

IM AGERY

Information to Remember......................................................................22
Assignment.............................................................................................22
Journal....................................................................................................22

UNIT 7 NUTRITI ON AND STRESS

Information to Remember......................................................................25
Journal....................................................................................................25
UNIT 8 PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND ACTIVITY

Information to Remember......................................................................27
Assignment.............................................................................................27
Journal....................................................................................................27

UNIT 9 APPL YING STRESS: CRITICAL ISSUES F OR M ANAGEM EN T AND

PREVEN TIO N TO YOUR PROF ESSIO NAL L IF E

Information to Remember......................................................................30

ADDITI ON AL INF ORM AT IO N

REF EREN CES

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Unit

Unit 1: The Nature of Stress

Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: Stress appears at any time in our lives, but only our college years offer their own
types of stressors at this time that one assumes more responsibilities for one’s lifestyle behavior.
(Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: A decline in social etiquette is caused by social stress. A lack of civility causing rude
and impatient behavior to rise. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: An emotional release is thought to happen during journal writing by the thoughts,
perceptions, attitudes, values, beliefs and tensions are allowed to work themselves out on paper.
(Seaward, 2015).

Assignment:
Our first assignment was to create a mandala and explain why ours are the way they

are. This is where you portion out your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual

lives. In my explanation I said that my emotional, physical and mental were all

equal but my spiritual was smaller. I talked about my past and how that has so far

created me as a person. My lack of spiritual encounters and exposure lead me to

make that portion smaller due to my young age I have a lot to learn yet.

(Seaward, 2015).

Journal:
I picked an apple to eat mindfully. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on just the apple

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and the journey it took to get from wherever it came from to my hands. I first

noticed how smooth it was and how the stem was the slightest bit fuzzy. I held

the apple up next to my ear and shook it to see if I could hear anything I didn’t

hear anything. I smelled the apple and it smelled sweet. I looked forward to

trying the apple and to see how juicy it was going to be. I then took a huge bite

of my apple, it was so juicy I started to drool a small amount. I started to slowly

chew and as I did the sweeter the bite became. I remembered as a kid eating

apples with peanut butter and then I was slightly discouraged because I had no

peanut butter. Nonetheless I took another bite and it was just as amazing and

juicy as the first. I started to wonder as to how this apple go to me, in my hands,

not someone else’s. I thought about how someone planted a seed a long time ago

to create the apple tree. How to apple tree grew from a little seed to a strong tree

that produced such amazing apples. How someone took the time to pick the

apples off the tree and wash them. Then how I took the time at the store to pick

out this exact apple and buy it and bring it home. Then wash it again and go

through this whole process. How now I have gone on this whole trip in my brain

to get this apple to where it is right now in time. We get so caught up in life and

social media that we take for granted the little things like apples to eat. It’s crazy

our I took maybe five minutes out of my day and I am more grateful for this

single apple than I have ever been in my whole life. I will definitely be more

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 2
Unit

mindful every time I eat now.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2019). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Unit 2: The Physiology of Stress

Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: stress is considered one of the primary factors associated with insomnia. The key to
good sleep hygiene consists of behaviors that help promote a good night’s sleep rather than detract
from it. A decrease in caffeine close to bedtime, consistent bedtimes, and relaxation techniques are all
very good for good sleep hygiene. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: Borysenko model has two categories for how we react to stress and how it affects
our bodies. The first is the overresponsive autonomic nervous system which leaves us with stomach
ulcers and migraines. There is also the dysfunctional immune system which could be related to colds
and cancer. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: There are three physiological systems that are directly involved in the stress
response. They are the nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system. (Seaward, 2015).

Assignment:
Assignment two was directly related to our reading and less about our lives. We had
three questions to answer throughout our writing. We needed to describe
neuroscience and neuroplasticity, identify and describe five diseases that occur
when the nervous system is affected by stress. Also identify and describe a
disease that occurs when the immune system is affected by stress. Neuroscience
is the study of the nervous system. The five diseases of the nervous system I

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 wrote about were bronchial asthma, tension headaches, migraine headaches,
temporomandibular joint dysfunction and irritable bowel syndrome. For our
immune system disease caused by stress I wrote about were allergies. (Seaward,
2015).

Journal
How is stress or anxiety about people affecting your life?

Stress and anxiety about people affects my life every single day. I told a story in unit 1 about

my past and how my relationship with my dad and stepmom has always been difficult and confusing.

I have major anxiety whenever I know I have to see them or be near them. Especially around the

holidays and larger family events. I have two tattoos and plan on getting more and having tattoos is

something they do not agree with. Even though both of my current tattoos are related to them and my

past with them throughout my childhood. For most two years I wore long sleeves around them

because I was too scared for them to see them so I hid them instead of being straightforward. Even

though there is nothing they could physically do to me it for some reason made me incredible anxious.

Along with my parents I have a lot of anxiety about what people think of me and how my actions

affect others. I also don’t have a lot of self-confidence so I always need constant reassurance that I am

doing things right or that I am good enough for the things I have.

How is stress or anxiety about work affecting your life?

I think I have outgrown majority of the anxiety I used to have at work due to becoming the

boss and having a good chunk of experience. I used to have a lot of anxiety about how I was doing

things and if it was ever good enough or if I was doing my job correctly but now I teach other people

how to do my old job and I feel better about it. I have a lot of stress at work however. I deal with dogs

throughout my whole day and if I am not dealing with them I am receiving information from their

owners or giving them information. Each day is full of different monsters that I have to battle and

take care of. Last week I deep cleaned all of our boarding kennels. This week so far I have fixed

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fencing, done some nails, answered the phone, and done some more deep cleaning. My job has no real

title or description, if something needs done I do it or I tell someone else to do it.

How is stress or anxiety about the world affecting your life?

As far as the world goes I sadly don’t think about the big picture very often. I very much

dislike politics because I think it is all nonsense and people just trying to be better for some image that

normally isn’t true anyways. I grew up in a small town where everybody knows everybody and the

news travels fast about everybody and I very much disliked that as well. I am not a huge fan of drama

and I think that is normally what the news is.

How is stress or anxiety about food and eating habits affecting your life?

I have way to much stress and anxiety about food but also no care at all. In the last four years I

have gained 40 pounds and it is very frustrating to me. I know nutrition is the key to a lot of things but

at the moment I live with my boyfriend and his parents who make dinner majority of time so I don’t

have much control in that meal. I work 40-50 hours a week and go to school full time, I own a small

business, and I’m currently in the process of renovating a barn to turn into an apartment for my

boyfriend and I. I eat what is fast and available or I don’t eat at all. My hope is once we are moved in

we will have complete control of what we eat and do better with putting things in our bodies that are

better for us.

How is stress or anxiety about sleep and sleeplessness affecting your life?

I sleep like a rock. I have never ever had a problem with my sleep. As soon as my head hits

the pillow at night my eyes close and I sleep. I don’t always sleep through the night and get the

maximum amount of deep sleep as I get up a couple of times throughout the night but I still get 8

hours of sleep most nights.

How is stress or anxiety about exercise or lack of physical activity affecting your life?

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 I have a huge lack of physical activity in my eyes. In my eyes the physical activity I would

like to be getting would be 20-40 minutes a day of CrossFit and 10-20 of yoga/stretching. What I am

actually varies everyday but is never what I want. The last two days I have spent mudding and taping

drywall. Mostly ceilings, so I’ve been climbing up and down the ladder several times. For those that

have never spent an extended amount of time on a ladder should try it sometime. It is exhausting.

Normal work days I lift dogs up and down tables, I clean kennels, I bathe dogs, it can be a physically

demanding job as well.

Summary

My expectations are set extremely high and I daily let myself down by not exceeding them.

Maybe they are set too high and there is simply not enough time in my day to get all the things done I

would like. Maybe I am trying to do too much at one time and I need to slow down before I burn

myself out of everything. I am still young and I am trying to figure everything out and how to

balance.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2019). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

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Unit

Unit 3: Psychology of Stress

Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: Stressors have two categories according to Wayne Dyer, there is guilt and there is
worry. Both are emotional states that immobilize the thought processes. They distract from the
present moment and make one unable to conquer stress and attain inner peace. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: There are many basic human fears they include fear, rejection, unknown, death,
isolation and loss of self-control. Most forms of anxiety are due to one of these fears. Left unresolved
they can sow the seeds of depression. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: The various forms of communication that we have now have made it worse for us as
humans than it has made it better from a stress standpoint. We now have more stress built up due to
miscommunication. We also now use technology as an excuse for poor behavior. (Seaward, 2015).

Assignment:
This assignment was very difficult for me, the content and understand it was not
easy for me. We had four questions to answer about the theories from over time
about our minds and stress. It also talked about fear and ways to improve our
communication style. (Seaward, 2015).

Journal:
This particular task I found very challenging but very interesting at the same time. I have

constantly 50 things going on in my head at the same time. I have always had that going on as a child

it wasn’t hard to deal with because I didn’t have a ton of responsibilities. As a teen I struggled

sometimes but found that the more hectic the environment the more I was able to accomplish. I played

multiple sports throughout high school and my last two years I had a job. I have always been the type

of person that listens to music to do everything. I am listening to music right now as I write this

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journal. During my five minutes I noticed a lot of things. The place I chose to do this was in my

bathtub with a bath bomb. I find this to be very relaxing and a quite place to go through my thoughts I

know meditation isn’t supposed to be exactly that but with being my first time that is what I sort of

felt like it was. At first I was focused on my breath. Going in and out. Then I started to focus on my

stomach and how it felt with my breath going in and out. I did that for a while until my brain started

to drift away from my breathing. It first started to drift towards all the things I have going on right

now. I thought about how I am painting my house this weekend and what all I still need to do so.

Along with what else we need to do to finish so we can move in. I focused back on my breathing, but

then found myself drifting again. This time towards school and how I have fallen behind and what I

need to do to get caught back up. Catching myself before I could get too caught up in my thoughts I

went back to focusing on my breathing. In and out. I think started to notice while I was so focused on

this my heart felt a little higher than normal. Then I had a small moment of panic but quickly calmed

myself back to normal. Just to drift away again, looking forward I started thinking about my next

work day and how busy it was going to be and how we are possible understaffed but have no options

of people to bring in. I left myself drift pretty far on this one because it plays a large role in my life

and how the rest of my day will go. Through this experience I have learned that this would be

something helpful to do every day. After this I have felt some relief even if I didn’t think of just my

breathing the whole time. The drifting helped me not feel so much pressure and relax a little bit.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

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Unit

Unit 4: Personality Traits and the Human

Spirituality
Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: Personalities are either stress prone or stress resistant. Self-esteem is the cornerstone
of personality. Low self-esteem has been known to attract stress whereas high self-esteem seems to
repeal it. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: There are many roadblocks to spiritual evolution. The biggest roadblock being the
stress emotion, fear. Coping and relaxation techniques share characteristics that foster spiritual
process of centering, emptying, grounding, and connecting. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: personality made up primarily of values. Which are abstract qualities that give
meaning to our lives. attitudes are perceptions from values and behaviors. Behaviors are our actions
based on our attitudes. Our behaviors are thought to be the most easily influenced. (Seaward, 2015).

Assignment:
This assignment was mainly focused around self-esteem and Prochaska’s stages of
change. This for me was my best assignment of the whole year as far as content. I
have a huge problem with my food cravings, they are mostly junk food that isn’t
good for me. So I used Prochaska’s stages of change to eliminate junk food and
how to avoid letting it back in. (Seaward, 2015).

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Journal:
The words I have underlined are all feelings I have typically weekly. I constantly have

anxiety. I work a pretty stressful job along with going to full time job. Those two things in themselves

would be enough for most people to be overwhelmed, yet I still have more. My boyfriend and I are in

the process of moving into our first place together, we have a dog we have to take care of together,

along with attempting to have a social life. I worry a lot about small things that are typically out of my

control. Especially things at work, I am the General Manager so I like to make sure everything is done

to my expectation and how I was taught to do things, but that isn’t always the case and how to handle

situations isn’t always the best. I have a lot of panic because I suck at prioritizing so I jeopardize

getting my school work done for working on our new house and then panic when I get behind in

school. I then start to worry that I will fail my classes and will have to retake them and spend more

money that I don’t have and prolong my graduation date. Another thing I have anxiety about is my

dad and stepmom, anytime I am around them or know I have to be around them I get very anxious

and uncomfortable. It has been so bad a couple of times I have back out of going to see them last

minute because I couldn’t handle it.

CONFUSION: bewildered, uncertain, puzzled, mystified, perplexed, chaotic, foggy, or unaware.

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 We will start with uncertain first. I feel uncertain about a lot of things, I tend to second guess a

lot of decisions I make. They so far have all turned out to be okay but I always think too deeply into

things and cause myself to question things. I have had multiple serious concussions in the last five

years leaving me with some issues. I sometimes have to hear the same things three or four times to

actually hear it and understand it. It can be very frustrating to not only myself but to others around

me. Sometimes my job can be fast pace and things can happen very quickly and mistakes can be

made, so far I have been able to adapt and avoid that from happening but by no means is it easy.

Sometimes this also leaves me foggy as my memory doesn’t work as good as it should for a 21 year

old, it can be incredible frustrating because I cause a large burden on the people around me by not

remembering and constantly asking the same questions.

ANGER: aggravation, agitation, annoyance, destructiveness, disgust, envy, frustration, irritation,

grouchiness, grumpiness, rage.

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 I have a lot of anger, as I have learned throughout this class, my stress could be directly

correlated to the amount of anger I have. My boss tells me there is a divide in people’s work ethic,

there is 1% of people that will go the extra mile, do things as they should and beyond, they take

charge and are leaders. Then there is everybody else, they do what gets them by, what gets them a pay

check however often, what is enough to keep their jobs but not ever doing things 100%. Unfortunately

I only know a handful of people in the 1% and out of the 10 people I work with. I think there are 3,

including myself. This can be very frustrating, I am only one person and I cannot do everything as I

wish I could because I would then know it is getting done correctly and to my expectations. I have

attempted to give my coworkers constructive criticism about how to go about doing things correctly

and it never seems to stick or be heard. I have been told I am a cleaning Nazi due to my high

expectations and even sometimes an asshole for being so picky. This leads me to being grumpy, along

with my inability to balance my time better. My boyfriend isn’t in school and get to have more of a

social life than me because of it. At times this can be very irritating because I feel like all I ever do is

work and school. Even if I have a day off I am still doing school work. I thankfully will hopefully be

done in June so I just keep pushing because the end is near.

SADNESS: alienation, anguish, despair, disappointment, gloom, grief, hopelessness, insecurity,

loneliness, misery, unhappiness, rejection.

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 I probably should’ve began my paper with this, but I am the type of person to hold all my

emotions in. I also tend to just push all my emotions away until I explode. When I do explode sadness

is the first thing to emerge usually. If not sadness it is immediate anger followed by overwhelming

sadness. I feel disappointment due to lack of communication with my dad and stepmom. When I

turned 18, I decided to move out of their house and in with my mom. They only live 30 minutes away

from each other so it wasn’t a huge move. To them I was leaving for reasons I still do not quite

understand. I moved out because I didn’t like the way they were treating me and what I felt like was

unfairness between my stepbrother, half-sister, and I. I felt as if they were favored and could do

anything and everything they wanted, while I was on a short leash and constantly grounded. I got

grounded at the age of 18 indefinitely with little explanation why. So I decided to go live with my

mom, the day I said I was leaving they made sure I had enough cloth for a couple of days, came to my

work and took my house key and the car they had bought me. So I had to call my mom and get her to

come pick me up. It was heartbreaking. We didn’t talk for months, holidays are awkward. They went

around telling people I knew that they also knew that they kicked me out for doing things I shouldn’t

have been. I felt so many things but threw all the sadness I did not feel suffocated by them anymore. I

have many insecurities as I am a young woman that float around my head constantly and I have

always been that way. I feel loneliness a lot of the time as well because my life has been different than

the majority of my friends. The majority of my friends went to bigger four year colleges and lived in

the dorms. They experienced what college was life. Whereas I have had to work fulltime to pay to go

to school, I went to a junior college and got my associate degree and now I am doing my bachelors

degree online and working. But in twenty years will I really be worried about the route I took to get

my bachelors degree? Or will I just be happy that I completed it?

SHAME: guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, invalidation, regret, remorse, mortification.

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Shame is a smaller emotion for me, at least that I express. I have a lot of guilt in how I left my half

sister who looked up to me to be a role model and was my best friend. I have guilt that I left my best

four legged friend when I moved as well and then a year later he passed away and nobody informed

me. I have embarrassment that I have let my body get out of control and I have gained as much

weight as I have. I have regret every day for what I eat after I eat it.

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LOVE: affection, arousal, attraction, caring, compassion, desire, fondness, infatuation, kindness,

liking, longing, warmth, sympathy, sentimentality.

I do not have a lot of love to be truthful. I did not grow up in a loving family that said I love

you, hugged, and showed affection towards each other. I have love for a short list of people, mostly

family and my boyfriend. He is everything I am not, he’s caring, compassionate, easy-going, and

hilarious. As I am cold, dark, and dry. My parents did not stress the need for self-love as I grew up. In

my family I was the one that everybody picked on and teased. Leaving me to become very gullible

and open to be everybody’s joke. I have love for my job and the dogs I get to care for and be apart of

their lives.

JOY: amusement, bliss, contentment, eagerness, elation, enjoyment, enthusiasm, excitement,

exhilaration, hope, optimism, pleasure, satisfaction.

Joy comes very seldom in my life but when there is a joy it is powerful. There is nothing more

that turns a bad day into a good one when someone tells me how their dog knew exactly where they

were going in the car to come to daycare and how excited they were. Also how thankful people are for

the service we provide for them because they are have had bad experiences in the past and we can let

them enjoy their vacations or time away while taking care of their dogs. I also have a lot of

satisfaction in school when I work really hard on a big assignment and thought I didn’t do it very well

then the grade comes back and I did good. I also find enjoyment and excitement in music. I love

playing a song somewhere and everybody knows the words and everybody comes together and sings.

My emotions sucks and I need to work on figuring out how to deal with them. As far as how all these

feelings make me feel physically they are mostly all similar. Fear, shame, and sadness can make me

sick to my stomach, sometimes resulting in a headache. Anger makes me grind my teeth and occasion

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 5
Unit

throw things or punch things. Resulting in my hand hurting more than the anger was worth. Joy and

love put a smile on my face and make my heart happy.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Unit 5: Dealing with Stress: Coping Strategies

Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: cognitive restructuring means changing a perception from a negative interpretation
to a positive or a neutral one. Making it less stressful. This is also called attitude adjustment. Positive
psychology is an emerging field that focuses on using human attributes to cope with stress. (Seaward,
2015).
Key Learning Point: Humor is not a positive emotion but it can elicit several positive emotions, it is
merely a perception like stress. It is a very complex phenomenon there are many types. Self-parody is
thought to be best type to reduce stress. Sarcasm is the actually the worst. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: time is a human made concept. It was created to bring organization to people. Yet
somehow we find ourselves coming slaves to the clock and creating stress from it. Time is very
similar to communication and technology. (Seaward, 2015).

Journal:
I have attempted to do the walking meditation multiple times in the last couple of weeks.

Every time I start my brain drifts off into other things that I need to complete. I attempted this the first

time and got down and back in my walking and couldn’t focus on my feet and how my body felt. So I

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moved on to a different assignment and came back to this journal another day. The same thing

continued to happen.

As I have learned throughout this class I struggle with a ton of things. I struggle with my

feelings and how to communicate them, to others and to myself. I have been told by a doctor once that

I had anxiety and depression. I agree with both, my anxiety I believe is situational and now only flares

up in busy times like these and when I’m around my dad and stepmom. My depression is manageable,

I think. I am no longer on medication because it made me not feel like myself but sometimes I

question my judgment of getting off of it. Sometimes I think being back on it would make me feel

more comfortable and not get myself worked up.

Currently at my job it is the busiest time of the year, we have 80-100 grooming dogs a week,

booked to capacity on boarding, and 10-20 daycare dogs a day. Along with opening a second location

and as the general manager of the current location I deal with a lot of the stuff going on at the new

location too. My boyfriend is also going to be the general manager of the new location so I help him

when I can as well. Next to the new location we are renovating a barn to into our house basically. So

my days off are spent out there working on getting everything built so we can move in. During my

attempts to do the walking meditation one of the things I kept going back to was what all we have left

to do before we can move in. I am a list person, so then I started making a mental note and got off on

a huge tangent. What we have left isn’t huge things but it’s a ton of little things that take up time.

Something I don’t seem to have a lot of.

Another tangent I got off on while trying to do the walking meditation was how I was going to

pay for school. Due to making too much money my financial aid got decreased, there I have to pay

out of pocket for my classing. Which ends up being about 1800 a term. That’s a lot of money, on top

of a car payment, car insurance, phone bill, groceries, and gas. Along with other miscellaneous

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expenses. To go with trying to get everything together for us to move into our own place. Luckily we

both have a lot of family willing to help but it is all every exhausting.

To go with all of this I have to make time to make sure my assignments are getting done and

getting done correctly. This is where my depression kicks me in the butt. I have a small self-pity party

for being so busy that I convince myself it is okay to take it easy one night and just watch a movie

instead of work on homework and then I get behind.

It is all so exhausting, it is exhausting mentally, emotionally, and physically. My boyfriend

and I are working every day to try to get the second location up and going and our place done. Our

bosses have poor communication between the two of them and we get stuck between them sometimes

and it is slowly taxing our relationship and mental health. I worry if this continues for too long our

relationship could be seriously damaged by the stress that is being put on it, I keep telling myself

things will get better once we are moved in and our second location is up and running. Then things

will get even better after I am done with school in June but I slightly don’t believe myself and think I

am just lying to myself. This sort of false hope that is just floating over my head like a rain cloud.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

20
 6
Unit

Unit 6: Relaxation Techniques 1: Breathing,

Meditation, and Mental Imagery
Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: diaphragmatic breathing, belly breathing, is the basic relaxation technique taught in
childbirth classes. It simply takes a little more than a comfortable position, focused concentration and
mental imagery. It is known to decrease episodes of chronic pain. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: Every relaxation technique involves some aspects of meditation. Mindful meditation
is known to decrease episodes of chronic pain. Now it is recommended by the American Heart
Association means to reduce stress levels which can be a risk factor for heart disease. (Seaward,
2015).
Key Learning Point: Profound experiences with mental imagery have been known with a quiet
environment, comfortable position and a passive attitude. Commonly used as modality to and
decrease episodes of chronic pain and used in combination with stress-management modalities.
(Seaward, 2015).

Assignment:
This assignment was all about meditation and relaxation techniques. One of the main
topics of the week was diaphragmatic breathing. This very simple and easy
technique to calm yourself down. The other portion of the assignment talked
about meditation and its benefits. (Seaward, 2015).

Journal:
Mindful of how you interact with yourself?

How I interact with myself is very poor. I compress all my thoughts about myself even from

myself. I think of myself a lot of the times as no good or worthless because throughout my childhood

that is how my parents made me feel and how I was perceived in comparison to my stepbrother and

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half-sister. I was the one to do all the housework and got punished for every little misstep I had but

the other two were angels and could no wrong. On occasion I think of my coworkers as I think of

myself and that is horrible but their actions show they have a poor work ethic and don’t know how to

do their jobs. I would never say the things I think of myself to their face but I am vent to a trustworthy

person about how I feel about them. We recently went to thanksgiving with my dads side of the

family and my stepmom was there along with my stepbrother and half-sister. My stepbrother sat next

to me most of the time and felt it necessary to compare our lives to each other. What I mean by this is

that he compared how he has his own apartment and pays his own rent, has his own truck and pays for

it, and so forth. I’m not sure what he was trying to accomplish by this but it made me feel like a big

pile of crap. Which looking back I’m not sure why I let it bother me because I have all the same

things plus a beautiful dog and amazing boyfriend, but it did and I went home and cried. Because I

feel like I’m trying to be friendly, nice, and social at functions like this but they still manage to get

under my skin and to me. It really makes me not want to be around them at all but I know if I do that

it will upset my aunt and grandma and I’m not trying to cause drama.

Seeds of suffering?

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 The seeds of suffering. I am not a huge fan of the word suffering. I have always thought of it

to be for someone for has lost a loved one or had cancer. For extreme cases only were the people

suffering but millions of people are suffering everyday from many different things. I have been

watering the seeds of suffering for many years now since my parents got divorced and my dad

married my stepmom. As I said before my stepmom already had her own child when she married my

dad and he is her baby boy. I think if I would’ve stopped watering the seed when they got married and

either moved in with my mom or stood up for myself more things would be very different. At the

same time I wouldn’t be the same hard working person I am if I wouldn’t have gone through all the

shit they put me through. So it is hard to say exactly what would be different.

Day-to-day life feelings of resentment?

I more often than not put myself in this situation it feels like. I tend to speak before I think and

it tends to get me into trouble. I feel large amounts of resentment after I do this because more times

than not it is people who are close to me that I take it out on. I am especially mad about this with my

boyfriend, if I have a hard day at work I tend to take it out on him instead of just forgetting about it. I

feel resentment about this of course because the last thing I want to do is to be mean to him as well. I

also have a lot of resentment when it comes to my time management skills. I tend to put things in

strange orders of what should be done when and then get behind. I put too much on myself and don’t

ask for help which leads me to becoming very stressed.

Reflection on writing?

I addressed a lot of things throughout this paper. Which helps me feel not so stressed and tense

because it is nice to get things off my chest but not worrying about who is going to tell who. This

class has taught me so much already and I enjoy it so much.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

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 7
Unit

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Unit 7: Nutrition and Stress

Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: Many people use food as means to fill emotional voids created by stress. Food you
eat can either boost or suppress the immune system. Food you eat can induce a state of stress.
(Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: Due to the soil depletion, supplements are encouraged because a healthy diet is
considered deficient in essential vitamins and minerals. Not all supplements are created equal and
good. It is important to check the labels before taking them. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: Mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies are also affected by food. Spiritual nutrition
suggests eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains that nurture the health of seven primary
chakras. (Seaward, 2015).

Journal:
I chose to complete the mindful lying yoga. I have practiced forms of yoga before and learned

about different types of yoga throughout this class and complementary and integrative medicine that I

took earlier this year. I also follow a lot of CrossFit athletes and they also all practice yoga as well.

The majority of the CrossFit athletes use yoga for recovery and mobility. The mobility is very

important for the athletes because whenever they are doing the Olympic weightlifting they need to get

a full range of motion without injuring themselves. A lot of the athletes I follow use an app called

ROMWOD. They demo the movements for you and talk you through how to get properly into

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position. The sessions are normally anywhere from 12-25 minutes depending on what you have time

for. Also they give the option of what you want your targeted areas to be like if your lower back is

super sore or your thighs. So I found the online walk through of the mindful lying yoga and started. It

was very easy to use and very helpful for my first time with this program. I enjoyed this very much

because I was able to stretch and relax at the same time. I initial plan was to do the mindful lying yoga

then write my journal about it, but the mindful lying yoga made me so relaxed I fell asleep afterwards.

So I fell asleep and didn’t get a chance to write about my experience. My overall experience with it

was very relaxing. I was able to think about my breathing and how the positions stretched everything

that was tight or sore within the position. Majority of these positions were very simple and not

complex at all which was nice since I haven’t done any yoga for a while.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

25
 8
Unit

Unit 8: Physical Exercise and Activity

Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: Hatha yoga can decrease chronic pain especially lower back pain. Hatha yoga is
built on three concepts the art breathing, art of conscious stretching, and art of balance. (Seaward,
2015).
Key Learning Point: Qigong form of energy work. It is often used as a mode of healing for chronic pain.
There are four principles in T’ai Chi, fasting the heart, returning to nature, Wu-wei and winning by
losing. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: There are four criteria that must be met for physical exercise. intensity, duration,
frequency of training, and mode of exercise. it takes six to eight weeks to see significant benefits in
the body. Positive effects are lowering resting heart rate, resting blood pressure, and muscle tension.
(Seaward, 2015).

Assignment:
This assignment was my favorite of the whole term. I love being able to create
something that is almost entirely from your creativity. Some people create art but
to me this is art. Our assignment was to purpose a heath and wellness program to
the management of a corporate for their employees. I have found this passion for
CrossFit and the idea behind it and it is ideal for this situation. It can be done in a
shortish amount of time with minimal equipment but still have the same amount
of effectiveness. (Seaward, 2015).

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Journal:
OPENNESS: this is something I struggle with completely at work. In my mind there is only one way

to do this and that is how everyone should do it. So I followed the directions and closed my eyes and

thought about how my coworkers clean versus how I clean. How majority of the time the end result is

the same but the road to get there is different. How instead of saying they are wrong I need to be open

to their way because it may be more efficient.

EMPATHY: This again is another thing I need to work on in the work setting. Everybody goes

through things, not everyone handles it the same way. Some bring their problems to work, others keep

their work and private life very separate. I am not a very sensitive person I am very rough and do not

expression my real feelings a lot. Yet when others come to me with their problems I tend to not listen.

I put myself on autopilot and only answer when I absolutely have to.

COMPASSION: I do not have any child but I do have a dog and she is pretty much like my child. My

boyfriend throughout his life so far has had to deal with a lot of death of people very close to him at a

very young age. You can tell he has hard days and I try my best on those days to do whatever he

needs to help him get through. Whether it is getting him out of the house to go do something to get his

mind off of it or just let him have a day to himself with his video games.

LOVING-KINDNESS: I hold grudges. If someone has done me wrong I tend to remember that and

never fully let it go. It leads me to only fully love a handful of people. I love a lot of things but not a

lot of people. I love this time of year and the holidays but I dislike all the drama that comes along with

it.

SYMPATHETIC JOY: I believe I experience this at work. I work at a dog boarding, daycare,

grooming and training place. When people go on vacation they bring their dogs to us. We treat them

as our own for the duration of their stay. When they come to pick them up the people are excited to

27
see their dog and the dog is excited to see them. There is joy everywhere. We have a ton of daycare

dogs that get super excited to come and see us and their dog friends and then are just as excited to go

back home with their owners. Dogs are amazing. They create so much joy for humans.

EQUANIMITY: I have worked in fast food and know how people treat other people. Being hungry

and angry is real and instead of treating the workers with the respect they deserve they get treated like

garbage because the customer didn’t get the correct order. With that said I am a very picky eater and

always get my food plain, if my order is made incorrectly I do not take it back and act like an ass I

nicely say I asked for this plain or I take the stuff off myself. This is also very common at my work

with grooming. People want us to groom their dog within so much time and if we don’t have it done

at the exact amount of time they throw a fit. Or if we don’t do the haircut exactly how they wanted it,

the world might as well be ending. This time of the year around the holidays is the worst. Everyone

wants their dogs all cleaned up before Christmas and if we say we are completely booked to the max

the people get very upset with us.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

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 9
Unit

Unit 9: Applying Stress: Critical Issues for

Management and Prevention to your
Professional Life
Information to Remember:
Key Learning Point: coping techniques to be effective, must do all of the following. Increasing awareness
of the cause of stress can help process information about stressors. Adjusting attitude and possibly
behavior to work towards a peaceful resolution. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: People bond together in friendship in times of trouble. Mental, emotional, physical,
and spiritual strengths are in numbers. (Seaward, 2015).
Key Learning Point: The secret to a successful stress management is to cultivate and utilize your inner
resources. There are six helpful guidelines from this book about how to have the best personal stress-
management. (Seaward, 2015).

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Additional Information

References

Seaward, B. (2017). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being (8th ed.).

Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

30
Stahl, B. & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. Oakland, CA: New

Harbinger Publications, Inc.

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