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Coping With Stress
Stress is something that people deal with on a daily basis. For me, trying to manage all of the different aspects of my life is what stresses me out the most. I constantly feel like I am juggling too much at once and that I will never be able to accomplish everything I need to do. Alix Kirsta, author of The Book of Stress Survival, states that "stress is the state of arousal with which the body responds to such demands" (Kirsta, 1986, 19). My body responds to these demands by wanting to shut down and tune everything and everybody out. However, I know this is not the correct way to deal with my stress because shutting down will cause me to accomplish nothing at all.
Kirsta believes that people will never live without stress, since there will always be challenges to face. However, there are certain ways to deal with stress in order to make life easier. Before anyone can cope with stress effectively, Kirsta says "you must become aware of your own stress responses" (Kirsta, 1986, 31). If we do not do this, we might adapt too readily to the pressures surrounding us, and thus drive ourselves much harder than our capabilities will allow. Richard Carlson, PhD, author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...And it's All Small Stuff, says, "Our current level of stress will be exactly that of our tolerance to stress" (Carlson, 1997, 53). In other words, the people who have the...
His advice includes: when your mind is moving too fast, back off for a while; when your schedule is getting out of hand, reevaluate what's most important; when you have too much to do, don't try to tackle it all at once, but rather relax, take some deep breaths, and even go for a short walk. Carlson's theory is that if you catch your stress before it "snowballs," than it will become "manageable and easy to control. Once it gathers momentum, however, it's difficult, if not impossible, to stop" (Carlson, 1997, 54).
One of the best ways in which we can cope with stress is to relax. Edward A. Charlesworth, PhD and Ronald G. Nathan, PhD, authors of Stress Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Wellness, identify a common feeling: "Many people tell us to relax but never tell us how" (Charlesworth and Nathan, 1984, 39). These authors believe that learning relaxation techniques are extremely beneficial when it comes to managing stress because they increase "general bodily awareness and the recognition of specific muscles where tension is troublesome" (Charlesworth…
Works Cited
Carlson, R. (1997). Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff (pp. 53-54). New York: Hyperion.
Charlesworth, E.A., & Nathan, R.G. (1984). Stress management: a comprehensive guide to wellness (pp. 39, 41-42). New York: Atheneum.
Gherman, E.M. (1981). Stress & the bottom line: a guide to personal well-being and corporate health (pp. 260-264). New York: AMACOM.
Kirsta, A. (1986). The book of stress survival: identifying and reducing the stress in your life (pp. 19, 31, 102, 104). New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Stress Wiley, Carolyn. 2000. "A Synthesis of Research on the Causes, Effects, and Reduction Strategies of Teacher Stress." Journal of Instructional Psychology, June. Carolyn Wiley wrote an extensive review of the research on occupational stress as it applies to one specific group -- teachers. Many of her cites are older, one going back as far as 1938, which suggests she did a very thorough job of going through the literature. To emphasize
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