Stress Management:

1
Stress Management

• Creating Balance in Your Life

2
Definition of Stress

• Stress is any change that you must adapt to,
  ranging from the negative extreme of actual
  physical danger to the exhilaration of falling in
  love or achieving some long-desired success.
• From The Relaxation Stress Reduction Handbook,
  (4th edition). Davis et al. (1995).

3
Two Opposing Systems

• Stress Response Activating the body for
  survivalthe fight or flight response
• Stress Recovery Returning the body to a
  non-aroused, calm state

4
The Problem with Stress Recovery

• Our physiological systems were designed thousands
  of years ago to respond to short, discrete
  stressors the tiger in the path
• Most of our stressors are ongoing
• We dont often allow ourselves to let go of
  stressors even briefly - when we really could
• Our stress-response system doesnt shut off and
  our stress-recovery system doesnt turn on

5
Physical Health Effects

• Muscle tension
• Headaches
• Digestive problems
• Impaired immune system (bacterial viral
  infections, slowed tissue repair)
• Weight gain or loss
• Fatigue
• High blood pressure

6
Mental Health Effects

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Eating Disorders
• Dyssomnias
• Feelings of Isolation
• Lowered Emotional Resilience
• Chronic Worrying
• Apathy

7
Interpersonal Effects

• Isolation
• Lashing out
• Lack of intimacy
• Distrust
• Impatience
• Frequent arguments
• Consequences of lowered effectiveness at work/home

8
Maintaining Your Brains Elixir

• We fill our containers with . . .

• We deplete our containers by . . .

9
Making Life Changes to Fill Your Container or
Limit Depletion

• Plan of Action for Change
• Exercise
• Deep Breathing
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation
• Meditation or Spiritual Practice
• Improve Sleep
• Improve diet
• Laugh Play