Career and life planning, decision-making and goal setting are exciting topics that play an important role in our lives, yet at the same time they are very heavy topics and can induce high levels of stress. Making decisions that will impact your future can feel overwhelming and create negative thoughts, unproductive behaviors and uncontrollable emotions. In this section, we will address how stress can be managed and the important role you play in managing your own stress levels.
This section is focused on helping you identify and understand your stress responses. If stressful situations persist and there are no healthy coping mechanisms developed. The immune system is compromised and disease begins. There are many tools that are available to help us learn healthy ways of dealing with daily ups and downs. This unit will help you explore some very solid, research based tools for dealing with stress.
Two of the most powerful tools most frequently used for managing stress are both simple and free. Both are cultivated through practice. The first tool is re-framing. Re-framing is a matter of mindset. Even though something happens that I may not have planned for, I still have a choice in how I respond to it. I can let “it” ruin my day, or I can figure out how to best deal with the situation and move on. So in other words, I can choose to “catastrophize” the situation, and make myself and those around me have bad day, or I can find a solution to take myself out of the situation. I always have a choice.
Are you generally a positive or negative thinker? If you are a negative thinker, use this opportunity to start to become consciously aware of your thought/perception patterns. Once you become more aware, you can make changes that will help you manage your thought process, thus, changing your intentions, attitudes and outcomes to a more positive lifestyle which will help contribute to managing your level of stress.
Choosing to be mindful is about awareness. By this, I mean really aware of everything going on around you. Mindfulness can be thought of as a moment-to-moment, nonjudgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as open heartedly as possible, (Jon Kabat-Zinn) Rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted by technology, television, or a myriad of other things, we purposely slow down and take in everything being fully present. Many of those who practice mindfulness call the constant ricocheting of our attention “monkey mind”. I find it amusing that many people to call it multi-tasking. Let's stop fooling ourselves, we cannot multi task, only shift our attention from one thing to another and not give either task the focus and attention it deserves to get the task done well.
Consider these tools when facing stressful situations. Re-framing and mindfulness are powerful tools that can be practiced to help manage stress caused by everyday stressors.35
Stress management is key to overall health. Mindful management of stress improves quality of life and provides a clear mind for learning and making valuable decisions. Nutrition has a very important role in your physical and mental health. In addition, sleep is very crucial to keep balance and keeping brain neurotransmitters working efficiently. Lack of sleep and unhealthy nutrition can affect mood, eating habits, and maladaptive behaviors. Therefore, increasing levels of negative stress can lead to making rash decisions and acquire poor eating habits. Regular participation in health promoting behaviors such as exercise, healthy eating and social connections reduces stress and anxiety. Remember to pay attention to how you are “feeling”. Often times when we suffer an increased amount of stress our mental state is negatively affected. This may cause depression, anxiety, weight gain/loss and feeling lost. Analyze and identify possible resources to help you navigate back to a balanced lifestyle.
The COC Student Health and Wellness Center provides mental health counseling free of charge to students. If you are feeling overwhelmed balancing life challenges, work, school, and personal responsibilities, you may want to speak with a mental health professional. Services through the Student Health Center are confidential and available at both the Valencia and Canyon Country Campus. For more information, speak with your instructor, or visit the Student Health and Wellness site at: https://www.canyons.edu/studentservices/health/index.php
