Stress Management

funny how we had a lecture on how to manage stress. reading through the "elements of a stress management program" hand out is interesting, just wanna share with u guys:

1. Lifestyle and health
-health is important when one is stressed. it can be improved by health eating, exercise, routine, sufficient sleep and some social life...
(so to people who eat only tuna for lunch.. no no.. it's not good... to those who sleep 3 hours each day.. it's not good either.)

2. Relaxation
- physical tension uses up energy that would be better used for helping cope with stress
(but that doesn't include swearing all the time to relieve stress)

3. Behaviour
-we often have behaviours that defeat us. when we are stressed they can make it worse. hence we can change them through functional analysis of them.. (okay i don't really understand this)

4. Cognitions
- the way we think can help or hinder how well we cope with stress. Difference between adaptive and maladaptive thinking and how we can change our thoughts affects what we learn from experiences and how we cope in the future
(positivity is the way to go!)

5. Emotion
- sometimes our emotions can be so powerful in a stressful situation that they overwhelm our more rational thoughts and we act unwisely. they can often be the very first of our responses that we notice in a situation, and can be modified with practice through changing our thoughts and/or behaviours and/or the situations.

6. Problem-solving
-seek advice, as it has been shown that people who are good at seeking solutions have less risk of cardiovascular disease ahha.. :)

7. Time management
- when stressed, people tend to think they don't have time for anything. Make a list of what you have to do, and want to do, give them priorities and work through in that order..

8. preparing for lapses
-when a person has modified his or her behavious, thoughts and/or feelings, he or she can slip back into the old ways when confronted by a stress. All lapses should be used to learn something more about how we function and what we could do to get back on track. We do NOT use a lapse to see ourselves as failures

9. Readiness for change
- unless a person is ready to make changes, it is often very difficult to be successful. it is useful to reward success. approval and support from others or providing something that is valued (reinforcements for changed behaviours) can help.
To prepare the individual for change it is necessary to have information to show why change might be necessary. Stages that a person might go through while changing behaviour are pre-contemplation, contemplation, action and maintenance of change, for example...
(this is one thing that made me wanna post this up :) i think it is really true... )

anyways... yeaps. basically, i think it is quite cool.. we all have inner thought processes about coping with stresses.. and putting them in words.. i think this is pretty good...yeaps :)

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i can't believe how much link there is i can find with yingyi. her granduncle lives in batu pahat.. near the hospital.. and was a dentist. she talked to my dad over skype just now, and apparently, my dad has heard about him! my goodness. sigh.

tiny tiny world. she has formed links with 2 people in IH already ahha. me and eddie. MY GOODNESS.

pancakes was good
ahha :)