KAPLAN UNIVERSITY

HW410 Stress: Critical Issues in

Management and Prevention

Stress
Management and
Prevention

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Program Resource
Guide

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 KA P L A N U N I V E R S I T Y

Stress Management and Prevention

Program Resource Guide

By

Rasia Ming

Kaplan University

HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

March 22, 2014

Table of Contents
UNIT 1 THE NATU RE OF STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT 2 THE PHYSIO LOGY OF STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT 3 PSYCHOLOGY OF STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT 4 PERSONAL ITY TRAITS AND THE HUM AN SPIRITUAL ITY

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT 5 DEAL ING WITH STRESS: COPING STRATE GIES

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT 6 REL AXATIO N TECHN IQ UES 1 : BRE ATHIN G, M EDITATIO N,

AND M ENTAL IM AGE RY

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT 7 NUTRITI ON AND STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT 8 PHYSIC AL EXERCISE AND ACTIV ITY

Information to Remember
 Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT 9 APPLYING STRESS: CRITICAL ISSUES F OR M ANAGEM EN T

AND PREVE NTIO N TO YOUR PROF ESSI ONAL L IF E

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing

ADDITI ONAL INF ORM ATIO N

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Unit

Unit 1: The Nature of Stress

Information to Remember:
 What is stress? - Stress is the experience of a perceived threat to one’s own
mental, physical, or spiritual well-being, which results from a range of
physiological responses as well as adaptations (Seaward, 2009). Prolonged
stress can have serious effects on the body and health, therefore managing
stress in the correct ways is essential to healthy living and overall well-being.

 The symptoms associated with stress - Stress has many symptoms such as
increased heart rate, increased blood flow which can lead to stroke and heart
attack as well as high blood pressure (Seaward, 2009). If high levels of stress
are continuous individuals are at risk for experiencing stress related illnesses
as well as serious diseases.

 Types of stress - Eustress, Neustress and Distress are the three known types
of stresss (Seaward, 2009). Eustress also known as good stress helps to
motivate individuals toward an optimal level of performance and health. It
provides energy to put you into action. Neustress otherwise known as neutral
stress is any kind of information or sensory stimulus that is seen as
inconsequential or unimportant. Lastly, Distress which is also known as bad
stress is the negative interpretation of an occurring event. It promotes
continuous emotions of anger and fear (Seaward, 2009).

Resources: Exercises:
 My Health Philosophy: This exercise provides you with a chance to create
a health philosophy and understand what is important to you when it comes
to your health. Everyone has their own health philosophies and these are

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 simply our own opinions about our health and well-being. It is a way to
present personal ideas about a specific topic to many people including your
own self. Creating your own health philosophy gives you the opportunity to
understand how you feel about yourself and your own health. A balanced
health philosophy gives you the opportunity to see the good in health and
wellness and better yourself in all areas. This exercise is great for anyone to
complete as it allows you to create something that can be very helpful to you
and your outlook on health and your life.

 College Students Daily Stressors Survey: College students tend to deal

with a handful when balancing school, work, family and even their social life.
This survey provided a chance to help college students understand how the
typical stressors a college student has to deal with ranks in their life from
one being low and five being high. As a college student myself, many of the
stressors listed in the activity were ranked lower with only a few ranked
high. As a mom/college student I try not to let these particular stressors get
too overwhelming but work at each as they come. This survey proved to be
very helpful.

Tools: Journal Writing:

 Personal Stress Inventory: This journal writing assignment gives you the
opportunity to take note of the top stressors that you have in your life. My top
10 Stressors are as follows; Relationship, living situation, trust issues, being
open with people, appearance, negative situations, being one with myself,
being without a steady job, friendships as well as school. Having this
knowledge of the top 10 stressors in my life gave me the opportunity to
understand them and work towards finding ways to help balance each of them
and anyone has the opportunity to gain this type of knowledge for themselves
from doing this journal writing activity.

 A Good Night’s Sleep: This exercise helps you to understand and take a
closer look at your own personal sleeping patterns and give you the
opportunity to express what you notice when getting to bed or sleeping
throughout the night. For me this exercise provided me with the insight that I
do not get to bed regularly or sleep for a good amount of hours. Knowing this
gave me the ability to see that I need to try and work out a better sleeping
schedule for myself and make sure that I stick to it. Anyone who completes this
exercise has the opportunity to better their understandings of their sleeping
habits and find ways to tweak and better them so that they are able to get a
good amount of sleep that they should always be getting.

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Unit

Unit 2: The Physiology of Stress

Information to Remember:
 Symptoms of stress and prolonged stress - There are many symptoms
related to stress they include insomnia, constipation, tension headache as well
as fatigue. If stress continues for long periods of time individuals may suffer
from loss in weight, hair, sleep, appetite as well as many other conditions and
illnesses that can hinder one’s health greatly (Seaward, 2009).

 Importance of memory improvement – Improving our memory becomes

beneficial when dealing with stress. It gives us the opportunity to deal with
stress efficiently as during stressful periods memory can become delayed
(Seaward, 2009). Having healthy brain function and memory allows us to be
more relaxed but react to a stressor in appropriate ways. This also paves the
way for a lesser chance that severe damage to the mind and body will occur.

 The Human Hippocampus – The human hippocampus is extremely sensitive

to the cortisol hormone. Excessive exposure to large amounts of the cortisol
hormone can damage or shrink brain cells which in the end can decrease
memory formation and retrieval (Seaward, 2009).

Resources: Exercises:
 Immediate, Intermediate and Prolonged Stress Effects: This exercise
assignment provides you with a closer look of how immediate, intermediate
and prolonged stress affects your body. Some people are not always aware of
their reactions to stress, therefore this exercise provided essential information
as you listed what you know occurs when stress is present. When I am
immediately threatened sweating and rapid heart rate is felt. My body’s
intermediate (within hours) response to stress is tension headache, migraine
headache and stomachache. Noticeable long-term effects of prolonged stress
(five to ten days) would be acne, menstrual period irregularities, weight loss
and hair loss.

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  My health profile: Knowing everything to do with your health and well-being
is extremely essential as it gives you the opportunity to understand how
healthy you are and where you can make changes to better your health if
necessary. Completing this exercise provided me with the opportunity to have
my personal health data on file right at my home. I was able to compare my
results to norms found on the internet and that gave me a chance to see if I am
on target for each of the health components listed in the exercise. It was great
to find out that I am in good health but I am working on finding ways to better
some of my values so that I can reach an optimum health level.

Tools: Journal Writing:

 Physical Symptoms Questionnaire: Learning how stress affects you, how
often it occurs and its overall severity is essential to learning and
understanding the patterns or relationships between stress and your overall
physical health and well-being. This journal writing assignment can give
anyone the opportunity to come to a personal realization of all of the
symptoms that they experience when dealing with stressors. The stress-related
symptoms that I sometimes deal with are not always linked to stressful
situations as headaches and acnes that I do usually suffer from is due to not
drinking enough water and eating certain foods that create a negative reacting
in my body.

 Stress Physiology Review: This journal writing assignment provided you

with the chance to better understand the physiology of stress. Finding the
hormones and linking them to the structure that releases them allows you to
know how your body works when stressed. Having this knowledge also gave
you the opportunity to promote a sense of relaxation and healing so that you
are able to cope with stress appropriately when it comes your way. Although I
have learned about some of these hormones before it was great to come back
to them and extend my knowledge on them a bit more and learn about some
that I wasn’t familiar with. Having visited this information is powerful in
helping you to really comprehend the internal part that stress has on the body.

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Unit 3: Psychology of Stress

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Unit

Information to Remember:
 The Building Block of Psychological Stressors – The Building blocks of
psychological stressors include, outlets for frustration, social support, control,
and predictability as well as the perception of things worsening (Sapolsky,
2004). Each of these building block tools can help make a difference for stress
especially in the work place and personal/family situations when dealing with
and controlling stressful events.

 The subtleties of predictability - Predictability may make stressors less

stressful but it does not mean that doing this will make you stress less about
them. It gives individuals the opportunity to predict what a stressor may bring
so that it does not come as unexpected as it would have been without it
already being thought of or known about (Sapolsky, 2004).

 The subtleties of control - The variable of control is very important. Keeping

in mind that not all situations that cause stress can be controlled on prevented
keeps one sane and allows for you to limit yourself from feeling that it was
your fault, feeling guilty that the event took place as well as having regretful
thoughts (Sapolsky, 2004). Knowing how to control your perceptions of
stressors is powerful in modulating how one reacts to these stressful situations
that occur.

Resources: Exercises:
 Anger Recognition Checklist – This checklist is perfect for anyone who
would like to note what particular ways they express their anger. For me this
was an ideal exercise because it allowed me to really understand how I react
when something has angered me and give me the opportunity to think about
how I can reconstruct my anger into better and positive ways when dealing
with events and situations that have caused me to be angry.

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  Emotional Well-being – Being aware of your emotional well-being is
essential. It is good to understand your emotions rather than let your emotions

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Unit

control you as a person. This self-assessment exercise gave you the

opportunity to take the time out and write about your emotions, the type of
emotion you love, dislike and whether or not you acknowledge your emotions
fully. I enjoyed completing this exercise because it allowed me to talk about
how I truly feel about my emotional well-being and getting that off of my chest
helped me in a positive way.

Tools: Journal Writing:

 The psychology of your stress – This exercise shows much assistance when
making you aware of you perceptions, attitudes and behaviors that you may
experience during episodes of stress. It also gives anyone who completes it the
opportunity to see how you tend to defend yourself, what stage you are in
when dealing with stressors and if your stressors are fear related on mainly
based around anger. It definitely helps to open your eyes a bit more on the
topic of daily stressors.

Unit 4: Personality Traits and the

Human Spirituality
Information to Remember:
 Type A personality – Type A Personality, otherwise known as the "hurry
sickness" is an aggressive-based personality (Seaward, 2009). Individuals that
have this personality possess traits that include time urgency, multitasking,
rapid speech patterns, manipulative control, they are ultra competitive, hyper
aggressive, and usually have much hostility toward others and events that
occur.

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  Hardy personality – A person who holds a hardy personality have
characteristics of control, commitment and challenge. When in combination
with each other they seem to help an individual buffer against the stress they
are dealing with (Seaward, 2009).

 Self-esteem and its effects on stress – Whether we have low self-esteem or

high self-esteem, it can influence how we react to stress (Seaward, 2009). If
we have low self-esteem we are more likely to deal with stress poorly and in
inappropriate ways. If we have high self-esteem we are more likely to deal with
stress in positive and effective ways. Having high self-esteem gives individuals
the opportunity to cope with stress in the correct ways rather than doing
something that isn’t good and can cause added frustration (Seaward, 2009). It
is essential to find ways to build up your self-esteem so that combating stress
is not a very big task.

Resources: Exercises:
 Your Personal Value System – This exercise gave me the opportunity to list
everything that I value and help me to link them to the stress that I am dealing
with. It was a great to find these links between each and the stress I endure
because it gave me the ability to think of ways that I could find balance for the
demands each has in my life. This exercise would be great for anyone to
complete because it helps to shine light on what matters most to you and how
they can create stress your life when they are competing with each other.

 Distraction of the Human Path – This exercise was a definite eye opener. It
gave me a clear picture of how many things that you feel you would be lost
without can become a distracting factor in your life. From this exercise I
gained knowledge of each of my distractions and am currently finding ways to
help me to leave them alone for a while so that I can get myself back on a
steady path.

Tools: Journal Writing:

 Stress-Prone Personality Survey – Having a codependent personality is
linked with being stress-prone. Completing this survey can give you the
opportunity to see if you possess traits associated with the codependent
personality. I received a score of 29 which was under points that indicated that
I had traits linked with the codependent personality. From doing this survey I
realized that I have some traits of this particular personality and I am working
towards finding ways to better how I deal with stress so that I do not become
stress prone. This survey will be very helpful to anyone who completes it and
help them to see if they are stress-prone or not.

 Stress-Resistant Personality Survey – Having a hardy, survivor, and risk-

taking personality traits shows that you have traits that resist rather than

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 promote stress in your life. I scored a 68 after completing this survey. This
score showed that I am most likely to have traits associated with this

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Unit

particular personality which was very good for me to take note of. I’d rather
have traits of a stress-resistant personality rather than a stress-prone
personality. I feel this survey will be helpful to anyone who completes it as they
can find out from just a few questions if they hold traits for a healthy
personality.

Unit 5: Dealing with Stress: Coping

Strategies
Information to Remember:
 Cognitive Restructuring - This is a coping technique which works to
substitutes negative, self-defeating thoughts with positive, affirming thoughts.
Having these positive thoughts can change our perceptions of stressors from
threatening to nonthreatening and help us to better cope with them (Seaward,
2009).

 Toxic Thoughts - These are specific types of thoughts that are known as a
repeated negative thought processing. These thoughts tend to pollute our view
of who we really are, the lives that we live and our surroundings. Having toxic
thoughts can become very damaging to one’s mind and the way that we
interpret situations (Seaward, 2009).

 Successful Aging – Although successful aging is a complicated matter

specific health factors can help us to age well. According to Sapolsky, a healthy
diet and weight, daily exercise, avoiding alcohol and other drugs, being in
happy marriage, and a having a resilient coping methods for stress all aid in
helping you to age well (Sapolsky, 2004).

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Tools: Journal Writing:

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Unit

 Reframing: Seeing a Bigger, Clearer Perspective: This journal writing

exercise can help you to learn how you can turn your thoughts about a
negative situation around so that you can see the better and brighter side of it.
I found this journal writing assignment to be very interesting as it gave me the
opportunity to view a situation I have dealt with before that has caused me to
be frustrated in a more positive way.

 Value Assessment and Clarification: Although many people know what

their values are they never really take into consideration how each of these
values can overlap with each other. This exercise can help anyone understand
their values. It can also provide you with the opportunity to think about and
find ways to help you better balance the values that you have and fix any
conflicts that may arise between each which will assist in working out any
obstacles to make everything easier for you in your daily life.

Unit 6: Relaxation Techniques 1:

Breathing, Meditation, and Mental
Imagery
Information to Remember:
 What is Mental Imagery? – Mental Imagery is the human ability to picture
images in our minds after the original stimuli has gone out of our view. This is
one of the main cognitive component in assisting factors in our memories and
current thoughts. This provides us with images to help us decipher concepts
presented to us as well as a source of encoded thoughts to recall older ideas
(Seaward, 2009).

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  What is Visualization? – Visualization is a conscious choice with intentional
instructions and it is used in mental imagery which consciously creates images
of success, healing or relaxation for the purpose of self-improvement
(Seaward, 2009). It has been used as a synonym for mental imagery but
visualization has additional meaning of many aspects that mental imagery
holds that is not directly related to the relaxation effect.

 What is Exclusive and Inclusive Meditation? – Exclusive meditation is a

form of mediation in which your concentration is focused on one object with
the exclusion of all other thoughts and ideas which helps to increase self-
awareness and promote ultimate relaxation (Seaward, 2009). On the other
hand, inclusive meditation is known as insightful meditation, access meditation
and mindfulness. In this form of meditation the mind is free and is able to
wander in order to accept all thoughts with no efforts to control the mind. All
thoughts are brought into awareness without judgment and are fully welcome.
This process has be described as being a “detached observation” simply
because no emotional reactions will be experienced (Seaward, 2009).

Resources: Exercises:
 Bridging the Hemispheres of Thought – This was an excellent journal writing
exercise. It gave you information about how each side of your brain works and
the ways it allows you to think. Doing this journal writing can be helpful to
anyone because it gives you the opportunity to really understand the dominant
ways that you may think on a day to day basis and link it to how you react and
think about situations that you deal with. I personally liked this journal writing
exercise because I was able to find out that I am a right brain thinker and now
I am looking into ways to help me balance both sides and think with each.

 Three Short Guided Visualizations – This was also a good journal writing
exercise. It aided in providing you with the experience of guided visualization
if you have never done it before as well as help you to understand why
relaxation and taking time out for yourself is important from time to time.

Tools: Journal Writing:

 Too Much Information – This exercise is helpful in allowing you to
understand how much information you are bombarded with daily and gives
you the opportunity to create ways to help yourself decrease this information
received in appropriate ways that suit you and your lifestyle. It was also
helpful in making you aware of how much information you give to those
around you and allow you to think about what you can do in order to stop
providing people who may not need to know your business with too much of it.

 I Have a Vision: The Art of Visualization – I enjoyed completing this

particular journal assignment. I have never done meditation exercises using

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 mental imagery so this was a first for me. Both tracks that were used for the
assignment provided you with the opportunity to experience seeing different

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Unit

things, and in this case scenery as well as colors and lights. When doing this
assignment you can find yourself at complete relaxation, and it also gives you
the opportunity to see why taking time out for yourself to relax is essential and
things you can engage yourself in to do so.

Unit 7: Nutrition and Stress

Information to Remember:
 Stress Dominoes - The relationship between nutrition, stress, and the
immune system are illustrated through the use of four dominoes. The first
domino involves the notion that stress depletes the nutrients that are in the
body (Seaward, 2009). Water soluble vitamins and some of the essential
minerals that are in the body are used to produce energy to prepare for fight
or flight and stress compromises it. The second domino is based on current
American lifestyles that are under stress promote poor eating habits which
causes the nutrients to deplete, when under chronic stress they are not
restored. The body tries to adjust itself to the lack of nutrients but it is unable
to therefore an individual’s health becomes hindered (Seaward, 2009). The
third domino states that some food substances such as caffeine, salt and
processed flour increase sympathetic drive as well as other physiological
responses which in turn can increase other health problems. Lastly, the fourth
domino states that many processed foods increase the effect of toxins and
these toxins can negatively affect the immune system and keeps it from doing
its job. When this occurs many illnesses and diseases can arise (Seaward,
2009).

 How does stress affect digestion, absorption, and elimination? - Stress

severely affects nutrition, the way the body handles food as well as functions

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 such as, digestion, absorption, and elimination (Seaward, 2009). Chronic
stress responses can reduce necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients which
creates poor health. Stress causes digestion as well as the absorption of
nutrients to slow so that blood may be directed into other areas of the body to
help reduce the stress. Also, regular bowel movements are disrupted which
causes blockages and promotes potentially serious situation (Seaward, 2009).
Regular exercise and a healthy diet can help regulate stress responses that
affect digestion, absorption, and elimination all around.

 What foods trigger stress responses? - There are many foods that out
there that when consumed can promote one to experience stress. Caffeine,
processed foods as well as sugar are the main culprits that trigger a stress
response in individuals. It is essential to consume these particular food
substances in moderation in the diet so that stress levels have the potential to
be reduced so that the body has the ability to remain in a healthy state
(Seaward, 2009).

Tools: Journal Writing:

 Stress Related Eating Habits – This journal writing exercise allows you to
figure out and really understand how stress affects the way you eat or find the
time to eat. Some people are not always aware of how their eating patterns
are affected by stress so filling out this survey gave you a clear picture of what
goes on with your nutrition when stress is on your shoulders. I personally
found this exercise to be essential in helping me to know how I am affected by
stress when it comes to eating and look towards finding ways to make sure I
get all the nutrients that I need so that I do not experience negative effects in
my health.

 The Rainbow Diet – This journal writing exercise gives you the opportunity to
explore a wide range of colorful fruits, veggies and herbs based on the
rainbow wheel. There are many foods out there that can be consumed and
become useful in promoting health in different areas of the body. For me, this
exercise gave me a chance to find different foods of the different colors that I
would not normally eat, jot them down and give me a chance to come out of
my comfort zone of just choosing foods that I ultimately enjoy eating and look
towards eating a wider range of fruit and veggies from the different color
groups. This exercise can be helpful to anyone who completes it.

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Unit 8: Physical Exercise and

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Unit

Activity
Information to Remember:
 The benefits of cardiovascular exercise – Exercise promotes many benefits
that the body can experience to increase wellness. These include decreased
resting heart rate, decreased resting blood pressure, decreased muscle
tension, better-quality sleep, increased resistance to colds and illness,
decreased cholesterol and triglyceride levels, decreased body fat, improved
body composition, increased efficiency of heart, decreased bone
demineralization, decreased rate of aging as well as increased tolerance of
heat and cold through acclimatization (Seaward, 2009).

 Exercise and the mind/body connection - Exercise helps to induce

physiological changes as well as various psychological changes which
proposes that mind and body act as one entity (Seaward, 2009). The inclusion
of habitual physical exercise in daily life produces both physiological
homeostasis and mental homeostasis. Individuals who engage in regular
physical exercise have reported their experiences of having higher levels of
self-esteem and lower rates of depression and anxiety occurring (Seaward,
2009).

 Why should stress hormones be flushed from the body? – The body
adapts either positively or negatively to the stress that is placed upon it. Stress
hormones should be flushed from the body because if they remain they can
promote harmful and damaging effects to occur. Regular physical activity is
thought to be effective in reducing the deleterious effects of stress by
returning the body to a profound state of homeostasis (Seaward, 2009).
Through exercise the body is able to use stress hormones for their intended
purposes and detoxify the body of stress hormones by utilizing them in
constructive ways.

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Tools: Journal Writing:

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Unit

 Physical exercise – This journal writing exercise gave you the ability to take
note of the physical activity you take part in, how often, the specific intensity
you are using for your workouts, the activities you enjoy doing as well as how
you go about motivating yourself when you are feeling a bit defeated. It also
helped you to sketch out a quick regimen that you would normally follow on a
daily basis. This exercise pretty much gave you the opportunity to understand
what you are really doing with your exercising and also how dedicated and
motivated you are to continuing it.

 My Body, My Physique – This journal writing exercise helped to shine light

on how you may feel about yourself and your features. It gave you the
opportunity to express your feelings about your body in regards to what you
love about yourself, what you would like to change and how you could go
about doing it. This exercise has the ability to help anyone overcome any
insecurities that they may have and work towards finding ways to help them
improve their they are not too fond of so that they can be happy and satisfied
with who they are as an individual.

Unit 9: Applying Stress: Critical

Issues for Management and
Prevention to Your Professional Life
Information to Remember:
 What is information seeking? – Information seeking is a common coping
technique that involves searching for detailed information to increase
awareness about a situation that has become a perceived threat (Seaward,
2009). This coping technique involves collecting and processing facts about a

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 stressful event or situation, which can then be used to help solve the problem
and regain emotional stability. Information seeking has been found to be an
essential skill following diagnosis of terminal illness, during pregnancy, in the
recovery process of alcoholics and drug abusers and for other stressors that
makes an unpredictable change in your life whether big or small (Seward,
2009).

 What is social orchestration? – Social orchestration is another coping

technique. There are two approaches to the social orchestration process
(Seaward, 2009). The first is to change factors in your environment that can
cause stress to occur. If this is not a viable option, your health status is at risk,
and attempts at cognitive reappraisal prove ineffective, then the second
approach would be to change your environment. Changing factors in your
environment can include driving a different route to work, leaving your home
an hour earlier than you normally do or blocking out time periods during the
day in which you do not answer the phone so that you are able to get major
tasks completed (Seaward, 2009).

 Hobbies – Hobbies are known as pleasurable forms of interest that are

enjoyed and done outside of one’s daily work and responsibilities (Seaward,
2009). Hobbies help take our mind off daily responsibilities such as work or
upcoming exams. When you are involved in a hobby it helps you to also let go
of stressful thoughts that are clouding your brain. There are many hobbies
that one can choose from and use as a diversion. Engaging in a loved hobby
allows individuals to do what they enjoy instead of doing something that they
have to. Hobbies help to keep the mind occupied so that we are not always
focused on the stressful parts of our lives (Seaward, 2009). Being involved in
hobbies allows people to make order out of the chaos of everyday life on a
small scale and in some cases larger-scale problems also. Any activity that
boosts self-esteem and confidence is thought to be worthwhile and great for
your health, mind and overall well-being.

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 10
Unit

Unit 10:
Information to Remember:
 Progressive muscular relaxation (PMR): Jacobson understood that the
human body could not be tensed and relaxed at the same time. In an effort to
teach his patients how to relax, he created a simple technique which would
help to increase physical neuromuscular awareness. He called this techniques,
progressive muscular relaxation (PMR). This relaxation technique is based on
tensing and then relaxing the body’s muscle groups in a systematic and
progressive manner in order to decrease tension in the muscles (Seaward,
2009).

 Original steps of Jacobson’s progressive muscular relaxation: The

original steps of Jacobson’s progressive muscular relaxation are as follows; 1.
the progression of muscle groups should start with the lower extremities and
move up to the head, 2. muscle groups should be isolated during the
contraction phase, leaving all remaining muscles relaxed, 3. the same muscle
groups on both sides of the body should be contracted simultaneously, 4. the
contraction should be held for 5 to 10 seconds, with a corresponding
relaxation phase of about 45 seconds, 5. the individual should focus attention
on the intensity of the contraction, 6. sensing the tension level produced as
well as during the relaxation phase of each muscle group, special awareness of
the feeling of relaxation should be focused on, comparing it to how the muscle
felt when it was contracted (Seaward, 2009).

 Psychological benefits of PMR: The psychological benefits of PMR include

decreasing levels of muscle tension, increasing overall awareness of muscle
tension as well as reduction of pain from a tension headache (Seaward, 2009).

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Additional Information
These sources as well as references included will provide individuals with added information that
can help to better understandings and further knowledge on the subject of stress management.
Each, website, book, audio file and PowerPoint presentation are loaded with useful information
that will be essential to anyone and better assist them in reaching their optimum state of health
and well-being.

Holistic Online - This website provides many links that hold a wide range of information about
alternative and integrated medicine that can help you to better cope with illnesses or conditions
in a different way rather than using regular prescribed medications.
Website: http://holisticonline.com/stress/stress_exercise.htm

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine – Meditation: This site
provides all information needed to expand your knowledge about the work of meditation and its
effectiveness on the body and health.
Website: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm

The Little Online Book of Stress Management: This website was an absolute great finds. It
is an amazingly free online resource that provides an abundance of information to help you to
manage the stress you are dealing with through the wonderful guidance of stress management.
It provides many ideas on how you can work towards fixing a situation in your life so that you
can better cope with the demands that it may have. You can also find many tips as well as
advice on how you can develop your on stress management plan. There are also many other
article links for other stress management information that are also helpful and informative.
Website: http://www.hypnos.info/book2/book2.html

Youtube Video - Coping with Stress, Imaginative Solutions for Stress Relief: This
Youtube video provides detailed information about coping with stress and also gives information
about how you can promote stress relief using imaginative solutions. It is a very helpful video
and can provide beneficial information to help you to cope with stress in appropriate ways.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOQKMiD5QJI

Youtube Video - Rainbow Relaxation for Higher Consciousness: This meditation video
uses many colors as a relaxation technique to help you become aware of all your body parts as

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well as represent a sense of healing in each. It also gives you a sense of calmness as you focus
and become mindful of your breathing.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RONRewr8oA

References:

Sapolsky, R. M. (2004) Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-
Related Diseases, and Coping. Henry Holt and Company, LLC, New York.

Seaward, B. (2009). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being.
(6ted.). Jones and Bartlett Publishers

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