Life Skills Curriculum

Semester 3
Lesson Plan

Session 3: Coping with Stress

Understanding Understanding Stress
Stress
Stress is a psychological and physiological response to events that upset our personal
balance in some way. When faced with a threat, whether to our physical safety or
emotional equilibrium, the body's defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic
process known as the “fight-or flight” response. We all know what this stress response
feels like, heart pounding in the chest, muscles tensing up, breath coming faster, and
every sense on red alert. 

Causes of stress in students

•      Examinations
•      Deadlines
•      Returning To Study
•      Difficulty In Organizing Work
•      Poor Time Management
•      Leaving Assignments To The Last Minute
•      Adjusting To Life In A New Environment Or Even Country
•      Difficulties With Personal Relationships (E.G. Splitting Up)
•      Balancing The Demands Of A Family With Studying
•      Parents Or Problems At Home 

Signs and Symptoms of Stress

Cognitive Symptoms
•     Memory problems
•     Indecisiveness
•      Inability to concentrate
•     Trouble thinking clearly 
•     Poor judgment 
•     Seeing only the negative
•      Anxious or racing thoughts 
•     Constant worrying 
•     Loss of objectivity
•     Fearful anticipation

Physical Symptoms
•Headaches or backaches 
•Muscle tension and stiffness 
•Diarrhea or constipation 
•Nausea, dizziness 
•Insomnia 
•rapid heartbeat 
•Weight gain or loss 
 
Emotional Symptoms
•Moodiness 
•Agitation 
•Restlessness 
•Short temper
•Irritability, impatience 
•Inability to relax
•Feeling tense and “on edge”
• Feeling overwhelmed
•Sense of loneliness and isolation
•Depression or general unhappiness

Behavioral Symptoms

•     Eating more or less

•     Sleeping too much or too little 
•     Isolating yourself from others 
•     Procrastination, neglecting responsibilities 
•     Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax
•     Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing) 
•     Overdoing activities (e.g. exercising, shopping) 
•     Overreacting to unexpected problems
•     Picking fights with others

Effects of Stress
Just as stress is perceived differently by each of us, stress affects us all in ways that are
unique to us.
One person may experience headaches, while another may find stomach upset is a
common reaction, and a third may experience any of a number of other symptoms. While
we all react to stress in our own ways, there is a long list of commonly experienced effects
of stress that range from mild to life-threatening. Stress can affect immunity, which can
impact virtually all areas of health. Stress can affect mood in many ways as well.
If you find yourself experiencing physical symptoms you think may be related to stress,
talk to Chiefcounsellor to be sure you are doing what you can to safeguard your health.
Symptoms that may be exacerbated by stress are not "all in your head" and need to be
taken seriously.
Creating a stress management plan is often one part of a plan for overall wellness.
Classroom 1. Name some of the things that stress you out. 
discussion 2. What kinds of signs do people show when they’re experiencing stress? How does
your body react to stress?
3. What’s the difference between good stress and bad stress? Give some examples
of each.
4. Name some ways students can manage or ease stress. 
5. Situation in which stress could be helpful. When does stress become a problem?
6. Everyone deals with stress differently. How do you deal with it? Do some stress
management methods work better for you than others? Why do you think some
strategies are more effective in reducing your stress level?
Case Study 1. Positive Stress
Stress is of two kinds, positive and negative;as it has been stated above it is up to
the individual how he perceives stress, whether he looks upon stress as negative
or positive. This is the case study of a university professor, who is under extensive
pressure of work but she always looks upon stress as positive. Dr. Priya Bir, a
middle aged person is a professor in the Psychology department of Delhi
University, besides teaching at the university she also conducts counseling
sessions at home for individuals who face some or the other kinds of psychological
problems such as anger, panic attack, hysteria, stress, depression and trauma. Dr.
Bir often writes and gets her papers published, she attends conferences, national
as well as international, she even travels abroad to make paper presentations;
creates lesson plans, tests and does lot of research study. All these work duties
make her even stay up in the night till 1 or 2 am; which shows that she does not
even get much sleep. In addition to this she also has a family to look after, her
spouse and her children.
It is obvious that extensive work duties do make a person feel stressed out,
sometimes Dr. Bir even has to take lectures continuously without breaks; she
incessantly speaks for five long hours, this does make her feel stressed but she has
always looked upon stress to be a positive and an integral part of ones life. She
states that stress does occur but one should not think too much about it, one
should get pleasure from ones work duties and have benefit of them. Becoming
aware about Dr. Bir, how she manages her work duties, even if she does not get
her full time sleep she does not complain or feel tired, how she works hard and
renders her best performance in all her work duties has greatly inspired the
researcher. Finally, it can be stated and understood from this case that one should
not feel stressed out from ones work duties and job performances and always
work hard to do ones most excellent. Doing ones job well will always make a
person feel happy, contented and pleased; he will not only make good money out
of his job but also earn a good reputation and goodwill within the community.

2. Negative Stress
 Negative stress always proves to be detrimental and is worrisome for every
individual; negative stress indulges a person into depression, trauma, causes
upsetness, and leads to negativities. This is the case study of a domestic help, a ten
year old girl named Jyoti who was employed in the house of a government
employee, he lived with his wife, who was a homemaker and a three year old son.
Jyoti was employed as a domestic help in a nuclear family. She was made to do all
the housework such as cleaning, washing clothes, preparing meals, gardening, all
kinds of works in the kitchen and was supposed to look after the child. The duo of
husband and wife never treated this young girl with kindness and courtesy; they
always mistreated her, abused her, even beat her if she does anything wrongand
they never paid her monthly wage which was Rs. 2000 nor let her speak to her
parents. She wanted to study, go to school, but they never got her admitted into a
school nor even homeschooled her, in other words teach her some concepts such
as alphabets or numbers in her free time. This young girl always had scratches on
her arm and bruises on her face caused due to severe beating. She was even food
and sleeps deprived most of the time; she was made to wake up very early in the
morning and went to bed late at night and was not given enough to eat, she was
deprived of a healthy and nutritious diet. This showed that Jyoti was under severe
negative stress and was experiencing extensive pain and torture.

One day a family friend, a woman with her husband visited their house, she was a
social activist, who worked for the welfare of the economically backward sections
of the society. She saw the injury marks on Jyoti’s arm and felt something fishy;
she kept visiting their house a couple of times more to find out that something
was wrong, Jyoti is not being treated well by her employers. One day, this social
activist found that Jyoti was alone working in the garden, so she went and spoke
to her and interrogated about how she was dealt with; Jyoti disclosed everything,
how she came to their house and what kind of treatment she has been suffering at
their hands. Becoming aware of all this, the social activist took severe action
against the couple and rescued Jyoti, she even got her admitted into the school
and called her parents, they were pleased to see their child going to school and
studying. Jyoti then lived with her parents and continued to study. This case study
reveals how a ten year old girl underwent severe negative stress and then she
became fortunate to get independent and live a healthy and peaceful life.
Stress For each question choose from the following alternatives:
assessment scale 0 – never 1 - almost never 2 – sometimes 3 - fairly often 4 - very often
1. In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that
happened unexpectedly?
2. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the
important things in your life?
3. In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed?
4. In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to
 handle your personal problems?
5. In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?
6. In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all
the things that you had to do?
7. In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations in your
life?
8. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things?
9. In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things that
happened that were outside of your control?
10. In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so high
that you could not overcome them?
Figuring your pss • You can determine your PSS score by following these directions:
score: • First, reverse your scores for questions 4, 5, 7, & 8. On these 4 questions,
change the scores like this: 0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 = 1, 4 = 0.
• Now add up your scores for each item to get a total. My total score is
______.
• Individual scores on the PSS can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores
indicating higher perceived stress.
• Scores ranging from 0-13 would be considered low stress.
• Scores ranging from 14-26 would be considered moderate stress.
• Scores ranging from 27-40 would be considered high perceived stress.
• The Perceived Stress Scale is interesting and important because your
perception of what is happening in your life is most important. Consider
the idea that 2 individuals could have the exact same events and
experiences in their lives for the past month. Depending on their
perception, total score could put one of those individuals in the low stress
category and the total score could put the second person in the high stress
category.
Coping with • Deep breathing-Controlled deep breathing can help us recognize when we
stress are feeling stress, and can provide a physiological interruption to the stress
signals being sent to the body
• Mindfulness-Mindfulness is a process of focusing intently on the present
moment of being aware of the moment with judgment.
• Meditation-Meditation, reflection and prayer can provide structure for
habitual and systematic engagement with one’s fear and worries
• Setting goals-Setting realistic and achievable goals helps us focus on things
that we can control and provides a useful outlet for our energy
• Social support-Building and engaging with social support networks gives us
access to new perspectives on our problems, allow us to our problem
solving provides an opportunity to validate our feelings and can in itself, be
an outlet for the energy generated by stress
• Hobbies-Engaging in satisfying hobbies and meaningful work, especially
 work focused on helping others

Video Presentations
1. Just a minute Meditation
https://youtu.be/F6eFFCi12v8

2. Five minute Meditation

https://youtu.be/UfkT9m9NQpg

3. 10 Minutes Meditation
https://youtu.be/OoM57Z8dRUY

4. How to meditate
https://www.brahmakumaris.org/meditation/how-to-meditate

Assignment 1. Everyone you know is stressed about something – homework, the big game,
an argument with a parent. You decide to reduce the stress level in people’s
lives by creating a new Internet service called Stress Mail. A stressed-out
person can write you an email, and you’ll respond by providing suggestions
for dealing with the stress. Start by reading the emails on the "Stress Mail"
handout. Choose one and write a response. In your response, make sure to:
 Identify what’s causing the person’s stress
 Provide one or two ways for reducing stress
 Offer a suggestion for avoiding stress in the future
2. Now that you’ve helped others to manage stress, it’s your turn to help
yourself! Create your own plan for stress management. In your plan, include
the following items:
 Things that make you feel stressed
 Strategies for managing stress that might work for you
 Changes you could make in your life to help avoid stress
3. Everyone deals with stress sometimes — from little things like missing the bus
or having an argument with a friend, to big things like dealing with divorce or
a sick family member. First, read the KidsHealth.org articles related to stress,
and then write down a couple of stressful situations that come up each week,
how you dealt with them and how you felt afterward. Are there some things
you might have handled differently?
4. Choose one stressful situation that came up during the month you kept a
stress log. Write a brief essay about the situation, how you dealt with it, and
how you felt afterward. In retrospect, did you deal with the situation in the
best way? If not, write a better way you could have dealt with it.
5. (Quiz Link) After completing the quiz, write a 100 word summary on ways you
 can try to improve on your stress management skills. This will be graded on
completing and scoring the questionnaire and the summary’s completeness and
conciseness in conveying your thoughts.
Books 1. Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love,
Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
https://www.amazon.com/Rising-Strong-Ability-Transforms-Parent/dp/081298580X/?
tag=dotdashvwm-20&ascsubtag=4779315%7Cn9df05fc8141b45919ebfb510411aa97904

2. The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by
Kelly McGonigal
https://www.amazon.com/Upside-Stress-Why-Good-You/dp/1101982934/?
tag=dotdashvwm-20&ascsubtag=4779315%7Cn39371a484e454cb0bfafb04cad2fc66806

3. Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate
Negative Thinking by S.J. Scott & Barrie Davenport
https://www.amazon.com/Declutter-Your-Mind-Worrying-Eliminate/dp/1535575085/?
tag=dotdashvwm-20&ascsubtag=4779315%7Cn39371a484e454cb0bfafb04cad2fc66806

Web Resources 1. psychologytoday.com

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/get-out-your-
mind/201806/how-deal-stress#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20best
%20way%20to%20manage,and%20hopefulness%20about%20the
%20future.%E2%80%9D

2. www.brainline.org
https://www.brainline.org/article/stress-management-how-reduce-prevent-and-
cope-stress