Hello, and welcome to another health extension advocacy
research and teaching initiative course on stress and stress
management.
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Today I want to give you a brief overview of stress
and how we can cope with stress.
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What is stress?
Stress is anything that can cause a state of alarm,
either in the current moment, or something in the future
that we're thinking about.
And a stressor is anything that causes that stress.
So you can see stress in different ways.
You can see it in physical, breathing fast, sweating,
tensing up, having an increased heart rate, feeling exhausted,
or having headaches.
Or maybe it's cognitive or the way that we think,
or behavioral the way that we act
in worrying, having difficulty concentrating,
feeling pessimistic, experiencing poor judgment,
or crying more easily.
Or it can be emotional, where we feel overwhelmed or feeling
run down.
Maybe we feel irritable or insecure or sad or anxious.
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How do you know that stress is a problem for you?
There's generally five signs that we can
tell that stress is a problem.
One, you feel terrible.
Two, you have sleep problems.
You're either sleepy all the time
or you can't sleep at all at night.
Three, you never experience joy.
Four, you lose your appetite or can't stop eating.
And five, you have trouble with relationships
and no longer get along with friends and family members.
When we're stressed, we can be more irritable.
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It's important to remember that with stress,
you cannot and should not be cured,
but merely taught to enjoy it.
That's a really great quote because stress
can help us actually be motivated to do things
and get some things done in our lives.
Like if you're stressed about a project
at work, that can actually motivate you to go and do
that project.
But sometimes, our stress response is too much
or can go on for longer than it's helpful for us
and cause difficulty in our lives.
In these circumstances, having a good toolkit
for how you cope with stress can be really helpful.
Some examples of some coping skills or stress management
techniques can be positive self-talk, humor and laughter,
deep breathing, prioritizing and creating
lists, time management, exercising, meditation, nature,
relaxation exercises, visualization,
progressive muscle relaxation, spending time with others,
engaging in a healthy lifestyle, including eating, sleeping,
physical activity, and gratitude,
showing gratitude or experiencing gratitude.
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So what are these categories?
Generally, we find that stress management falls
into four general categories.
These include breathing and heart rate monitoring,
experiential, mindfulness-based visualization
or yoga, progressive muscle relaxation,
and evaluating your thinking.
In this brief overview, I'd like to walk you
through a breathing exercise.
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So stress really-- a big part of this
is knowing your stress level and how you react.
So right now, on a scale of 0 to 10, what is your stress at?
0, the most relaxed you've ever been, no stress at all to 10,
the most stress you've ever felt.
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What is it at right now in this moment?
How do you cope and manage your stress
when you have it at this level.
Thinking about some ways that you experience it and the ways
that you cope with stress can be helpful in planning ahead.
And also, knowing what your levels are at
can help you determine what kind of activities
you need to help relieve some of that stress.
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So I want to do a deep breathing exercise with you right now.
It's called count breathing and square breathing in which
we're going to breathe in for four,
hold for four, out for four, and hold for four seconds.
So I'm going to walk you through this.
I want you to take a deep breath and just
to get us started and out.
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I welcome you to close your eyes for this activity,
and I will walk you through it.
So I want you to start breathing in.
Two, three, four, hold.
Two, three, four, out.
Two, three, four, and hold.
Two, three, four.
And let's do it again.
In, two, three, four, hold.
Two, three, four, out.
Two, three, four, and hold.
Two, three, four, and take a deep breath in and out.
That's one example of a count breathing exercise
that you can do quickly when you're stressed to bring down
your stress level.
I want you to rate your stress after that
exercise from 0 to 10.
Has it changed at all?
Has it gone down even by half a point?
Maybe you had an 8 before and now you're at a 7.5.
A breathing exercise is a great way
to get the breath into your body that sometimes we're not
taking as much as we should.
So it's a great activity to bring down your heart rate
and get that breath relax.
There's a quote that says, "The time to relax is when
you don't have time for it."
And that's very true.
So when you're noticing you don't
feel like you have time for stress management,
it might be the time that you need it the most.
We hope that you've enjoyed this brief introduction of stress
management and that you'll keep in touch with us.
Please join us for future stress management courses
at extension.usu.edu/heart.
Or follow us on social media.
If you're knowing right now and experiencing things
that you want to talk with someone about,
usually, people can relate.
And talking to a friend or a trusted loved one
can be helpful in times of stress.
If you're having difficulty dealing
with any of these things beyond that,
you might want to seek out counseling.
And that may be able to help as well.
Something that could also help is calling the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline if you feel that you are
in danger to self or others.
Some emotional wellness resources
are here for your convenience, some mental health resources
as well, some suicide prevention resources,
and our brief list of references.
We thank you again for joining us
and hope that this has helped your journey
in stress management.