Study Skills Coping with Stress and Pressure Hospira March 15th

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Study SkillsCoping with Stress and
PressureHospiraMarch 15th
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Coping with Stress Pressure

• First of all lets start by saying its absolutely
  normal that you will find some aspects of your
  college life stressful!, especially if you have
  got a full time job family on top of your
  studies.
• Fear of the unknown failure are probably 2 of
  the biggest worries of adult learners. For some
  of you it could be a while since you last sat an
  exam.
• Hopefully the following information will help you
  reduce manage your stress levels more
  effectively

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Stress can display itself in a physical,
  emotional, or behavioural state. It is often
  thought of as general wear tear of the body
• Stress is triggered in each individual
  differently. The stress we experience may come
  from
• The way we interpret situations
• The way we behave
• Our environment
• Example of each?

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• What are the symptoms of stress?
• Pay attention how do you know if youre
  stressed?
• What are physical, mental, or emotional signals
  that tell you youre stressed?
• Is your stress building to an unhealthy level?

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Physiological Symptoms of stress
• You will notice different changes to your bodys
  physiology. These changes are the symptoms of
  stress
• In evolutionary terms, these symptoms are
  indications that the body is getting ready to
  meet a perceived physical threat
• However, these same reactions, when associated
  with other perceived threats, may be harmful,
  especially if experienced constantly

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Physical Signs
• Headaches
• Indigestion
• Stomach upset
• High blood pressure
• Skin rashes
• Difficulty breathing
• Frequent urination
• Dizziness
• Dry mouth

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• 10. Change in appetite
• 11. Frequent colds
• 12. Aches pains
• 13. Feelings of intense long-term tiredness

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Emotional Symptoms of Stress
• Stress can also attack your frame of mind. For
  the quality work that you are expected to do in
  foundation studies, you will need to be in a
  positive frame of mind. If you feel under
  stress, this will consumer mental energy also
  leave you open to
• Having difficulty concentrating
• Anxiety
• Frustration
• Short temper
• Negative thinking

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Emotional Symptoms of Stress
• If you have been feeling tired for long periods
  under stress then you may find your ability to
  think rationally clearly about problems
  weakened.
• Again, you might feel some of the following
  emotional upsets
• Worry or anxiety
• Confusion, lack ability to make decisions
  concentrate
• Feeling sick
• Feeling totally lost overwhelmed by events

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Emotional Symptoms of Stress
• Mood changes depression, frustration,
  hostility, helplessness, impatience
  irritability, restlessness
• Again, you might think you have experienced none
  of the above therefore think your not
  particular stressed, yet have you noticed that
  your
• Sleeping less
• Drinking more alcohol or smoking
• Changing eating habit
• Taking more medication

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Behavioural Symptoms of Stress
• Keep a look over for the symptoms in other
  people, some indicators as a follows
• Talking too fast or too loud
• Yawning
• Fiddling twitching, nail biting, pacing,
  grinding teeth
• Being irritable/defensive/critical
• Aggression/irrationality
• Overreacting or being too emotional!

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• These can affect your personal effectiveness as
  follows
• Being unreasonably negative
• Making less realistic judgements
• Having difficulty concentrating making
  decisions
• Being more forgetful
• Making more mistakes or being more accident prone
• Increased absenteeism
• Neglect of personal appearance

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Sources of Stress
• Identifying what the sources of your stress are
  is essential to managing them
• It may stem from adjusting to being back in
  education, finances, or balancing work, family
  education all in one
• Survival Stress this may occur when you
  survival or health is threatened, where you are
  put under pressure or experience some bad or
  challenging event. Adrenaline will rush through
  your body as you prepare for fight or flight

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Internally generated stress this comes about
  from worrying anxiously about events beyond your
  control, or from a tense hurried approach to
  life, or from relationship problems caused by
  your own behaviour.
• Environmental Job stress here its your
  working or living environment that causes the
  stress. It might be due to noise, crowding,
  pollution, untidiness, dirt etc. However, stress
  may also be caused due to specific work events

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Fatigue overwork here stress is built up over
  a long period. This can happen if you have too
  much on your plate or your not utilising you
  time effectively enough.

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Approaches to managing stress
• Now that you have identified the main causes of
  stress how it effects you, you must think about
  how to manage your stress levels.
• Take action designed to remove or reduce the
  stressor. For example you might decide to ask
  for help, draw up a study timetable, set
  realistic goals for yourself.
• You may decide to remove yourself from stressful
  situations, this is known as withdrawal

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Do nothing. Until you are able to do something
  constructive. Often you need more information
  before you can act
• Change your way of thinking. Replace negative
  thoughts with more positive ones.
• Often the best approach to managing stress is
  talking about it with someone else! As the
  saying goes a problem shared is a problem
  halved. This can have an instant positive
  effect on your ability to handle whats
  pressuring you.

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Manage your time to manage stress so much stress
  comes from time pressure
• Look ahead to anticipate prepare for upcoming
  periods of higher stress (exams, presentations
  etc)
• Develop supportive routines (sleep, exercise,
  regular study times) to reduce the stress of the
  course.
• It vitally important that you are doing some form
  of exercise getting enough sleep!!! No one can
  function properly with it.

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Learn a deep relaxation response. Meditation,
  yoga, guided relaxation, self-hypnosis related
  strategies when practiced regularly, can assist
  you in coping effectively with stress in your day
  to day life
• As already covered, to something ACTIVE!
• Develop your skills, think about ways you can
  improve on your overall skills such as reading,
  writing, taking exams.

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Coping with Stress Pressure

• Finally, you may just have to give in to some of
  your stresses, but you can learn to live with
  them. Always try and remain in a positive state
  of mind.
• Dont forget your all CAPABLE PEOPLE!