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Stress Management

From the office of GradWell

Austin Thompson and Lauren Pezina

GradWell GAs

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Key Takeaways

How resilience can help you manage stress

How to build resilience

A better understanding of what stress is

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Graduate Students Anxiety and Depression

2020 UC Berkeley Statistics

32% of graduate students screened positive for Major Depressive Disorder

This is 2x higher incidence for Major Depressive Disorder and 1.5x higher Generalized Anxiety Disorder than 2019

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What is Stress?

Webster Dictionary: a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.

In a medical or biological context, stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension.

Stresses can be external (from the environment, psychological, or social situations) or internal (illness, or from a medical procedure).

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Stress and the Whole Body

What thoughts and feelings come to mind when you think of earning…?

A

B

C

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Stress and the Body

Cognitive	Psychological	Emotional	Behavioral
Racing thoughts Negative thinking Feeling like a fraud	Shoulder/Neck Tension Digestive issues Panic attacks	Irritability Depression Anxious Numbness	+ / - Sleep +/ - Eating Perfectionism Substance abuse Social media binge Avoidance

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Eustress is the Good Stress

Fight or Flight

Can be motivating
Promotes action
Helps with focus
Promotes peak performance

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When Stress Turns to Distress

Same response - Bear

Exhausting
Leads to fatigue
Panic
Anxiety
Burnout
Disease

Distress is the negative stress that can “feel” the same as if a bear is visiting you. Only there is no bear and you cannot get yourself to stop those automatic physical and emotional states.

Question: What can this do to the body and the mind? What is the harm?

Read: It can lead to exhaustion, fatigue, panic, anxiety, burnout, and disease physically and emotionally

Negative stress can also:

It can be more difficult to learn and process information.
Our optimism and hope can decrease.
We may be in a continuous state of mind-body tension.
Engagement with multiple domains of life can become off-balance.

It is as if that bear is literally in the room with you. Maybe he visits nightly. Perhaps the bear shows up while in class, while talking to others

Question: WHAT CAN WE DO WITH STRESS- WHEN IT BECOMES DISTRESS?

**Next Slide�

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Mindset for Mental Health

How important is it for you to be aware of your personal mental health?

What can you do now?

You can become resilient

Low resilience:

Even small setbacks feel like disasters
Takes a while to get back on your feet

High resilience:

Bounce back from setbacks
Use adversity as an opportunity to grow

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Resilience

Resilience is…

“ability to recover from setbacks, adapt well to change, and keep going in the face of adversity.”
“the ability to positively respond to adversity.” Rossouw
“the ability to attack while running away.” Wes Fessler

Resilience is how you can reduce stress and achieve mental health.

Resilience lets you...

Stay focused on your goals & what is most important
Allows you to always move forward

Resilience is a skill anyone can learn and develop no matter your age or stage of life

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Prefrontal cortex =SMART BRAIN (reasoning, creative & strategic thinking)
Limbic or reptilian brain =IMPULSIVE BRAIN�(emotional response, fear - amygdala, hypothalamus)
Learning to control our impulsive brain and activate our smart brain

Brain Anatomy

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Stress and Performance

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Composure and Reasoning

Composure: Emotion regulation, patience, being calm and collected

Reasoning: Problem solving, resourcefulness, ability to gauge situations accurately

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Resiliency Helps With Stress

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How to Reduce Stress

Composure

Calm breathing
Label emotions
Rethink and write it out

Reasoning

Lean toward change
Anticipate and plan

Composure:

Breathing is an old but highly effective technique - can help to reset your state of mind and even your nervous system (feelings of overwhelming helplessness that comes with stress)

Demonstrate: Hugging exercise/head and neck (Dr. Peter Lavine- researcher and psychologist)

Resources for guided meditation

Labeling emotions- can perspective and distance in the moment- so you can gain composure

Emotion circle-- angry may be annoyed or impatient This allows you to categorize and label the emotion- makes it separate from you- helps with emotional regulation under stress

Write it out- re-interpret disruptive emotions as constructive emotions

for example:

‘The experiments of James Pennebaker, an American social psychologist and the who has done 40 years of research into the links between writing and emotional processing, revealed that people who write about emotionally charged episodes experience an increase in their physical and mental well-being. The process of writing allows people to gain a new perspective on their emotions and to understand them and their implications more clearly.”

Reasoning:

Lean toward change- Change is not only a constant anymore – it is accelerating.

New technology, automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence are generating faster and greater disruptions than ever.

See opportunities in change- Example: Talk to yourself- it is okay- “This is a difficult program to use but it will keep me organized”

Dori- “Just keep swimming”

Anticipate and plan

Visualize scenarios & plan for adverse outcomes
Take action to mitigate future problems

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Stress Management Exercise

GradWell’s 8 Dimensions of Wellness

Intellectual

Occupational

Physical

Social

Spiritual

Emotional

Environmental

Financial

What area are you struggling in?

__________________________________

Why did you pick this area? What stress are you feeling there?

_____________________________________

Reasoning: How can you embrace what needs to happen in this area for change?

_____________________________________

Composure: Practice breathing exercises that suit your needs.

Recognizing and paying attention to our mental health – don’t find yourself at the overload in stress.

Resilience is best developed in advance. So we are going to practice right now.

On the right hand of the slide are the areas of mental well-being. This means that it is important to spend some time in each of these areas.

Pick one area that you are struggling with now.

Why did you pick this area? What burdens you with this area? What is heavy on your mind in this area?

Reasoning: How can you lean toward what needs to happen in this area of your life?

Composure: Dr. Peter Levine’s mindfulness exercise. (forehead, neck, breathing) with eyes closed.

As you do this I want you to tell yourself, it is okay right now to feel uncomfortable in this area of your life. As soon as you are able to calm your thoughts and body feel free to open your eyes and wait for everyone else.

You just became a little more resilient by reasoning with yourself and keeping your composure.

Question: (Would anyone be willing to share their experience?)

Read: Building resilience in advance primes the brain to be less emotionally reactive to adversity, promoting calmness.

BroncoFit Dimensions of Wellness https://www.boisestate.edu/broncofit/dimensions/

CDC Aspects of Wellbeing https://www.cdc.gov/hrqol/wellbeing.htm

SAMHSA https://store.samhsa.gov/product/Learn-the-Eight-Dimensions-of-Wellness-Poster-/SMA16-4953

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Summary

Definition of Stress	It is a whole body experience, the context stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension.
When Stress becomes Distress	Eustress is good for bears and promote fight or flight or even for motivation When stress turns to distress (exhaustion, fatigue, panic, anxiety, and burnout)
Resilience	“ability to recover from setbacks, adapt well to change, and keep going in the face of adversity.”
Reasoning	Lean into change and anticipate the future
Composure	Calm breathing, label emotions, and rethink and write down

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Additional Campus Resources

Graduate College

Email: graduatecollege@boisestate.edu

Phone: (208) 426-4723

Graduate Student Success Center

Email: success@boisestate.edu

Phone: (208) 426-3604

Boise State University Counseling Services

Email: healthservices@boisestate.edu

Phone: (208) 426-1459

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Thank You!

Visit the GradWell website to stay updated with our latest events and future workshops!

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