Say no to stress with coping techniques
- Final Brown Bag seminar was held May 1.
- Seminar covered issues of stress.
By Katie R. Jones,
News Writing Student
As the end of the school year approaches, tensions always run high with students trying to study for finals, transfer schools, or graduate.
On Tuesday, May 1, the Brown Bag Seminars had their final program focusing on helping students manage stress.
More than a dozen students attended as Maurisa Mahan, counselor at TRiO Student Support Services, led the seminar and described how to avoid becoming overly stressed.
Students went through a “stress inoculation training” (SIT) pioneered by Donald Meichnbaum.
“Avoiding stress can be done in three steps: learning what stress is, learning skills to avoid stress, and applying the skills in your daily life,” Mahan said.
“Most people believe that an activating event causes the stress, or the behaviors, feelings and automatic thoughts that we perceive as stress,” Mahan said.
“But it really all depends on a person’s beliefs system. If the activating event goes against what a person believes is right, it triggers the automatic thoughts and feelings of stress.”
Mahan said there are two types of coping skills: problem-focused and emotion-regulation.
“Problem-focused skills include thought catching, where you realize when you are having an automatic negative thought leading to stressful emotions,” Mahan explained.
“Then gather information against those negative thoughts to prove to [yourself] that the thought is pointless,” she added.
Through emotion-regulation, Mahan said to “ask yourself if this really matters. Will it matter in 10 years?”
Mahan recommends diverting your attention from the stress by doing things you like, whether that is exercising, driving or hanging out with friends.
“It’ll start to give you a sense of control and confidence back,” Mahan said.
Mahan also handed out progressive muscle relaxation instructions.
“It is physically impossible for your body to be relaxed and stressed at the same time,” Mahan said.
These exercises should be practiced at least three times per week and eventually the person should be able to relax his or her entire body at once.
