Essay Example Dedicated to Stress Management Techniques

Overview of the chosen technique

Stress management starts by understanding the source of the stress or tracking, followed by taking care of the body, then dealing with the emotions attached to it and lastly making the surrounding environment more conducive. The chosen techniques to deal with stress are a cardio exercise which is also known as the aerobic exercise and deep breathing exercise. Cardio exercises are useful in reducing the stress that affects people and it also helps in improving the metabolic process. The exercises were done weekly and they involved cardio running and deep breathing. Cardio runs at the local park were used done five times that week while deep breathing was done for seven times. The twelve sessions were done for at least ten minutes and at most thirty minutes. On Monday, cardio running was the first exercise and it took thirty minutes followed by a ten minutes' session for deep breathing. On Tuesday, the sessions were three; two for deep breathing for ten minutes each and a session for cardio running for fifteen minutes at the middle of the two. Wednesday started with a cardio run for thirty minutes and deep breathing after classes for ten minutes. Thursday started with deep breathing for ten minutes, cardio run after classes for fifteen minutes and deep breathing before bed for ten minutes. After skipping Friday and Saturday, Sunday started with a cardio run in the morning for thirty minutes and a deep breathing at night for ten minutes. All cardio runs took place in the local nature park and deep breathing took place both in the park and in the bedroom.

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Impacts of the chosen technique

The impacts of the stress management plan could be felt from the first day to the last day of the week. The first impact was a reduction in the feeling of stress and more relaxation at night. The run reduced the feeling of fatigue and helped the brain to work better. The stress tracker data shows that the rate of stress reduced by a significant amount and the brain was more ready to tackle more stressing events than before. The stress management plan can be used to reduce the rate at which people contact heart diseases. Research indicates that men get heart attacks at a higher rate than women but women die more than men from the attacks (Sapolsky, 2007). The stress management plan can help to reduce the rate of heart attacks, as seen in my case where the stress experience reduced significantly after the use of the plan.

Likes and dislikes of the technique

The chosen technique has its positive and negative impacts which can be used to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. The first thing I liked about the technique is that it was flexible and easy to adapt and follow. Most of the techniques I had experienced before strenuous and required a lot of effort to maintain. Some of them require one to exercise daily after waking up, after breakfast, at midday and in the evening or just before bed. With more than four sessions daily, the techniques make it hard to follow. The other reason is that the technique has short sessions which can be done even when one is tired. Short sessions are easy to manage and do not have side effects like excessive tiredness. Another fact is that the technique does not have complex exercises. Running and breathing are easy exercises which can be done by anyone, as compared to other techniques that involve highly complicated activities. One of the things I did not like about the technique is that it has only two exercises and this limits people to breathing and running only. The other one is that it does not consider the needs of people who cannot run, for example, the physically weak and disabled.

Barriers experiences

In implementing the technique, one of the challenges I encountered is inadequate information about the dangers and advantages of the technique. Stress management is a vital part of life and can affect any part of the body. For example, it can lead to increased corticoids in the body which affects the reproductive system and can lead to reduced libido (PhD, 2000). The challenge was that with inadequate information, it was hard to determine if the goals were being achieved. The other one was that there were no measures to determine if the technique has worked well or it has failed. The last one is that some of the sessions were just before bed and at that time I was either too full or busy. Time management was a challenge for the first few days.

Future stress management tools

In the future, I will use exercising as the stress management tool because it is easy to follow and has reliable results. The technique used enlightened me on the advantages and risks of exercising and its results could be felt immediately. For example, after the morning cardio run on Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday, the stress disappeared and it was possible to handle more tasks for the day as compared to the days before. Some of the morning stress associated with poor motivation at the workplace disappeared and I was fully motivated to face the day.

References

PhD, M. D. (2000). The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook.

Sapolsky, R. M. (2007). Why zebras don't get ulcers: Stress, metabolism, and liquidating your assets. The Praeger handbook on stress and coping, 3, 181-97.