Module Three stress management internal stressors. Life is dynamic and constantly changing. This simple fact creates emotional, mental and physical stress, it's not possible to avoid stress entirely. Instead, you have to learn how to manage stress and navigate through the situations that trigger stress. Often it is the stressful situations in life that bring out our best. There are two types of stressors, internal stressors, and external stressors.

External stressors relate to your environment. They can involve a wide variety of things from screaming alarm clocks to crowded elevators, to high pressure situations, such as a work deadline, caring for a sick loved one, and even positive events such as gaining recognition for achievement. Often external stressors represent things that are beyond our control. Internal stressors are those stress triggers that are internal to each person. These can range from feeling irritable to feeling tired or unappreciated. Negative thoughts and automatic thinking are forms of internal stressors, irritability, emotions are universal.

Everyone has them. are intrinsically good because they provide information. Therefore emotions are valid. For example, everyone feels irritable at times. irritation is a sign of anger, which tells you that something is wrong or anxiety which tells you that you don't know an outcome. These emotions are called swing emotions because they can either improve or damage your performance.

Irritation when not addressed can snowball and reinforce negative thoughts and feelings. Managing swing emotions involves slowing down your thoughts. Here are some steps listen to self talk. Take note of I statements versus use statements. I statements imply agency while use statements imply blame. Are your thoughts fast or slow?

Fast thinking indicates arousal and the narrowing of focus while slow thinking expands your focus and relaxes you. Are you thinking in complete sentences or shorthand? Turn shorthand thoughts into complete sentences. Take note of distorted thinking styles. These are number one magnification, thinking that something is bigger than it is. Number two, destructive labeling Assessing someone or something negatively.

And number three imperative thinking belief that something or someone should do or be a certain way. Use your thoughts as instructional self statements. When you notice negative thoughts, try countering them with different statements about your situation. If your thinking involves magnification, then put things in a different perspective. If your thinking involves destructive labeling be more specific. If your thinking involves imperatives counter with more flexibility and consider other options, take time out anger, anxiety and frustration all narrow our focus.

A break away from a situation can help you approach again with a fresh perspective. When taking a timeout, it's often good to have a plan on how to make use of your timeout. For example, if taking a timeout from a situation where you felt angry, try using up that arousal energy by going for a run or some other type of exercise. unhappiness with your job. Everyone can feel unhappy with their job at times and this can yield frustration, which is an emotional cue that something isn't working Frustration results from problems that appear unsolvable. You may think you know the solution.

But if you're still feeling frustrated, it's a sign that your solution is the problem. In order to combat frustration, you have to reframe the problem. A simple way to do this is to frame the problem with this sentence. The real problem isn't blank. The real problem is blank. This allows you the flexibility to consider a whole new range of solutions, feeling underappreciated.

Feeling underappreciated involves the emotions of dejection, depression or disappointment. These emotions lead to poor performance. Unlike the swing emotions, which can go either way, known as blue emotions. These are marked by a lack of arousal and self talk that is too slow. To counter these, you need to instill emotions that arouse your energy levels such as enthusiasm, confidence, optimism and tenacity. These emotions, unlike swinging emotions, or blue emotions actually enhance performance.

All emotions have three components that work together and you can think of them as the triangle at the top of the triangle is called The way you self talk when angry is different from the way you self talk when enthusiastic or when disappointed. At the bottom left corner is the arousal level of an emotion. Both high performance emotions and swinging emotions are high arousal emotions, whereas blue emotions dampen arousal. The arousal level allows the emotions to act as cues to signal behavior. At the right corner is the behavior or reaction to an emotion. Mood management involves using cognition, your thoughts and assessments of a situation to develop better strategies for reacting to your emotions.

Emotions also have a quality of being contagious. For example, when someone smiles at you, you feel an urge to smile back when you feel underappreciated. This is a cue that you may not be appreciating yourself. Finding ways to increase your own enthusiasm and confidence makes you appreciate yourself more in this emotional state gets communicated to others. Here are some strategies to increase your performance emotions of enthusiasm, confidence, optimism and tenacity, acknowledge and celebrate success. Listen to upbeat music that makes you happy.

Look for and appreciate humor wherever you find it. A good belly laugh can change your outlook for the better. acknowledge what is going well, such as in a daily gratitude journal. before you go to bed each night write down on an index card three statements that will put you in a good mood and place it on the night standard tables that you look at it when you wake up. This way you start out each day on a positive note. Not well rested.

But bell icon Vince Lombardi once said fatigue makes cowards of us all. The quickest way to lose focus and have poor performance throughout your life is to not have enough rest. The amount of rest you need varies per individual. When you can awaken without the need for an alarm clock. This is a sign that you are getting an adequate amount of rest. sleep disorders such as insomnia can interfere with getting a good night's sleep.

Here are some approaches to dealing with insomnia. Don't try to force sleep let it come passively. One strategy is to read a book until you feel sleepy. Avoid late meals or exercising late at night. If you are feeling anxiety, we can cause your thoughts to raise. Try meditation to quiet your thoughts.

Writing in a journal is another strategy. Often the antidote to anxiety is information. If something unknown is making you anxious develop a strategy to find answers and remember that sometimes, the passage of time is the only way to get an answer. Try taking a hot bath, but do so 30 minutes before sleeping. Although a hot bath is quite relaxing immediately after getting out of the bath, your body temperature will lower. Allowing 30 minutes before bedtime gives your body temperature a chance to level off.

Go to sleep and wake up on a regular schedule every day. Whether it's a day off or not. Being well rested throughout the day is not solely a matter of physical sleep either. Another form of rest involves taking breaks and getting briefly away from your work. When feeling tired during the day stretching and doing a few minutes of vigorous exercise can help you to recharge your batteries. A study Jennifer rides the subway home from work every day.

After a long day of work Jennifer got on the subway and at the next stop a well dressed man with three well dressed kids gets on the bus. The kids keep running around and being rowdy while the men ignores them with his head in his hands. Jennifer can't take it anymore and snaps at the men. You need to control your children. The man replies, you're right. I'm sorry.

We're coming back from a funeral for their mother and I guess I can't bring myself to discipline them right now. Jennifer reconsiders her earlier anger and calls the children tour. They played a game of I spy for the rest of the trip home.