Title: Manage stressfull situations_Learning Material
Course: EN_Career planning > Section: 4. Self-management_2UC + x

The demands of education and work are high: exams, job interviews, starting internships and the first job. It is difficult to keep calm at all times. Those who get into stress often feel its accompanying symptoms, such as palpitations, restlessness, sweating or occasional sleep problems. In this chapter you will learn what stress is and how it works, but also how you can behave in such situations.
You deal with your perception of stress and your own stressful situations and find solutions for coping with these.

- Stress and its effects on the human body
- Health risks of permanent stress
- What are stressors?
- Individual behaviour and evaluation patterns as stress amplifiers
- Strategies for better stress management at work and in leisure time

Document your results in the accompanying "Stress-management-documentation tool".

Enjoy learning!

The term "STRESS"

The term stress is used inconsistently, but it is understood as a clearly defined term. Stress, either physiological, biological or psychological, is an individual's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition. Stress is the body's method of reacting to a condition such as a threat, challenge or physical and psychological barrier. Whether and how strongly we react to a stressor with a stress response depends on how we can handle such stressful situations, i.e. our stress management skills, the reaction differs individually.
Not every demand automatically leads to physical and mental stress reactions. This is only the case when we are uncertain whether we can cope with the demands placed on us. This, in turn, is decisively influenced by personal experiences, attitudes attitudes and abilities.

see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(biology)

What causes stress?
All internal and external stimuli that cause stress and thereby prompt the affected individual to react by actively adapting are stress factors: stressors.

What types of stressors are?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_stress#Types_of_stressors

Basically, a distinction is made between two types of stress: Eustress and Distress.
Read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_(medicine)

The boundaries between positive and negative stress are often fluid. If an exciting challenge turns into unreasonable work, then it becomes a burden. This can also be the case with hobbies and leisure activities if we invest too much time in them and the body no longer has the opportunity to wind down.
That is why it is important to pay attention to oneself and to notice and counteract symptoms of stress in order to build up a healthy balance between challenge and relaxation.

The effects of stress on the body

Image: Effects of stress on the body, 2010, by Gdudycha I This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Read: https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/effects-on-body

The role of the brain and hormones in the stress response
The amygdala - the fear centre of the brain - controls - together with other brain regions - our mental and physical reactions to stressful and fear-inducing situations.
Furthermore, there are two hormones that an individual produces during a stressful situation, these are well known as adrenaline and cortisol. They can have a desease-causing effect.

This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, by Caladrius44 on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amygdala_Infographic.png

That causes stress to me!
Stress triggers can affect us from the outside (e.g. noise, a complex work task, conflicts in the team) or from within ourselves, in the form of personal stress amplifiers (e.g. perfectionism, fear of failure).
Task: Give at least five examples of external stressors and personal stress amplifiers.
Put your results into a mind map.

Take a deep breath: How to relief stress?
Situation: You have an important appointment in half an hour with one of your main clients to whom you want to present a new design. A big order for your agency depends on it. But you notice that someone has disposed of the presentation samples. You notice heat rising inside you, your heart is beating like crazy and your hands are sweating. You feel queasy and rush to your computer to print out the draft again - but can't find your files. Then your phone rings ...

In such an acute stress situation, the only thing that helps is to become calm again so that you can think clearly.

Task: Find effective antidotes for acute stress situations. Do some research on the internet and draw on your own experience.
Possible page:  https://www.colorado.edu/law/25-quick-ways-reduce-stress
Make a list of the best methods against acute stress. Discuss in your group which are the best three methods and try them out together.

How to manage stress
No one acquires the know-how to deal positively with stressful situations overnight.  It is a learning process. Just a few minutes a day of conscious relaxation is a good start.  Coping strategies deal with maintaining and promoting resources and managing mental, emotional and physical aspects of stress.

What is to be done?

Recognise and name the causes of stress
Reduce the stress factors
- look for positive ways to deal with excessive or insufficient demands, conflicts with colleagues or too much workload
- Communicate openly
- Address problems
- Practise/improve time management
- Regular offline time and breaks
- Educate yourself
- Seek support

Change stress aggravating personal evaluations and attitudes (mental stress management)
- Less personal identification and more inner distance
- Less perfectionist performance expectations
- Taking oneself less seriously and importantly
- Not to refer everything to oneself, to forgive
- See difficulties as a challenge, not as a threat

Promote individual coping skills: relax and recover
Develop strategies to relieve physical tension

A balanced lifestyle is the key to coping with stress. This includes a healthy diet, rest breaks and an intact social environment as well as personal space.
Read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_management#Techniques