Understanding Stress and Stressors

• Stress is a response to anything that makes one feel threatened or pressured; it needs adaptation and adjustment
• The body automatically reacts to changes, challenges, and demands placed on it
• Mental tension and worry caused by life and work issues cause anxiety
• Normal reaction to pressures becomes unhealthy when daily functioning is upset
• Challenges affect most of the body's systems, influencing feelings and behavior

Eustress vs Distress

• Eustress is positive stress which motivates
• Distress is negative stress, harmful, and causes emotional, physical, and psychological problems
• Stressors are situations and pressure that cause stress
• Stressors can be negative like exhausting work or positive like getting married
• Not all stress comes from external factors, but can be self-generated by excessive worrying or pessimism

Kinds of Stressors

• Cataclysmic Events involve strong, sudden stresses simultaneously affecting people
• Can include natural disasters like typhoons, global warming effects, and earthquakes
• Can also include man-made troubles such as terrorist attacks, ship or plane crash bombings
• Personal Stressors refer to conditions, events, or anything causing stress to an individual
• Could be positive (marriage) or negative (death of a loved one)
• Stress occurs when one is experiencing frustration, pressure, or conflict
• Background Stressors, or daily hassles, are displeasures encountered every day
• This can include standing in long lines, traffic, and pollution
• Experiencing dissatisfaction with school/job, unhappy relationships, or crowded living conditions are also factors

Nature of Stress

• Stress, not in the individual or environment, is embedded in an ongoing process involving transactions with social and cultural environments

Types of Stress

• Environmental stress consists of demands that change the state of our bodies
• Body strain from overexertion, poor diet, injury, or insufficient sleep are examples
• Unavoidable surroundings like air pollution, crowding, noise, and extreme weather are environmental stressors
• Catastrophic events or disasters like fire, earthquakes, and floods are environmental
• Psychological stresses are generated internally through our minds and are unique to each person
• These are internal sources of stress

Symptoms of Stress

• Physical issues can include insomnia, low energy, headaches, nervousness, upset stomach, rapid heartbeat, infections, and teeth grinding
• Emotional signs are agitation, frustration, moodiness, feeling overwhelmed, difficulty relaxing, low self-esteem, and isolation
• Cognitive symptoms include forgetfulness, poor judgment, constant worrying, racing thoughts, and pessimism
• Behavioral symptoms include changes in appetite, substance misuse, procrastination, and nervous habits

Managing Stress

• Recognize stress symptoms to manage them
• Untreated stress contributes to health problems
• Choose to perceive stress as something to overcome, apply positive outlook
• Deep breathing is a stress reduction strategy that can be used now and in the future
• Stress and change are a part of life, and both positive and negative events cause it
• Experiencing stress can be motivating and negative impacts mental wellness if there is too much
• Highschool students are at risk of risk-taking behaviors
• Responsible time management and balancing tasks is crucial
• Prioritization skills are important for managing stress

Strategies

• Become attuned to your body and emotions
• Exercise regularly by loosening muscles and promoting well-being
• Dispute negative thoughts
• Rest and regenerate the mind, body, and spirit
• Use breathing methods
• Develop hobbies and interests
• Create a support system
• Develop a sense of humor
• Plan; do not worry
• Be assertive
• Keep a journal
• Get professional help

Parts of the Brain

• Brain is responsible for illnesses
• The brain contains around of 100 billion nerve cells (neurons)
• The brain has more than 100 billion nerves that communicate in connections called synapses
• Frontal lobe is in charge of cognition and memory
• Temporal Lobe is the chief auditory receptive area and contains the hippocampus
• Occipital Lobe, or the visual cortex which processes visual information

Left v Right Brain

• Left-brain thinking is logical and analytical
• Right-brain thinking is creative and emotional
• Corpus callosum connects 2 hemispheres in brain

Enhancing Brain Function

• Enhance brain functions through meditation, visualization, learning new skills/languages, socializing, sleeping, exercising regularly, music, group work, and mind mapping

Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional Intelligence(EI) guides one in communicating emotional expressions
• Daniel Goleman argues EQ can be more important in success than IQ, explains self-awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills are essential for thriving in the modern world.

Emotions

• Emotion is a subjective state of mind triggered by stimuli or events, observed through body language and facial expressions
• Allows for others to see how you feel at each moment
• Analysing and reading expressions helps to understand feelings

The Limbic System

• Limbic system regulates emotions, behavior, motivation, memory, and the autonomic nervous system
• Hypothalamus produces hormones, helps one sleep, and manages your mood, hunger and thirst, sexual arousal, blood pressure
• Amygdala processes emotions: fear and anger
• Thalamus Processes sensory information and emotions

Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions

• Emotions organize into 8 primary categories (circular and flower-like)
• 8 core emotions are paired as opposites
• Each primary emotion has its opposite situated 180 degrees apart
• Act like building blocks with complex or mixed emotions
• Combination creates a different one
• Reaction on situation affects feelings.

Emotional Intensity

• Variations in the magnitude of emotional responses, ranging from mild to strong
• Three intensity circles: inner is strong emotions, second are basic, and outer are milder

Emotions and Adolescents

• Experiencing highs, lows, variability, moodiness, emotion outbursts
• Adolescents struggle with dependence on parents and the desire for independence
• There is a loss of childhood, emotional/physical changes, friend pressures, adding responsibilities, and setting in school

Managing Emotions

Steps for managing emotions:

• Be aware of your emotions by noticing and labeling them
• This helps you understand how others feel, increasing empathy, and building friendships/relationships
• Regulate your reaction by managing stress and improving emotional intelligence
• Manage emotions by positive actions

Positive Actions

• Exercise
• Be kind to others
• Be open to others'
• Appreciate the opportunity to talk

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

• Love and belonging presents personal connections, intimacy, friendship, and belonging
• Personal relationships closely associated with a person and has meaning

Personal Relationships

• Close connections by emotional bonds and interactions
• They are NOT static, rather they are continually evolving
• Skills, info, inspiration, practice, and help enjoy fully and benefit
• • 2 characteristics of personal relationship:
• privacy means having your thoughts and feelings to yourself
• intimacy means a special attachment with another

Family and Relationships

• Family is defined by marriage or adoption, of 2 or people living together by one household
• Relationship with siblings and parents play a vital role to self-wellbeing
• Strong bond although that does not always happen
• Older relatives play a positive role like guiding, discipline, and supporting

Friendships

• Friends - People that are not a relative, but the individual chooses to interact. People trusted, share, support, care and respect those friend (Mutual affection)

Types of Relationships

• There are different degrees of good relationships
• They involve mutually respectful, mutual interests build one with honesty and loyalty to relationships

Romantic Relationships

• Those relationships strongly felt by individual, reciprocated by other

Keys to Relationships for building healthy relationships

• Leads and develops healthy relationships
• Allows individual the opportunity to see the wonderful and amazing things within other
• Increases esteem of confidence and enthusiastic feelings to make individuals excited and feel supported
• The sense of belonging gives a great sense of direction
• Relationships help you focus and build beautiful things

Social Relationships

• Refer to the connections and interactions between peers with a personal meaning, encompassing friendships
• Middle and late adolescents find themselves and meet new peers
• They mature, learn faster, and they meet to affirm and develop new capacity in their self-esteem

Qualities of Leadership

• Vision, ability to see into the future to have a clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish
• Courageous, they are willing to take risks to the goals
• Have a core integrity, which is honesty, both internally and externally to an individual

K Styles of Learning

• *Traits vs. Learning:**.
• A means in how one uses a manner to goals through power
• Goal agreement with people to become more influenced with each other

Leadership Behaviors

• The type of learning to certain traits
• Participative:*
• Common decisions among individuals
• Strategic:*
• Bases on the power of having new skills and working together
• The need to serve is the leader ship for having a position in power
• The perception of power:*
• The knowing, interpret, and learning information that drive behaviors and the new value beliefs
• *Understanding others: **
• Drive to being influenced and shared, values through the interaction is society has

Understanding Social Values

• Social influences in changes individual behavior to the demands by a group power

How Influences in Group and Power

• By the beliefs of wealth that make others believe
• How Influence Functions:*
• A new manner to an individual to change what is accepted to do with a new action
• The study of Conformity:*
• Is changing an individual with adapting shared values to be given
• *Understanding the social norms:**.
• The expectation for individuals to have standards that are of value
• *The need that power can get to a demand power: **.

Study of Obedience

• Individuals learn to have a need
• Changing action to being demand for being with high power

Social Study: Types Influence

• Complainants :*
• Individuals have influence from stars
• Internal*:
• the actions in the manner of known actions

Social Learning

• Power that influences social influence that can change an individual is action
• Individuals beliefs change

Group Influence

• Changing your beliefs with a conversation and the way the group has and in a public manner

Adolescent Relationships

• Individual connect with new peers
• Friendship is critical to self development in young adults