Competency: Managing Personal Stress

I always experience stress concerning schoolwork. I have symptoms such as irritability, headaches, crying, and short temper. These symptoms are worse during the months of August through the first week of May. These feelings are especially intensified when I am studying for tests, writing papers or working on projects. To help relieve these factors I exercise, try to go to bed around 10:30, eat a healthy diet, and spend time with my friends and family when my schedule allows. Towards the end of May, I notice an immediate improvement in all symptoms. Through the months of late May through mid-August, I experience feelings of relaxation, calmness, and an overall sense of improved happiness.

On days that I don’t work I tend to be a little more relaxed, but I spend my free time either meal prepping or reading articles for work. Now, I know that I cannot be the only applicant who is maintaining good grades, along with having a busy schedule, but I be certain that the amount of passion and drive that I put forth in every facet of my life can’t be matched by any other applicant. I find the importance of everything that I do in my life, whether it’s studying for a big exam or taking a little bit of time to read a small article, everything has an impact on your life regardless if it is big or small. I’ve realized if you only focus on what you perceive as the larger things simply because they provide a more substantial reward, that you will miss out and not be able to succeed as much versus, when you give everything the same amount of effort. It is because of this mentality that I put for the same effort in everything that I do. My final exam scores are a great example of

The pressure I place on myself may motivate me to get things done, but not without taking a toll on my mood and relationships. 9 times out of 10 I do well on the test I crammed for the night before, but I wake up the next morning groggy and depleted. In order to pursue these empty dreams and unmarked doors, I fill my plate with trivial items for a college application instead of my mental health, family, and friends. Not to say that my academics, social calendar, and extracurriculars are inherently evil or worthless, but I believe that when we find balance in our No’s and Yes’, and refuse to buy in to societal pressures, we can do well in a way that isn’t so

This year I want it to be different because I want to be less depressed and stressed out, I want to help myself get over my anxiety. I shouldn’t stress over the little things and should focus more on my future. I had many problems last year but that’s the past and I shouldn’t let it get to me. I need to plan ahead so I won’t be stressed out in the end. Even though I’m going through a lot, I still need to focus on school so I can have a good education and a bright future. I should also keep myself in good condition, I shouldn’t let myself get too depressed where I can’t sleep or I don’t want to eat at all. Last year I’ve been to that point that I can’t sleep at night and sometimes I didn’t want to eat but this year I shouldn’t let myself get

My own priorities closely match those of my brethren. A balance of work, study, and family are the cornerstones

Ah, stress. Life’s little necessary evil. Stress can either be debilitating to the point that it prevents a person from accomplishing the simplest of tasks or it can be an excellent motivator that assists you in achieving what you never thought could be done. Up until last week my graduate learning was relatively stress-free. I am fortunate to have a spouse that not only supports me emotionally, but also financially. However, sooner or later I knew I would have to find gainful employment and put my undergraduate degree to work. So, for the last two weeks I have been receiving training in a newly acquired position at a behavioral crisis unit where I was only being utilized PRN (i.e., as needed). This new position is full-time and as such the transition from having ample time to complete my assignments to having 50 hours a week less to complete the same workload is proving difficult.

My potential career choise would be a Licensed Psychologist. Having this career could potentially come with several stressful factors, which is why it's important for me to learning how to prevent and even manage them. The first source of stress the I may encounter is when it comes emtional stress and dealing with difficult situations. To manage this, I think it's important to be involved in things on my personal time outside of work doing things I enjoy such as hiking. A second source of stress would be physical stress, which could interfere with my energy. This source could be dealt with through maintaining proper fitness and resting my body. A third source would be any pressure the come with my career. Feeling pressure to do my job as best

Some of my topmost stressors I come across on a daily basis regardless of academic life or professional life are, waiting on grades to be announced, time constrictions and striving for excellence. I get very restless while waiting for my grades to be posted even though I know in the back of my mind that I have strived to do my best on the graded assignment. Due to this stressor, I experience burdensome emotional reaction while waiting on my grades. My next large stressor are time constrictions on all the tasks at hand. Even if I know I have a week to complete an assignment I will usually try to complete the task as soon as possible, even though I know I have a week to complete the task. This is due to self-gratification of completing the task

After completing the stress inventory, I realized I had a relatively high score. This past year I have gotten married, started my second year of grad school, and now expecting a child. The main areas that could cause me to stress is pregnancy matters, school, and financials. So many changes are happening and it is such an adventure. In October, my husband and I will make one year of marriage and in March our first child is due. My goal this semester and next is to remain calm and take care of my body mentally and physically. I generally stress out or get overwhelmed easily, but that is clearly not an option this semester because it is unhealthy for me and baby.

When I originally enrolled for this course I figured my background knowledge on the subject was extensive enough that I might not learn all that much. With the upcoming completion of my second degree, now in Human Relations, my first being as a registered nurse, stress management has always played a role in my educational career. I did not realize, however, the extent to which stress connects both directly and indirectly to my life. All of the general findings of stress correlate exactly as expected with myself.

Competency 1.16 state to “actively pursues personal and professional growth through continuing education.” Whenever you enter the professional work of any field, you must first decide what your career goals will be for 5 and 10 years ahead. With this, you must also seek to gain insight on how you will contribute to your profession as well as decide what legacy, should you retire, would you want to leave for the rising generation. As you enter into this profession of law librarianship, there is one thing that will be required of you to do which is to provide your employer with your personal and/or professional goal; that is what you would like to accomplish for the upcoming fiscal year. This usually includes training hours and topics that you must complete during that time frame as well. We each go into the field knowing we have classroom knowledge of what to expect “on the job” but know for certain that we have a lot of learning to do that requires some of us coming out of our comfort zone and reaching out to our colleagues, organizations and associations that we have become linked to obtain this form of learning skills that will enhance our professional and for some personal growth. Not only will you realize what you have learned six months ago is outdated and there is “a better way of doing things,” you will learn how to step out, step up and step into developing your professional skills to compete with the high standards that this profession expect. To follow through with

When I was teaching, I was not like most teachers that teach one or two content. I was the teacher of four. I had to plan and grade for each course that I taught. The current position I am at now, the load is heavy due to the fact the I am learning and I want to make sure that I am doing everything correctly so that I can be successful. That is a major stress; since I am new I do not want to feel like I have failed. At home I have my relationship that I have to attend to and my daughter. I have the stress at home to maintain a loving home and all that comes with it. I still come home and help my daughter with her homework and get her ready for the evening and the next day. I have to have time for my relationship in the evenings to have conversations and make sure we are okay. In the evenings and weekends a lot of the time is spent on doing work for graduate courses. The stress that graduate school has caused an impact is financially. I have manage to budget but I am in debt due to the course and books. The amount put into graduate courses is a lot that pulls away from other life activities. It is intense at times but what keeps me focus is that it is a couple years and that there is an end to the goal. But through these two years I have been sick that I know it has been due to my stress and anxiety levels, but I have to come back and be self-aware of my situation in order to continue to have the drive to move forwards.

Stress management is the ability of an individual to handle appropriately, life’s challenges in a healthy manner. It does not mean the total elimination or eradication of stress but rather not letting stress hijack your emotions.

At the beginning of the semester I was unsure of what to expect with being a full-time student and Varsity athlete and balancing my time between academics, athletics, my friends and my free time to just rest and relax. The mixed emotions that came from this drove me to sign up for this class, because it seemed like something that could set the foundation for success in all facets of my life over the next four years at Kenyon. With a different assignment on different topics each week I was able to learn about my own work habits. We read extensively from Getting Things Done by David Allen and the Now Habit by Neil Fiore to learn from the best on techniques to aid in preventing procrastination, through figuring out things like the all the projects we are currently committed to and our areas of responsibility to help us devise a strategy to consistently stay on top of our work. However, the ultimate question is “how has my productivity changed, now how do I handle stress, and what strategies have I learned that have aided in my productivity?” Through all the readings and lectures the effect it has taken on my productivity and stress level go hand in hand and I have changed because of Allen, Fiore and this class. I have learned all these strategies that I will talk about that helped me learn more about myself to create a plan to get my work done. In doing so, I become less stressed and therefore my productivity has increased a significant amount in this semester and since high

Personal Stress is something that everyone experiences at some point time in their lives, and for the most part, most people experience high levels of stress. As we experience stress, there are some basics responses that apply to each person. “Each individual exhibits the same basic response to similarly perceived acute stress exposure, although the immediate and long-term consequences of the stress response vary greatly among individuals” (Quick et al., 2013, p. 43). This is a direct connect to our own personal cognitive appraisal, and according to Quick (2013), the process of cognitive appraisal that includes perception and interpretation (p. 44). Cognitive Appraisal, is defined as the process by which the physiological