Are you easily become irritated to just a simple thing? Well I guess you are stressful. Why not try to read some articles and to watch videos here for you to overcome this matter?
Wild Divine
March 23, 2012
10:32 am
Article from Care2
When you hear the word “stress” you can almost feel it – that sensation of being overwhelmed, of being unsure of what your next step should be, of frustration. But not all stress is bad. In fact, in the right doses it can help us achieve success. The key is to be able to identify our stress and manage it in a healthy way. (Are you stressed? See the stress symptoms checklist link at end of article.)
Stress is your natural reaction to threatening or demanding situations. It can propel us to action or render us helpless. It can even affect how we make our decisions. Often it leaves us feeling out of control. But that is just it, it is a feeling, not a fact. If we can regain control over our thoughts, we can channel our stress into a positive outcome.
First, we need to understand that as sophisticated as we have become, our animal instincts still drive us. When we are faced with a critical or difficult challenge, our fight-or-flight response kicks into gear. Our nervous systems pump stress hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol, into our bloodstream. Our hearts pump faster, our muscles tense, our blood pressure rises and our breathing speeds up. Good stress will ready our body and mind to meet the challenge before us. Bad stress may overwhelm us, perhaps leaving us feeling dizzy or incapacitated.
And not only can stress help or hinder our emotional and physical ability to react, researchers have found that it also effects how we make decisions. According to Mara Mather of the University of Southern California, stress makes people focus on the way things could go right. “This is sort of not what people would think right off the bat,” Mather says. “Stress is usually associated with negative experiences, so you’d think maybe I’m going to be more focused on the negative outcomes.” What research has found, however, is that when people are put under stress they start paying more attention to positive information and discounting negative information. (Association for Psychological Science 2012, February 28)
As you can imagine, this shift in attention can work for or against you. It can increase risky behavior. You may leap forward without thinking through all of the ramifications. Or it may empower you to take the necessary risks to achieve something great.
Once we understand it is natural for us all to have an involuntary reaction to a stressful event, and that it can impact if and how we deal with the challenges set before us, we can be better prepared to recognize our stress and use it to our advantage.
As soon as we feel the signs of stress coming upon us, we need to stop and take a moment to breathe. Rather than letting ourselves go into auto pilot, we need to take control. The same mechanism that turns the stress response on can also turn it off – it’s called the relaxation response. This tells our mind and body that the danger has passed. Some have found meditation techniques can help them achieve this. What is wonderful about meditation is that even the attempt to enter a meditative state, whether you are a master or a novice, will have an immediate impact on your stress level – because you are stopping whatever else you were doing, you are resting, you are breathing deeply, you are slowing down. This will give you the space you need to calm your nerves, to collect your thoughts, and to see a clear path through the stress-inducing situation.
It is often said that the best defense is a good offense. By adopting an ongoing stress management program, including relaxation techniques that work for you, you will not only be able to give yourself instant relief from stress symptoms when they are triggered, you will also increase your overall sense of wellness and balance. And then when those stress triggers pop up, and you know they will, you will start to find that you are not reacting as quickly to them. You will still be prompted to action, but without the unhealthy panic and fear that clouds your judgment or shuts you down.
Have you made bad decisions or been immobilized by stress? What can you do to slow down and take control? Or how have you used feelings of stress to motivate you to do something you wanted or needed to do? Please share!
Article from Care2
Education guide: Managing school stress
Published: Sunday, March 18, 2012, 12:05 AM
By Kelly Huth | The Express-Times
Article from lehigh valley live
Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMS
Megan Halkins, of the Weller Health Education Center, presents her program stress management to students at Pocono Mountain Intermediate School.
Will I get accepted into the school I want? Will I be able to get the grades I need? Can I afford it?
Those are just the some of the stresses running through the minds of college-age students.
Jessica McKinney, guidance counselor for Belvidere High School, says high school seniors go through pockets of stress throughout the year.
“I don’t know that we have kids complaining about stress, but you can see it in their face,” McKinney says. Her job is to offer tips and pointers for dealing with the pressure of deciding the next four years of their lives.
The kids are only in school a week, before McKinney says they start talking about colleges. From the beginning of October until about Christmas break, they have the stress of filling out applications.
“Then the kids see a slight decrease in stress once the applications have gone out — unfortunately that doesn’t last long,” she adds.
The pressures of “will I get in” fade to “will I afford it?” But it’s a stress for parents too, McKinney adds.
The key is preparing early. McKinney says they start advising sophomores to plan for the stressors of senior year and remind them to do a little at a time.
Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMS
Megan Halkins of the Weller Center presents her stress management program to students at the Pocono Mountain Intermediate School.
Putting it into perspective
Seniors are by far the most frequent visitors to guidance, says Katherine Schuma, guidance counselor for Hackettstown High School.
And for the higher achieving students, the wait may be longer as the Ivy League and competitive schools wait until April to send out decisions.
“So if you haven’t heard from anybody yet you’re kind of getting a little nervous,” Schuma says.
Her advice for students, hard as it may be to hear, is that everyone ends up exactly where they need to be.
“You have to tell kids it’s going to be okay. They might not go to their first choice, but they will go to college,” Schuma says.
And if they don’t get into their dream school, it may be because the professor who is going to inspire and enlighten them to be an amazing human being who gives back to the world, is at the next school on their list.
It helps students to put the stress into perspective by realizing that college is a stepping stone.
“Tell them all to relax. It’s a stressful time, but in the realm of life, are you more concerned where you go to school or who you marry?”
Making stress a positive
Stress can be a good thing, says Joe Webster, Director of Education for the Weller Health Education Center. “It depends on how you deal with it,” he says.
The Weller Health Education Center prepares 43 programs, such as eating healthy, sexual education and stress management, to deliver to area school students in grades K through 12.
Stress lessons are usually delivered in the beginning of the year as students are dealing with transitions. They target students in middle school through ninth grade, Webster says.
They use Koosh balls in a juggling exercise to illustrate the point to students that if you try to take on everything on your own, you may drop everything.
For younger students, Webster says it’s important to emphasize healthy eating and getting exercise, talking about their issues and focusing on things within their control, as stress management techniques.
Aim for positive reinforcement — you can handle this.
For parents, if they notice their child is getting stressed — talk to them. “You don’t want to get to the point where they’re standoffish,” Webster says.
“If they don’t try to deal with it, it can lead to a lot of things,” Webster says, citing getting sick and missing school time as potential outcomes.
Younger students can manage stress by utilizing a planner to help them practice good time management.
It’s a balance between wanting to help and not pushing your child away by coming on too strong. Webster advises, seek professional help if the situation worsens.
“As much as we want to get rid of stress in our lives, it’s impossible,” McKinney says. “We have to deal with it.”
By Donna Leinwand Leinart and Elizabeth Weise
Article from USA TODAY
BONNEY LAKE, Wash. – In his dress uniform, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales's chest would boast the ribbons and medals of a decade of exemplary service: Three good conduct medals, six Army Commendation medals, two Meritorious Unit commendations and a slew of combat and service ribbons.
In Bales' own words, his motives were pure. He told a military publication proudly that after the bloody battle of Najaf in 2007, he and his fellow soldiers helped the people who had tried to kill them earlier that day. "I think that's the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy," Bales told the Northwest Guardian.
And in the eyes of a loyal wife, the father of her two young children would still do his duty, even after he was passed over for a promotion last year. "It is very disappointing after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he had made for his love of his country, family and friends," Karilyn Bales wrote in a family blog called The Bales Family Adventures.
STORY: Combat stress could be part of suspect's defense
Bales, 38, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers, mostly women and children, now awaits his fate in a solitary cell in the military jail at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., Col. James Hutton said in a statement.
Bales allegedly sneaked off his small post in the Panjwai district in Afghanistan's unruly Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold, around 3 a.m. last Sunday, walked to two villages where he entered homes and shot, stabbed and burned sleeping families, including nine children.
Although Bales and his family resented his expected fourth deployment, little in Bales' past suggests he harbored unharnessed anger or had become unhinged.
Senior military officials have suggested a combination of alcohol, combat stress and marital strife played a role in the massacre.
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
The home of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, is located in Bonney Lake, Wash.
But Bales' attorney John Henry Browne, who said he spoke briefly to the soldier, said the couple's marriage is solid. Browne told reporters at a press conference that Bales, the day before the shooting, had seen a fellow soldier lose a leg after stepping on a buried mine. Browne said he, civilian lawyer Emma Scanlan and military defense counsel Maj. Thomas Hurley will meet with Bales this week.
"Public reports that Sergeant Bales' supervisors, family and friends describe him as a level-headed, experienced soldier are consistent with information gathered by the defense team," Browne said in a statement. "It is too early to determine what factors may have played into this incident."
Bales' family is "stunned in the face of this tragedy, but they stand behind the man they know as a devoted husband, father and dedicated member of the armed services," the statement said.
Bales grew up in Ohio. He played offensive guard on the high school football team and was elected sophomore class president, yearbook photos show.
In Norwood, a suburban community near Cincinnati, friends and neighbors reacted with shock.
"That's not our Bobby Bales," said Michelle Cadell, who with her brother Micheal Blevins grew up across the street from Bales and knew him from childhood.
Bales' parents, Bernice and Garfield Bales, raised five sons in Norwood. Bales is the youngest, she said. Cadell recalled Bales' childhood fascination with mechanical things. He would watch intently as neighbors worked on their cars, she said.
Blevins said Bales, who considered studying physical therapy in college, helped a neighbor family take care of a young man who had multiple physical disabilities. "You don't understand what a family-oriented man this was," Cadell said. "And it was more than his family. He had an extended family."
As a teen, he once confronted a group of rowdy youngsters who'd gathered in front of Cadell's home and told them to leave. When one of the men physically challenged Bales, he decked the challenger and the group left, she said. Then Bales apologized to Cadell's mother for the unseemly scene.
Blevins, who admired Bales and followed him around "like as a little shadow" when he was young, called Bales a "hero of the neighborhood … a good influence."
Bales "overachieved on the football field," said John Stacy, a high school friend of Bales who now is Norwood Middle School's dean of students. "He wasn't the biggest of guys. He worked hard."
After high school, Bales played football at College of Mount St. Joseph in Delhi Township outside Cincinnati, but then transferred to Ohio State, where his friends said he majored in economics. Ohio State officials told the Columbus Dispatch that Bales attended the school from 1993 to 1996, but didn't graduate.
Military records indicate he completed two years of college. Bales also spent time in Jensen Beach, Fla., where he opened an investment business that he registered with the state.
Bales, then 27, enlisted in the Army on Nov. 8, 2001, just two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He was assigned to the Third Stryker Brigade in the Second Infantry Division, Browne said.
The next year, police arrested Bales at a Tacoma motel for allegedly assaulting a girlfriend. He completed 20 hours of anger management counseling and the case was dismissed in 2003.
A separate hit-and-run charge was dismissed in Sumner, Wash.'s municipal court three years ago, according to records. It isn't clear from court documents what Bales hit; witnesses saw a man in a military-style uniform, with a shaved head and bleeding, running away.
When deputies found him in the woods, Bales told them he fell asleep at the wheel. He paid about $1,000 in fines and restitution and the case was dismissed in October 2009, two months after he deployed for a third time to Iraq.
After the Army stationed him at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash., he put down roots. He married in 2005.
Bales and his wife, Karilyn Primeau Bales, purchased a modest two-story house in Bonney Lake, Wash., in a working class neighborhood known as Lake Tapps. They had two pre-school aged children, a boy and a girl.
Bales deployed three times to Iraq. He served a year from Nov. 1, 2003, to Oct. 1, 2004, and returning again for 15 months beginning in June 19, 2006 to Sept. 22, 2007.
Bales, an infantry soldier, trained as a sniper and visual tracker in 2008 and completed a series of leadership courses, including the Warrior Leaders and Advance Leaders courses.
Neighbors said he spoke reluctantly and humbly about his wartime service.
"When I heard him talk, he said … 'Yeah, that's my job. That's what I do'," said Kassie Holland, a next-door neighbor. "I can't believe it was him."
During his 2007 deployment, a military history account indicates Bales participated in a critical battle in Najaf, Iraq, to rescue a downed Apache helicopter. "We discriminated between the bad guys and the combatants, and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us," Bales is quoted as saying in February 2009.
On April 1, 2008, he earned a promotion to staff sergeant. He deployed for a 10-month stint on Aug. 8, 2009, returning June 4, 2010, Army records show.
Browne said Bales suffered a minor head injury in 2010 as a passenger in a Humvee that flipped over. That accident may have caused a "traumatic brain injury" that could have contributed to Bales' distress at redeployment, he said. Browne also said Bales lost part of his foot in another incident.
An Army account of Bales' service record does not indicate he received a Purple Heart for any injuries.
After three deployments and two injuries, the military told Bales he would not return to the Middle East battlefields.
"The family was counting on him not being redeployed," and were "not happy" he was going back, Browne said.
He left for Afghanistan on Dec. 1.
Now the Bonney Lake house is dark, empty and up for sale. Two stacks of flattened, cardboard boxes and a child's sled filled the front porch and a bright flower wreath hung on the front door. Tools lay abandoned on the back deck. The remains of a child's birthday party are visible through the window.
The military moved the family to the base last week for their protection.
Ryan Hills, 34, his wife, Staci, and children share a back fence with the Bales, but had minimal contact. The couple seemed nice, they said.
"He was a super nice dude," Hills said. "We'd only really talked once, right after we moved in."
"They were quiet neighbors, no problems," he said.
Next door to the Hills family, a woman who declined to give her name said her family moved to the neighborhood three weeks ago and noticed that the Bales' home seemed to keep their lights on day and night. Then, on Thursday, the house went dark.
Hills said he's seen news reports that Afghans have threatened retaliation against Bales' family. He said he fears for the neighborhood.
"You never know," he said.
Contributing: Jim Michaels; Denise Amos Smith, Mark Hansel and Carrie Whitaker of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Associated Press.
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