Stress Management - Overview

Stress is one of the most common and yet ineffectively managed psychological phenomena. It is common knowledge that stress affects people irrespective of age, profession and life situations and while we have an instinctual understanding of stress and associated feelings, defining stress can be tricky because we all react to it differently. However, stress can be defined two-fold; firstly in terms of adjustive demands placed on an organism and secondly the organism’s internal biological and psychological response to such demands caused by exposure to various life experiences. More importantly, stress can result from both positive and negative life events.
 
So the big question here is, what do we do about inevitable stress in our lives? How do we deal with it? Prevent it? This course seeks to address all these questions. The participants of the course will have an opportunity to:
·   Define stress and identify stressors and its origin
·   Understand the holistic nature (mind-body-spirit) of stress management and comprehend the mind-body connection of the stress and disease process
·   Master the basic understanding of the physiological mechanisms responsible for the fight-or-flight response and subsequent manifestations of various symptoms of target organ dysfunctions
·   Understand the importance of using effective coping skills to resolve stressful perceptions and gain a sense of wholeness and inner peace by using these skills
·   Learn about and experience several relaxation techniques and learn to integrate these techniques into your daily living habits to help you control stress and tension
The methodology adopted for this course involves working through experiential lessons and the student will gain an understanding of how to define stress and identify the origins of their stress. Further, it would provide them with a practical approach for reducing stress in their life and thus, improve overall health and emotional well being.
The mode of assessment will be two class assignments in the form of multiple choice questions and one project.