Driving

While we all have pretty much agreed on a few certain things that help us all relax from different stressors, two examples being music and exercise. But there is another thing that I want to add to the list: driving. While this is clearly not a good idea for those emotional drivers who might cuase an accident if they are emotionally compromised and completely stressed out while on the road, it can be perfectly calming for those who can keep it under control. I have  a 5 hour drive back home and while I don’t go home very often becuase of it, I look forward to the drive simply becuase it means that I just have those 5 hours to relax, listen to my music, and not have to worry myself about a ton of different deadlines that I have. Furthremore, one of my friends jsut goes out on a drive when he just can’t seem to study. With exams coming up and having to review a ton of material, he just goes out on a drive. He takes his ipod along, and just takes turns whereever he feels like it, sometimes getting himself completely lost.

 Then, when he feels like he should go back and thinks he can finally focus, he’ll turn on his GPS and come on back to campus. Being able to physically get himself away from the problem is definatley theraputic for him and helps him deal with the overwhelming feeling of studying for his tests or whatever he has on his mind. So, while not reccomended for those who arn’t necessarily the most cautious of drivers when they are stressed, watching the road flow by under you is yet another potential method for helping your stress.

Girls Are Always Stressed!

Is it better to be a male or female when dealing with stress? My guess was females, because looking back at chapter 7 in Sapolsky’s Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, I realized that the affects of stress, specifically on the reproductive system, is a lot worse for females than it is for males. Males face dilemmas like premature ejaculation and loss of erection, while females have to deal with issues as drastic as irregular menstruation, miscarriages, and fertilization failure. In the chapter 7 PowerPoint, not only did females have a greater quantity of problems that came with stress, but I think the conflicts that they encountered were drastically less favorable than those of which men had to deal with. I did a bit more research on the topic, and I found that girls are better at coping with stress than boys. This surprised me, because it seemed like women have it much worse than men according to Sapolsky. A study shows that stress causes more of a reaction in the blood pressure of males opposed to females.

The following sites contain more information on this subject:
http://www.malehealth.co.uk/stress/19016-do-boys-suffer-stress-more-girls
http://www.sodahead.com/entertainment/who-do-you-think-has-more-stressboys-or-girls/question-461193/

Action Packed Movies

 

This past friday night a couple of the baseball guys decided that we should go out and see a movie. That movie was the New Fast and Furious also know as Fast Five. I had not seen more then two of these movies and i dont think any of them from beginning to end. Going in to the movie i did not expect quite the magnitude of the adrenaline rush i would get during the movie and the excitement and the rush id feel after the movie had ended. This is how these action movies end up making sequels its the hype that they can generate. People will go to their local movie theatre and spend 10 bucks to see the next film hoping to get that same endorphin release that that got in the previous film. For guys there isnt anything that interests us more than fast cars, money, and women and this has been a part of all the fast and furious movies. I also felt a little nervous getting in a car with someone else driving after the movie becuase i know that if i was behind the wheel that that stress response may lead me to having a little bit of a heavy foot on the drive back to campus.

The Most Stressful

So we have learned a lot about stress this semester. We have been blogging about stressors and stress relief, and we all have seen stressful experiences people have been through. Knowing that this class is coming to an end, I was looking over posts and thinking about all the stress people face. This made me wonder what would top the list of the most stressful things that people faced. I thought to myself for a while, and kind of constructed my own list with the obvious things, like: school, a job, a relationship, death, and driving. What stressors do you face the most? If you made a list of the most stressful things, what would be on the list? After doing some research, I found a list of the top 10 most stressful things in life:
1. Divorce / Breakup
2. Bereavement
3. Losing job
4. Wedding planning
5. Work
6. Kids / Family
7. Debt
8. Commuting
9. Studying for exams
10. Pregnancy
Does anything on this list surprise you? The thing that stood out to me most was “kid/family”, because when I think about it, it is also a form of stress relief, especially for people like me, college students, who are away from home and dealing with stressful things, like exams and work, which are both on the list. Getting the chance to see or talk to my family usually brightens my day when I’m not feeling too well. If you had a chance to change this list, what alterations would you make?

The following sites contain different lists, take a look to see if these lists more accurately cover the most stressful life events:
http://healthylife.typepad.com/loving-healthy-living/2010/01/top-ten-most-stressful-life-events.html
http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/features/stressed-out/stress-events.html

Disney, are there really subliminal messages?

So, I’m sure everyone loves the wonderful Walt Disney movies. We all watched them in our youth and might still watch them at times because they remind us of our childhood! In high school I took a psychology class and we learned about subliminal messaging. Subliminal messages are hidden words or images in advertisements, movies, or music. It has been noticed that there are subliminal messages in some Disney movies such as The Lion King, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid.  Have you all seen heard of these messages being present in the Disney movies?

Here is an example of a subliminal message in Aladdin.

You must listen very closely, but Aladdin says, “Take off your clothes.”  Why would Disney put this into one of his movies that are meant for children?  What do you think?

Another movie is The Lion King.  While Simba lays down in the grass, dust flies up into the sky to spell the word sex.. watch closely in this video.

Finally, a third movie that has subliminal messages in it is The Little Mermaid.  At the end of the movie, when Prince Eric and Ursula are getting married the priest is having a little problem with his pants… here’s another video.

After watching these three examples of subliminal messaging in Disney movies, does it change your perspective on them? Do you think these are real or fake, there is much controversy between the subject so what is your opinion on it?

My new hobby

When I was younger I never would have thought that I would end up being interested in photography. However, when my friends and family started telling me how good I was at taking pictures, I got the idea to get a DSLR (digital single reflex lens) camera. These cameras are the ones used by professional photographers. Every since I told my mother that I wanted a camera and had decided which one I was going to get, I anticipated my camera arriving in the mail. The anticipation alone made me feel alot happier. I had a horrible year and it was nice to know that I would be getting SOMETHING that would make me happy. When I finally got it, I immediately starting taking pictures and from then on I had a hobby. Now I go out and take pictures around campus and its something that I really enjoy. I highly recommend trying photography if you are looking for a fun, creative hobby to take up.

These are some of my recent pictures:

Youtube as a stress relief?

Is anyone like me and just sitting around bored and goes to youtube? I love going to youtube and just finding random videos that mkae me laugh. Once I get going I can’t stop. I find that if my day is just slow and not very exciting that youtube helps me feel better. I am a strong believer that laughing is a great medicine. If you are laughing then you feel better about how things are going in your life. I share most of the videos with my friends. The videos that I find most everyone loves. My choices in videos have recieved so much attention that I even have a list of friends on facebook that have asked me to send them videos. I feel that they enjoy them and it makes their days just a little bit better. I know that Jordon in our class is on that list and we have a blast sharing funny videos. So if your ever have a down day go to youtube and type in anything and you’ll find something shortly. If you can’t just ask me and I’ll find something in my random brain for ya to laugh at.

Sorry for the language but maybe this will help everyone with their finals my gift to yall.

Humor to settle the STRESS!!

Lately I have been overly stressed with school work, and basically everything going on has began to stress me out. Tonight I was pretty stressed worried about my final exams coming up and decided to take a break from studying and begin to unwind a little bit from my educational life. When unwinding I started watching a show called Workaholics which is a very humorous show on comedy central.  On this show they portray people that are very lackadaisical  and dont enjoy their work. They begin to work together and then they decide to take drugs. While on these drugs they act like complete idiots and dont do anything right. They hallucinate and worry about everything going on within the office. Back to the point of my stress level…

Over the time period of 30 minutes of watching this show I began to laugh and be back to being happy and stressless. This created a much better working environment within my room, and I honestly just had to blog about it because I 1)needed to and, 2) thought it was pretty interesting that 30 minutes can do that to your stress level. I knew stress was normally a short-time period stressor yet I did not know it was that short.

        I personally thought that comedy made you temporarily happy, but did not know 30 minutes of laughter can result in hours of happiness. I am normally a happy person that does not receive to much stress, but it still feels good to be happy after having a good laugh.

What are some of your shows that change your mood?

Surgery stress

I feel that there is a lot of stress that can come from going through surgery. There is the anxious feeling that you get the couple days before you go to surgery, and then there is the stress that is added to your body by not being able to eat from 12 at night until after your surgery. I find this to be very hard to do since I like to eat a lot which often occurs between the hours of 12 and 1 in the morning. I think that the most stressful part of surgery is the recovering part of it. I hate not being able to do things on my own which makes recovering from a surgery even harder for me. I also do not like sitting around and watching people work out. A feeling of worthlessness comes over me has I think about how much I wish I could be running and jumping around.

Then there is the physical therapy you have to go through which adds more stress. Many of the exercises that you have to do in PT involve getting your range of motion back and strengthening your muscles around the surgery. So if you had surgery on your knee let’s say, you have to start bending it after you have been on crutches for about a week. You also have to do strengthening exercises on muscles that you have completely neglected because you have crutching around campus unable to walk. For this reason I feel that surgery adds a lot of stress into a person’s life.

Assignment #22: Stress management technique: Music Therapy

A stress technique that I have used before, is listening to music. I have always loved music since I was little. Music therapy uses musical elements – sound, rhythm, melody and harmony – to promote therapeutic objectives through music.

Music can affect your body in positive ways, as well. It is healthy for you, and makes you feel good about yourself overall. Music is also something that doesn’t take away any time from your busy schedule – you are able to put in an iPOD, listen to music while driving, or play music while you even do homework. It is important to choose the type of music that makes you feel comfortable and relaxed. Choosing music that others like, and forcing yourself to listen to it, might cause more stress. The rhythm or beat of a song triggers certain emotions. Even when we were in our mother’s womb- we were able to hear her heartbeat.

In doing extensive research I learned that given a piece of music produces in the physiological response system many unexpected things. Music helps you focus, and concentrate. It can stimulate brain waves that go along with the beat. Faster beats many bring a sharper focus and more alert thinking, while a slower tempo may promote a calm, meditative mood. With a positive state of mind, music provides beneficial effects. It lowers blood pressure, and with that – could reduce the risk of heart attacks over time. It can also boost your immune system.

Here is some background on Music Therapy and how music can change your life – even cure illnesses.

http://entrepreneur.pro/articles/9/1/Music-Therapy—Can-Music-Cure-Illness-Disease-and-Disorders-Is-Music-Therapeutic-Medicine-for-Improving-Health/Page1.html

According to Sapolsky’s, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, I find that even Music Therapy can be an effective technique connected with several concepts that are mentioned in his book. Sapolsky talks about Meditation on page 402. “Meditation seems to be pretty good for your health, decreasing glucocorticoid levels, sympathetic tone, and all the bad stuff that too much of either can cause.” Involving music into your meditation routine, is a great way to incorporate various stress management techniques with music into one. Sapolsky notes that there are a lot of different kinds of meditation – so why not try incorporating music?

Sapolsky also talks about Stress and Pain in chapter 9.  Music, can certainly be a pain reliever. When the brain hears something it likes – a sensory emotion – it reacts to it in a positive way. Distracting yourself from the pain you feel, often makes the pain not as bad. Music Therapy can channel your brain into focusing on the sounds, rhythms, and beats – rather than the pain that your body feels.