Final Project
Reflection
What have you discovered about yourself?
This course has taught me a lot about myself and it has especially shown me that a
balanced life with every aspect of healthy wellness will result in less stress and a healthier
lifestyle. Before taking this class, I had no clue how important certain things were such as
spiritual wellness and mindful activities in trying to reduce stress and live a healthier lifestyle. I
discovered that there are many different ways to lead a healthy lifestyle, and everyone has their
different strategies and tactics to stay healthy. I have learned that exercising is beneficial in
multiple ways and now I understand why I feel exponentially better about everything and less
stressed when I get some exercise. According to the textbook, thinking about what you want to
accomplish during the exercise is just as important as actually doing the workout itself (Olpin &
Hesson 257). Some other things that this course has helped me realize is that I am very good
with managing my money and even though I am so good in this regard, there is always room for
improvement for me to keep getting better and better with my finances. Lastly, I discovered that
I need to start making a strict plan for the day/week to ensure that I am getting everything doe in
a timely manner because I operate much more smoothly when I have a list and a plan of the
things that I need to get done. This would help my stress and I would be less inclined to
procrastinate as much as I currently do.
What does your stress response reveal about how your body and mind handle stress?
My stress response reveals that I am pretty bad when it comes to dealing with stress
because my typical response is to avoid the issues at hand rather than working on them
immediately to find a solution. I typically feel that if I just push everything aside then it will
eventually go away, but this is rarely the case. Most of the time when I end up doing this, I am
just inadvertently putting more stress on myself and then the stress snowballs into more stress
and issues piled on top of what I already had going on. This shows that I am certainly a
procrastinator and it is not a healthy way to deal with stress because it always ends up being
more stressful than it has to be. The type of procrastinator in the textbook that I am is a dreamer
because I have good ideas and motives, but I fail in actually carrying out with the plan that I have
devised for myself (Olpin & Hesson 186). When I handle stress in this way, my mind tends to
become over stimulated and I can’t think nearly as straight and as well as I normally would if I
would’ve just got the work done instead of procrastinating. This also affects how my body feels
because when my mind is being over stimulated then I fail to fulfill the needs that my body is
asking for such as exercising or eating as healthy.
What do you perceive as stress?
I perceive a lot more stress than I think the average person because I tend to keep a lot
inside and to myself rather than talking to people about these things and letting my stress and
anger out. But stress to me is typically work, schoolwork, social interactions, and time
management. Reasons to be stressful are very broad and everyone has different things that make
them stressed such as family, friends, health, and money. As the textbook speaks on stress, it
says that how one experiences stress is completely based on their personal experience with the
stressor at hand (Olpin & Hesson 3). I agree with this and this helped me realize that people can
deal with certain situations either better or worse than other people because of their personal
experiences with that same stressor. Something I also realized in this course is that stress is not
only a mental thing and it can affect people emotionally and physically just as badly as mental
stress. I had never put too much thought into this idea, but it does make sense that stress comes
in many different ways and it is important to deal with stress just as well in all the other aspects
to make sure to keep a healthy lifestyle.
Goal
What is your goal for managing stress after this course?
My goal for managing stress after this course is to try to fulfill all forms of wellness
regarding stress and not just mental stress. A way that I intend to do this is by making a weekly
