Be sure to send all work to annegoiran@collegecoursesonline.com

Congratulations... you have made tremendous progress along your journey to self-care and renewal. Again, it is again time to venture off the path you share with others and explore more about managing stress and change as a part of your self-care and renewal.

Below, we list a set of eight activities which will guide you temporarily away from this trail. If you are taking this course for credit please check your study guide for directions.

For those activities requiring an e-mail partner, please share with someone you know.

1. Complete a short online quiz regarding stress. When you have finished, click here to share your reaction to the quiz with the instructor.

    

2. Using a multi-engine search tool, search the Internet for more sources of information relevant to your favorite dimension of self-care (physical, mental, social/emotional, and/or spiritual). When you have finished, click here to share your favorite findings with the instructor.

    

3. Click here to share with your instructor a recent scenario in which you experienced cumulative stress within a single day... perhaps even within the span of a few hours. Share what you think you might have been able to do to decrease the cumulative effects.

    

4. Identify the causes of excessive stress in each of the four areas of your life. Think about one thing that you might be able to do to reduce at least one of the stressors in each of the four areas. Share what you have found with the course guide(s) through e-mail by clicking here.

    

5. If you are having difficulty understanding the differences between acute, chronic, and cumulative stress, discuss it further with colleagues. Click here to share with the instructor.

    

6. Discuss with a colleague a situation in which you felt that you were successful in managing stress and avoiding excess stress. Share tips about how you were able to do this. Click here to share with the instructor.

    

7. For a full week, keep a diary or log of your own stress patterns and reactions. Think about the four dimensions of self (physical, mental, emotional/social, spiritual) and how they are impacted by your reactions. Differentiate whether the stress you are feeling at different times is acute, chronic, and/or cumulative. After making 8-10 entries, review them to see if there are patterns that accompany your distress. Make some notes to yourself about how you want to act and react differently in the future when facing similar stressors. At the end of the week,click here to share your thoughts with the instructor.

    

8. Click here to share with the instructor ways which you have found to say "no" when you are asked to commit time and energy to activities in which you do not wish to participate.