Hello Teachers! The idea behind this book is to act as a First-Aid Kit to manage your stress as a teacher.

The main focus here is not to completely eliminate stress from your life, because life without stress will be plain dull and uninteresting don t you think? However, we need to know how to manage our stress in order to prevent it for becoming a huge problem later in our life. As the famous saying goes :

It is not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.

~ Hans Selye ~

If really want to understand why your life is the way it is and you really want to know how you can change it, here is a book for you, written in the simplest language to ease your reading, and hopefully change your life too!

When Teachers are Stressful...

I m so stressed out. Have this line been your almost-routine mantra lately? You could be experiencing stress that could affect not only your performance, but also your students, as well as your personal life. High stakes exams.
(Source :Fragile What, 2008)

Demanding administrators. Challenging students. Teaching has now become a very demanding occupation with a lot of responsibilities to shoulder besides just educating the children. Despite all the issues, both big and small that may cause your stress, remember why you became a teacher in the first place.

Teachers nurture the seeds of today so they might blossom into the flowers of tomorrow!

Get to Know Your Stress

Read more: http://www.finestquotes.com/select_quotecategory-Stress-page-0.htm#ixzz1I4kAGnPu We are sure many of you have a slight idea about stress. Do you really know what is stress? Stress is the physiologic response to an event. It is not the event itself. You may not be able to preventexternal stress-producing eventsfrom happening, BUT you can learn to control your response to those events
Dr Kelly Traver (clinical assistant professorat Stanford and has been practicing for 17 years)

Read more: http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgibin/quotes/index.pl?read=3088#ixzz1IC51etVF Manish kapoor 2008

Stress is your body s response to change. It is a very individual thing. The key is to manage stress properly, because unhealthy responses to it may lead to health problems. There is no way to say that one thing is bad or stressful because everyone is different
AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Stress is not what happens to us. It's our response

to what happens. And

response is something we can choose

- Maureen Killoran

http://www.sharecare.com/question/what-isstress?partner=droz AHA Dr Kelly Traver http://www.mentalgamecoach.com/articles/StressMyths.ht ml stress myth 2011 Truthought LLC http://www.truthought.com/comic_concepts.asp http://jammersworld.net/wordpress/index.php/category/gr and-canyon/ http://synchealthblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/tips-forcoping-with-stress-at-work/

http://www.solveyourproblem.com/stress-reliefguide/stress_quiz_self_assessment_test.shtml 1998 Maureen Killoran

Avoiding Teacher Burnout

Practical Tips for Avoiding Burnout and Renewing Your Commitment to Teaching

Symptoms of Stress
From SolveYourProblem.com

When you suffer from stress, you experience a variety of symptoms, sometimes without you realizing it. Take a look at the list of symptoms below and compare those with how you are feeling at this moment.
Physical Symptoms
Your Body s Response to Stress

y y y y y y y y y y y y

tightness in chest chest pain and/or palpitations indigestion breathlessness nausea muscle twitches aches and pains headaches recurrence of previous illnesses/allergies weight loss or weight gain change in menstrual cycle for women sleep problems/tiredness

References

Emotional Symptoms
How You Feel Inside

You may use this kit to help you with this part. Do Remember...  Read what you have written, and mark all positive and negative words so you can distinguish them.  This allows you to separate which stressors are normal and a part of your regular life and which are not.

y y y y y y y y y y y y

mood swings feeling anxious feeling tense feelings of anger feeling guilty feelings of shame having no enthusiasm becoming more cynical feeling out of control feeling helpless decrease in confidence/self-esteem poor concentration Behavioural Symptoms
The Things You Do

y y y y y y y y y y

drop in work performance more inclined to become accident-prone drinking and smoking more overeating/loss of appetite change in sleeping patterns poor time management too busy to relax withdrawing from family and friends poor judgment inability to express feelings

 Use your diary to analyze your stress at the end of using it for a few weeks. Make out a list of the most unpleasant stressors you have experienced with the most unpleasant at the top and the least at the bottom. Look at the list and determine which ones you need to learn how to control. After you have analyzed your stress, you should be able to determine how you can handle your stress and how to react to your stressors.

We can t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we create them
ALBERT EINSTEIN

over-reacting Psychological Symptoms and Negative Thoughts

The Way You Think

: What happened? , What did I feel? , How did I behave?

Askyourself

Draw

a picture of your life, including the stressful elements, label them so that you can start to see how they relates to the others.

Focus on a specific incident or experience of

stress. Ask yourself : What was I telling myself to make me feel so bad about the incident?

y y y y y y y y y

'I am a failure' 'I should be able to cope' Why is everyone getting at me?' 'No one understands' 'I don't know what to do' 'I can't cope' 'What's the point?' 'I don't seem to be able to get on top of things' 'I keep forgetting where I put things'

Ask yourself about the problem, What can I control today? , Can I change the situation? , Can I change my self-talk?

Something You Should Know : Six Stress Myths

Then commit yourself to control what you can control AND to give up trying to control what seems to be beyond your control. Ask yourself, How can I relaxand unwindto let go of my tension and stress?
By AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

There are a lot of stress myths going around and many of us seems to misunderstand some of the basics about stress. Let s talk about six most common ones which you should know.

MYTH 1

Stress is not the same for Writing Write Away Your Stress... Theeverybody Therapy Creating a Daily Journal for Self Help
BY DR JIM BYRNE

You just don t understand! Do you know that writing is a form of relief? When you write

down your difficulties, you can see them, think about it, and eventually let go of your negative thoughts. It helps you focus on issues and problems affecting your daily life and brings them into a lighter perspective.
(Source :Truthought LLC, 2010)

Have you ever been in a stressful situation and when you

Be aware your friends or sources theyyour stresst and your talked to of the external family of just don seem to contribution to it. One best way to stressful to a stress diary! understand? Well, what may be do it? Keep you may not The purpose ofto others diary is to track down the specific cause stress the stress and vice versa. Not everyone stress problem(s) the same confronting. It s easy. You only experiences stress you are way. need to get a notebook and a2pen. Set some quiet time MYTH Stress is always bad stress aside, just for you to work on your for youdiary. Since this activity will inevitably improve your productivity, it is all right to take a little time out of your working day. tress is to the human condition what Try to Identify Your Problems pressure is to the violin string:too little and the sound is dull; too much

Develop Your Awareness

and the sound becomeshigh-pitched or the string snaps. Stress itself, especially in small amount is not bad. The key is understand how to manage it best.Managing stress makes us productive and happy, while mismanaging it may hurt us Your Score: and cause us to fail or become even more stressed.
Your Stress Level 34 or under 35-65 66-85 86 or above Good - Congratulations! Your stress level is low Average - Lowering your stress level would be beneficial Bad - Think seriously about changes in your life to reduce stress Dangerous - You need to act now to reduce stress!
MYTH 3

nyon, 2010) to

Score on, 2010)

Stress is everywhere, so you can t do anything about it When it comes to achieving anything meaningful in life, you have a choice in how you approach it: o is the possibility of the way or the falling way every time down we walk, but that does not stop you from walking, doesn t it? What you can do, is plan your life so that stress does not becomes overwhelming. Effective planning involves setting priorities and working on

hard

calm

simple problems first, solving them, and then going on to more complex difficulties. When stress is mismanaged, it s difficult to prioritize. All your problems seem to be equal and stress seems to be everywhere. The key is to find a balance in life.

MYTH 4

The most popular techniques for reducing stress are the best ones

I have difficulty communicating with my spouse, children, family, boss or co-workers. I handle most things alone with little support from my family, friends or co-workers. I do not have enough say in decisions that affect me. My personal needs are in conflict with my work or family. I am short of cash or have other personal/business financial concerns. My life is one crisis after another. I regularly have headaches (2-5 times per week). I have muscle tension in my shoulder, neck or back. I have stomach pains, indigestion or other digestive problems. I regularly take aspirin, indigestion medication, sleeping pills or tranquilizers. I have a tendency to overeat - especially sweets. I regularly have to drink to relax. I drink a great deal of coffee or other caffeinated beverages. Family, friends, or people at work tell me I drink too much. Most of my time is spent sitting - I get little exercise. I would like to make changes in my life but do not know how.

Now add your scores and write it here :

Are You Stressed?

THE STRESS CHECKLIST
BY AVERA MCKENNAN HOSPITAL AND UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTER, SD

There is no one particular stress reduction technique that

could work for everyone. We are all different our lives, our situations and our reactions are different. However, self-help method can teach you many successful stress management techniques which can be of great help, as long as you stick to the program and practice the techniques daily.

Stress can impact you in many ways. This inventory checklist is a quick and easy indicator if your stress level is too high. It can also. Just answer these quick questions tohelp you recognize some of the conditions that determine your stress level. Sit down, relax, and take a few minutes off your work to check your stress level.
To complete the inventory, assign a number from zero to five to each of the statements below as they relate to your experience: 0 = Never 3 = Sometimes 5 = Almost always

I have a lot of worries at home, at work or both. I have too much responsibility. My family makes too many demands on me. My work situation is unclear; there are too many people tosatisfy. I do not have enough time for leisure or taking care of personal needs. There is a great deal of time pressure at work. I have difficulty expressing how I feel about situations or people. I have trouble focusing on a given task.

MYTH 5

No symptoms, no stress

An absence of symptoms
does not mean the absence of stress. In fact you may even try to get rid of the symptoms with some medications, which may
(Source :Sync Health, 2010)

deprive you of Whysignals. you squeeze it? a psychological the should While stress is BY LINDA the effect, many of us experienceWOODSsymptoms in a physical way such as feeling anxious, shortness of breath and When you squeeze it, a certain amount However, palpitation. These can be physical signs of stress. of muscle tension is not in mental signs too such as constantly the symptoms can be only in your hand, but also your body. When youhaving difficulty concentrating. irritated or relax you squeeze, that muscle tension is released, therefore providing you a sense of relaxation.

When you squeeze it repeatedly along with some deep breathing, the effects it gave to your body will surprise you!

When you squeeze it a little harder, this will provide soothing effects to the muscles of the arm and also your shoulder. This technique is called progressive muscular relaxation. MYTH 6 Only major symptoms of stress require attention

You should not ignore the minor

symptoms of stress, but treat it as a wakeup call. Those early warning signs are best listened to earlier rather than later before it is too late.

Squeezing Your Stress Away... with a Stress Ball Take a look at the word STRESS . Drop the two S s from it and what did you get? Do you know that the act of squeezing a stress ball may help shift your focus away from your problem. This could provide you with a quick relief so that you could calm down. This is because when your attention is diverted away from the source of stress, the mind stabilizes and there is relaxation of both body and mind, which is similiar to the effects of meditation. REST . Try to stop stressing about a matter and be more relaxed. If you feel angry, take a deep breath and walk away.

(Source :Spoiled Yogi, 2011)

It s better to squeeze than shout. So, grab the stress ball and start squeezing!

About this Kit A good belly laugh provides internal workoutfor your 1. Get to Know Your Stress The Book This mini book will guide you to the body, leaving your muscles more relaxed afterward. It even provides a good workout for your hearSo go on, laughyour heart out, it is indeed a best medicine!

(Source :The Political Commentator, 2010)

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."

E.E. CUMMINGS

2. It distracts you and brings the focus away from anger, guilt and any negative emotions.

Be Inspired and the Laughing Cure

The second book in the kit consists of two items, first, Be Inspired and second, The Laughing Cure . Let s take a look at this. Part I : Be Inspired... The Five Benefits of Reading Inspirational Quotes
BY MANISH KAPOOR

It can change your perspectiveof the event that causes stress. Humour can give you a lighter perspective and could help you to view events as 'challenges', thus making them less threateningand more positive. It is a stress reliever.

It has social benefitstoo! Laughter connects us with others and don t you think it is contagious? Not only you canreduce your own stressby laughing your heart out, you can help your friends too! It gives you a source of inspiration.

They give you words of wisdom that have the power to release the champion inside you!

Give your stress wings and let it fly away

CARIN HARTNESS

Part II : The Laughing Cure

BY ELIZABETH SCOTT, M.S.

It encourages positive attitudewhich would help your personal growth.

Stress relief from laughter? Yes, no joke. Laughter is good for your soul--and your body!

Do you know there is a therapeutic method called humour therapy to help people heal more quickly, among other things? This is because humour provides several stress relieving benefits. It shows you the true

meaning of life.

When You Laugh...

Some of the quotes are inspirational and funny at the same time. It provides you a source of laughter, which would keep us emotionally and mentally happy.

Your good hormonessuch as endorphines are increased, while the stress hormones such as dophamine decreases. This means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress. They are good for your health!