HW410

Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

Unit 9 Final Project

Staci Ross

HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention

August 8, 2020
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Introduction

For my stress management and prevention program, my target population will be adult

women. I am choosing women as my target population because I am a woman who is on a

mission to build a life for herself that is grateful, mindful, and stress-free. I know many

women in my life who are on the constant go between working, to running the household, and

to raising children. Women tend to be the ones who stress the most when it comes to fitting

everything into their schedules, and most of the time, without any complaints as well. I would

like to design a stress management and prevention program for women because I can relate to

their struggles and I want to bring some peace into other women’s lives. There are not enough

women out there supporting other women and I would like to be a part of embracing

womanhood, supporting women all over the world, and help them live a mindful, grateful, and

stress-free life holistically.

Stressors of this population

Stress can have a variety of definitions based on different perspectives of the human condition

as well as how it is culturally perceived. According to Seaward, “Psychologically speaking, stress, as

defined by noted researcher Richard Lazarus, is a state of anxiety that produces when events and

responsibilities exceed one’s coping abilities. Physiologically speaking, stress is defined as the rate of

wear and tear on the body” (Seaward, 2018). It is also believed that good or bad stress tends to have a

similar effect on the human body as well (Seaward, 2018). Different people stress about different

things in their lives, but stress tends to come from situations that are out of that person’s control. Even

thinking about the future can cause major stress due to the fact that no one knows how their future will

actually look, no matter how hard they try.

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Stress on the body can be measured in many different ways. There can be physical signs of

stress such as pain or tension in your head, chest, stomach or muscles, changes to heart rate or blood

pressure, reproductive issues, as well as digestive problems (WebMd, 2018). There are also mental

and emotional signs of stress such as memory problems, trouble sleeping, anger, irritability,

depression, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed or confused, and even bad decision making (WebMD,

2018). Stress is a reaction that has no positive side effects on the human body and not having ways in

your daily routine to help manage stress levels, stress will take a negative toll on the human body.

When looking at women and stress, there are many different reasons why stress arises.

Women face stress daily around money and the economy; many women that I know are in charge of

paying bills, buying household products, are in charge of the budget, and tend to worry more about

financial security than men. Women who are married tend to report higher levels of stress than single

women (APA, 2012). This could be due to stress levels of supporting a healthy marriage, raising

children, and having a successful career while managing the household. Women tend to be stressed

around pressure to be a perfect woman, wife, and mother. Society puts pressure on women daily to be

the ideal lady who balances a job, family, skincare, and a workout schedule with ease and grace.

Workplace stress is another way women become stressed; due to demanding schedules, pressure,

responsibility, and equality. Women have stress over wanting a successful career while also

performing a more traditional role at the house. Women also have a hard time thinking about

themselves first, which tends to lead to stress and burnout because they are tending to everyone else’s

needs over their own. Women also tend to have a hard time saying “no” to things they do not want to

do; this can lead to a busy, stressful, and hectic schedule. Women stress around the idea that by 30

years old, it is socially normal that she should be married with children. This is a pressure felt through

society and family members often. Women tend to be stressed around body issues constantly; self-
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love is hard to find in our society and women are constantly bombarded with tall, thin, beautiful, and

photoshopped women on a daily basis. Women can also be stressed around being confident and sexy

for their partner.

Why are these stressors important to consider for this population?

Stress management is important for adult women because there are many mental and

physical issues and disorders that can arise from being overly stressed. Stress can develop into

many health problems in women if exposed to stress over a long period of time or with no

stress-management skills. In women, we see higher levels of depression and anxiety, which

can also lead to panic disorders or obsessive compulsive disorders (Cleveland Clinic, 2018).

Women can suffer from heart problems, headaches and migraines, obesity, bowel problems,

and pregnancy and menstrual problems (Cleveland Clinic, 2018). There is a lot of pressure in

society regarding women in the job force, women’s bodies, social roles, and being a great

partner and mother if she identifies with those roles. Helping women cope with these different

stressors can dramatically improve how women feel in their day to day lives and how

confident they are in their own skin.

Three Stress Management/Mindfulness Techniques

One stress management technique I suggest in my program would be meditation.

Meditation has been proven to be a great way to silence the mind, have a stronger mind-body-

spiritual connection, as well as taking time for oneself to be still and present in the moment.

Meditation can be effective for five minutes to 30 minutes at a time. Meditation teaches us

mindfulness and gratefulness that also proceeds to the rest of the day and to those around us. In a

chaotic world, it can help tremendously with stress, to spend a few moments to be grateful for

the life you have, to be still, and to calm the mind. Meditation helps vastly when a person feels
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overwhelmed and when we take time to meditate, we are giving our brains much needed rest and

rejuvenation.

Another stress management technique I suggest in my program would be yoga. Yoga is a

great exercise used to move your body, promote a mind-body-spiritual connection, as well as it

can help manage stress. Yoga teaches discipline, breath work, meditation, being present in the

moment, and helps promote gratefulness and mindfulness as well. According to Wei, “A

fundamental principle of yoga is that your body and mind are one and connected. Stress in one

domain will affect the other and vice versa. Many of us live primarily in either our mind or our

body, which creates imbalance and even a lack of awareness. Yoga also trains your counter-

stress response system called the parasympathetic nervous system. With regular yoga practice,

your chronic daytime stress hormone levels drop and your heart rate variability increases, which

is a measure of your ability to tolerate stress. This has been shown to improve even after a few

sessions of yoga” (Wei, 2015).

The last stress management technique I suggest in my program would be to spend time

each day outside in nature. Being outside in nature helps us feel more grounded to the planet and

lets us take deep, clarifying breaths. Sometimes when we are feeling overwhelmed and stressed,

being indoors can make us feel claustrophobic, while spending time outside gives us space to

breathe. According to Harvard Health Publishing, “Research in a growing scientific field called

ecotherapy has shown a strong connection between time spent in nature and reduced stress,

anxiety, and depression. Digging a bit deeper, it appears that interacting with natural spaces

offers other therapeutic benefits. For instance, calming nature sounds and even outdoor silence

can lower blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which calms the body’s fight-

or-flight response” (Harvard Health Publishing, 2018). Taking walks or doing walking
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meditations are great ways to get fresh air, clarity, and to feel grounded to our planet. Sometimes

we spend too much time indoors and getting re-acquainted with nature can have positive effects

on our mental health and overall stress levels.

Program Implementation

The best way for me to implement this program would be virtually. Since I do not want to

only focus on women in the workplace, I also want to be able to reach women in any form of

their lives. The program would be designed with modules that could be taken in total from start

to finish or consumers could choose the modules they are interested in. For instance, I would

work with employers who wish to support their women in their workforce, where they could

purchase the modules specifically designed to support working women. Or maybe a stay at home

mother wishes to learn more about how to live a stress-free life at home while raising her

children. She could purchase the modules associated with stress management while staying at

home. Or a woman could purchase the whole program, which would effectively teach her ways

to live a well-rounded and stress-free life. I also want this program to be affordable and realistic

to everyone. It will need to be able to be available to purchase for phone use, iPad or Kindle use,

computer, or even printed out. I want clients to be able to purchase all of the modules together,

one at a time, or can mix and match and purchase the modules that mean the most to them. For a

small price per month, I will also offer virtual teachings, where we can discuss different aspects

of stress-management and how to implement these teachings into other avenues of our lives. I

will offer weekly mediation and yoga sessions as well, that my clients can participate in on their

own time. I will also want to have a community board where people can post about their own

ways of living a stress-free life and post other groups that clients can find support, virtually or in
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person. I will also host meet-ups in my local area to help build a good support system in my city

where women can come and grow together.

Obstacles and Overcoming Them

One obstacle that I could face with my stress management program would be gaining a

large audience. Because I would like to be a virtual program that women in different avenues can

take advantage of, I need to promote and market my program in ways to attract clientele. I will

use social media as an effective way of promoting my stress management program as well as

word of mouth and hosting meet ups in my local city. I will hire someone who works in

marketing and promotion to help me gain the audience that I wish to reach. I hope to gain a large

audience due to the accessibility, cost factor, as well as options to build the stress management

program that is most effective for each client in their unique situations.

Another obstacle that I could face with my stress management program is to make sure I

cover all avenues of stress management such as working women, stay at home moms, women

who are in school, women who are raising kids, women who need support around body image,

women and societal pressures, and so on. To ensure that I am able to produce an effective stress

management program that covers all important aspects to women reducing stress, I will work on

one module at a time and complete it fully. I will also have women in my life test out the

modules to be able to receive any feedback they may have. My program will always be ever

evolving and as I receive feedback from those around me and from women participating in my

modules and courses, I will add even more information into the program.

Health Professionals who Support the Program

One health professional that I would want to support this program would be a Holistic

Health Coach. A Holistic Health Coach will be able to add different techniques, programs, or
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ideas into my program that will support women finding their best ways to reduce stress. Food

and nutrition are another very important aspect to overall wellness and stress management, and a

Holistic Health Coach can help assist women with what foods nurture their body and what types

of food cause stress within the body. A Holistic Health Coach will also have other ways of

healing women’s bodies such as yoga, meditation, Ayurvedic medicine, acupuncture, crystal

healing, sound baths, and Reiki. Promoting a mind-body-spiritual connection will help reduce

overall stress and healing the body in natural ways is the way I find most effective.

Another health professional that I would want to support this program would be a

Positive Psychologist. I love the idea of having a Positive Psychologist support this program

because not only would this person be trained in Psychology, which is a major support to a stress

management program, but this person would also be trained in the importance of a positive

mindset. Being an optimistic person has major positive effects on our overall health. When we

suffer with a pessimistic mindset, we tend to have many negative outcomes that are detrimental

to our health and wellness. A Positive Psychologist will be able to teach women in my program

the idea of optimism and a positive mindset and ways this will affect stress levels. Being an

optimistic person in general, is linked to lower stress levels because it is easier to be less stressed

when you look at life in an optimistic way. I am a firm believer in the law of attraction,

manifestation, and karma and I would like to teach women taking my course ways a positive

mindset will attract good things into their lives.

How would the success of this program be measured?

When women first start my stress management program, regardless of which modules

they wish to participate in, we will have a beginning survey. It is important to get a starting

point to how women feel before starting my program. The survey will include aspects such as
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why the women are joining the program, what values are important to them in a program, how

they are feeling about their stress now, how they want to feel at the end of their journey, what

type of diet do they eat, what seems to cause the most stress for them, what activities they

have participated in to promote mind-body-spiritual connection, as well as what activities they

have interest in learning more about. We will also use resources such as a Health Risk

Assessment that can help us identify risks and diseases that could develop leading to lifestyle

stressors. At the end of the program, we would want to do an exit survey as well and revisit

the initial survey filled out by the client to see what has changed for them and what the client

still needs help with going forward. Our program is designed to be an ongoing journey and we

want to continue to offer help and support to our clients and we can keep in touch via email or

support groups, if our clients wish to continue to grow the relationship.

Another way I would value the success of the program would be how often our clients

promote my program to their friends and family. One of the best signs that a program is

successful and is creating genuine positive changes for the clients, is how often your clients

recommend your program to their loved ones. Word-of-mouth is one of the most important

ways to maintain a great clientele and to grow your program even more. The more clients who

wish to take this program, the more feedback we can receive, and the more effective we can

build the program for future clients.

Conclusion

I am very excited to share my stress management program with women all over the

world. I have a unique program from not only stress-management purposes but also by

harnessing a positive mind-body-spiritual connection. I want to help empower women in

reducing the amount of stress they feel on a daily basis but also teach them ways to live a
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more holistic and healthier life. I have seen dramatic results in my own life while practicing

activities such as meditation, yoga, eating a plant-based diet, spending time in nature, and I

feel that many women have moved away from this type of lifestyle. Being able to manage

your stress levels while learning how to live a grateful and mindful life, will have tremendous

benefits to each and every woman who participates in my program. Living a life full of

gratefulness will alone help manage stress levels as well. Life is too short to spend it stressed,

I want my program to teach women to embrace who they are, to love themselves, to live life

holistically, and stress-free.

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References

APA. (2012). Gender and stress. Retrieved from

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2010/gender-stress

Cleveland Clinic. (2018). Women and stress. Retrieved from

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/5545-women-and-stress

Harvard Health Publishing. (2018). Sour mood getting you down? Get back to nature.

Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/sour-mood-getting-you-

down-get-back-to-nature

Seaward, B. (2018). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being (9th

ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

WebMd. (2018). Is my stress level too high? Retrieved from

https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-level-too-high#1

Wei, M. (2015). Yoga for stress relief. Retrieved from

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/201512/yoga-stress-relief