Sleep and Stress

                Sleep is important to every human because it is a time to relax and shut down the mind and body. Stress causes an increase in physical and mental activation as a response to an increase of demands that are in the environment (Âkerstedt, 2006). The certain hours of sleep that are required for your health depend on which type of age group you are in. Infants are recommended to receive 14-15 hours, toddlers are to receive 12-14 hours, school-age children are to receive 10-11 hours, and adults are to receive 7-9 hours (Morgenthaler, 2012). A good night of sleep can make you more alert, energized, and focused to take on a day where there are many tasks that need to be completed. One thing can be in the way of a great night of sleep, and that factor is stress.

As we all know, stress can either have a positive or negative impact, and these types of stress are called eustress and distress. Generally, a lack of sleep can be caused by the negative types of stress called distress. The proper amount of sleep is so crucial for being able to function at a high level on a daily basis, but it just doesn’t happen that way where we can get that amount of sleep every night. Stress is our reaction to daily life, and too much of it can make it hard to sleep while you are lying in bed. It may be very hard to when there are plenty of things running through your mind. Some of these thoughts may be work related, school related, and the list can go on and on.

            According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, seven out of every ten adults in the United States say that they experience stress that interferes with their daily life (ADAA, 2010-2012). About one-third say that they receive some type of panic attack from the high levels of stress, and about seven of those ten adults claim that the stress leads to sleep troubles (ADAA, 2010-2012). The ADAA report that a big portion of adults experience a sleep problem at least once a week, and about half of the adults claim that they experience this problem several times a week (ADAA, 2010-2012). Sleep deprivation has caused many of the stress levels in these adults worsen due to the fact that they can’t sleep that well a few days a week. 52% of men and 42% of women say that they have a hard time staying focused the next day after a bad night of sleep due to stress (AADA, 2010-2012). In 2005, it was reported that 67% of adults claim that they would receive at least 7 hours of sleep four days during the week. The numbers have gone down by about 6% since then according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (AADA, 2010-2012).

            There are several tips that have been displayed for adults with stress and sleep issues to try out. Establishing 7-9 hours of sleep on a daily basis is very important to attain. Routines before going to bed may be a way that you can get a good night of sleep. Some routines could be listening to some soft music, reading, and just doing breathing exercises. Avoiding chocolate, coffee, and soda before bed is a reasonable tip because these types of things can keep you up. A quiet, cool, and dark room is a great place to sleep. That definitely sounds obvious, but there are people who sleep with the television on and do other miscellaneous things that may lead to keeping a person up at night. Exercising is great, but it is recommended to not do it right before bed (ADAA, 2010-2012). A tough day’s work may make you tired and a nap may be desired, but according to the ADAA, you should avoid taking naps all the time because this could be a reason to keep a person up at night.

            Sleep and stress have a direct relationship on performance, and that is why getting the proper amount of sleep is vital for a human. Being able to perform at your best in the academically, athletically, or in the working world is based on preparation. A great way to be prepared is to get that amount of sleep on a daily basis. Even though it is tough to achieve the goal of 7-9 hours, it is something that every person should look to reach because it is a tool to relieve stress. Following some of the tips by the ADAA have worked for others, and hopefully they could work for you too if you are experiencing a negative relationship between stress and sleep.

-Thomas Capaldi

Sources

Âkerstedt, T. (2006). Psychosocial stress and impaired sleep. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 493-501.

Morgenthaler, T. (2012, August 10). Adult Health. In Mayo Clinic. Retrieved April 11, 2013.

Stress and Anxiety Interfere With Sleep. (2010-2012). In Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). Retrieved April 11, 2013.

Types of Stressors

Stress is defined as a psychological response to demands that possess certain stakes and that tax or exceed a person’s capacity or resources (Colquitt, Lepine, and Wesson 144). One question I had when researching stress was what are these demands that define stress? These demands that cause people to experience stress are called stressors (Colquitt, Lepine, and Wesson 144). . There are two types of stressors, hindrance and challenge. Hindrance stressors are stressful demands that are perceived as hindering progress toward personal accomplishments or goal attainment (Colquitt, Lepine, and Wesson 145). Challenge stressors are defined as stressful demands that are perceived as opportunites for learning, growth, and achievement (Colquitt, Lepine, and Wesson 145). Being able to distinguish the different types of stressors that are influencing ones stress level is a great start when deciding on a coping mechanism.

Hindrance stressors are broken down into two different categories, work and nonwork. Work hindrance stressors are sorted into role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, and daily hassles. Role conflict takes place when a co-worker does not have the same expectations for yourself as you do. One of the most common forms of hindrance stressor employees’ face is role ambiguity (Cavanaugh et al., 2000 and LePine et al., 2004). Role ambiguity stems from uncertainty or lack of clarity concerning one’s duties, functions and responsibilities (e.g., Ilgen and Hollenbeck, 1991 and Peterson et al., 1995). Role overload occurs when a task that is too large for an individual is assigned, and in order to meet the dead line the quality of the work suffers. The last work hindrance stressor is daily hassles. These are simple tasks that must be done, but interfere with productivity because there are a countless number of them. Nonwork hindrance stressors are stressful demands that take place outside of a work environment. These stressors include work-family conflict, negative life events, and financial uncertainty. Work-family conflict is when either work or family consumes more time than anticipated and is dramatically affecting the opposing setting. For example, the spouse of a married person is unhappy or feels neglected because of the absence home life due to work related tasks. Negative life events are tragic incidents that affect the achievement of life goals such as death, divorce, or criminal actions. The last nonwork hindrance stressor is financial uncertainty. This causes much unwanted stress to many people, especially in tough economic times.

Challenge-related stressor stems from demands or circumstances that have associated potential gains for individual, challenge stressors are stimuli such as high workload, time pressure, and high levels of responsibility (Liu 2). These stressors are also broken down into work and nonwork categories. High workload is a burden that was placed on an employee that was too much for them to handle, and working on a large assignment under large amounts of stress takes a toll on the quality of the final product. Time pressure is defined as the perception that there is not enough time to complete a given amount of work (Cooper, Dewe, & O’Driscoll, 2001). The last stressor that Liu mentioned was high level of responsibility. This refers to the obligations that one person has toward a certain amount of people. Many managers have very high stress levels because they have to oversea all of the work completed by their inferiors and make sure everything is done correctly and in a timely manner. Lastly, in our discussion, are the nonwork challenge stressors. These stressors include family time demands, personal development, and positive life events. Family time demands is the time allocated to the to participate in family functions such as reunions, vacations, or home improvements.  Personal development is the activities that one devotes time to better themselves such as education programs, physical training, or some sort of lesson. Finally, positive life events are the last nonwork challenge stressor. These events include graduation, marriage, or the birth of a child.

Both challenge and hindrance stressors pose great challenges in many peoples lives. It is important to determine what type of stress is affecting you so the proper coping strategy can be implemented. Reviews of research on popular work stressors suggest that stressors are negatively related to job attitudes that are associated with retention and positively related to propensity to leave and turnover (Fisher & Gitelson, 1983; Griffeth et al., 2000; Jackson & Schuler, 1985). Other recent research has found that although all stressors appear to cause strain, different types of stressors are associated with different affective and behavioral responses (Clarke) There has been numerous research studies to see how these stressors positively and negatively affect people in the workplace and in nonwork environments. It has been proven that these stressors greatly affect the overall well being on an individual, which is why it is extremely important to resort to multiple coping strategies.

- Kyle Lachowicz

Sources

Clarke, S. (2012). The effect of challenge and hindrance stressors on safety              behavior and safety outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17(4), 387-397. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029817

Dege Liu; Kan Shi, "Challenge and hindrance stressors: Relationships with employees' work engagement," Web Society (SWS), 2010 IEEE 2nd Symposium on , vol., no., pp.490,493, 16-17 Aug. 2010

Pearsall, Matthew J. "Coping with Challenge and Hindrance Stressors in Teams: Behavioral, Cognitive, and Affective Outcomes." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (2009): 1-18.

Colquitt, Jason, Jeffery A. LePine, and Michael J. Wesson. "Chapter 5 Stress." Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2011. N. pag. Print.

Distress

            Stress is a small word, but it can have a paramount effect on people who have problems handling it. As we all know, stress can affect people physically and most importantly mentally. Stress usually is known only for a negative reason, falling into the category of distress, which is the topic of this post. Also, there is eustress and that is more of a positive stress that most people do not realize. Since stress is pertained to more of a negative aspect, distress would be the more recognizable stress out of the two. The goal of this blog post is to give a background on distress, and to give people a better understanding of this certain type of stress.

            What is distress? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Distress is pain or suffering affecting the body or the mind (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Imagine having problems that affect the way we can feel, think, or act. The problems that can change the way we do everyday activities may derive from distress. What does this interfere with most, Well, it can destroy how someone feels about life, relationships, and even can have its toll on work (ADEC, 2003). Looking at the grand scheme of things, there are many causes of distress and emotional problems. Problems that people deal with on an everyday basis is what most people would believe would be a major cause of distress. That is definitely correct, but chemical imbalances in the brain and exposure to distressing experiences that were severe are causes that can contribute to making the distress appear. An interesting fact is that research shows that distress is inherited in some cases because there are so many factors that go in (ADEC, 2003.) The book, Social Causes of Psychological Distress by John Mirowsky and Catherine E. Ross has a statement in the book that summarizes distress. “The misery, demoralization, or distress a person feels is not the problem. It is a consequence of the problem” (Mirowsky, Ross, 2003.) If someone were to look at this statement, it is a bold and very true. The problems that occur do not come from nowhere. There is always something that triggers the problem and that is exactly what Mirowsky and Ross were covering.

            What are the main types of mental distress? Main types of mental distress are Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Manic Depressive Distress. With Anxiety Disorders, it can range from high blood pressure, having problems sleeping, restlessness, and tension regarding muscles. Everyone in their life has depression, but not major depression, meaning feeling not worthy, suicidal thought, weight loss, and the list can go on. The depression that everyone has is mild depression. An example of mild depression is feeling sad for a family member’s death. Schizophrenia is a common type of psychotic state people may be familiar with. Noticing if someone may have this type of disorder is seeing confusion and depression. Other symptoms include hearing voices of people who no one else can hear, or voices that are not present at the time (ADEC, 2003). Speaking from a family member who had Schizophrenia, it is quite sad and frustrating watching the actions of a loved one act in a way that you are not familiar with was very tough. “Recent research on schizophrenia has demonstrated that in this disorder the brain is not, strictly speaking, normal. The findings suggest that nonspecific histopathology exists in the limbic system, diencephalon, and prefrontal cortex, that the pathology occurs early in development, and that the causative process is inactive long before the diagnosis is made. If these findings are valid and not epiphenomena, then the pathogenesis of schizophrenia does not appear to fit either traditional metabolic, posttraumatic, or neurodegenerative models of adult mental illness” (Weinberger, 1987). Now after seeing causes of distress, there are some parts that are controllable and some parts that are uncontrollable. Since research has shown that it mental disorders can be hereditary, this makes it aspect that people cannot do much about and need to maintain as best as possible. In scenarios that get out of hand, and you can feel yourself getting out of your normal state, we must try to the best of our abilities to not let things get to us as bad as it can. By limiting this, most people can stay a calm state and have a less chance for problems that can cause anxiety disorders.        

-Anthony Capaldi

Sources

ADEC. (2003, August). What is Mental Illness. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://ethnomed.org/patient-education/mental-health/mental-english-rev.pdf

(2013). In Distress. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/distress

Mirowsky, J., & Ross, C. E. (2003). Social causes of psychological distress. Aldine de Gruyter.

Weinberger, D. R. (1987). Implications of normal brain development for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Archives of general psychiatry, 44(7), 660.

Eustress

            According to most people, stress is automatically presumed to be negative.  Stress may increasingly arise for students when work is becoming too demanding while trying to get through school at the same time. Another example is when there are multiple tests, projects, and homework assignments due within a short amount of time. Once all of the studying has taken place and the exam scores are posted, a student may see that they did well on the exam. One might assume that all of the studying led to the success of doing well on the exam, but that may not be the only factor to contribute because of a beneficial type of stress that has taken place.

            Eustress can be defined as positive and healthy form of stress (Kirch, 2008). This type of stress is necessary to take place in a person’s life because without it, a person may become depressed and see no meaning in life (Scott, 2012). Simple examples of eustress that take place in everyday life could be the stress that takes place before going on a roller coaster at an amusement park or seeing a scary movie (Scott, 2012). Although these types of events are much different than taking a test in school, they still fall into the stress category because of a certain feeling that takes place. Due to the fact that eustress is such an exhilarating type of stress, it may only be very beneficial in the short-term because of the energy levels getting up. For athletes, an example of eustress could be right before opening kick-off of a football game.  This build up can be eustress because it can help focus levels into useful energy. Too much eustress can do damage to your system though if there is too much of it taking place within the body (Scott, 2012). Being able to balance stress and have time to just relax is crucial to habitual life.

            Eustress is everywhere in everyday life. Athletes experience types of eustress in many shapes, sizes, and forms. Athletics may be viewed to some as just a game, but stress is felt by most athletes and coaches. It is seemed to believe that eustress takes place in sports due to the emphasis on wanting to win so badly (Sports-Related Stress in Adolescents, 2013). Sports that take place can cause great situations for the athlete to learn. Certain situations may cause eustress because of the environment around them. For example, a baseball player may come up to the plate with a man on 3^rd base with less than 2 outs in a game- winning scenario. The situation may be that the game is tied, and the person on 3^rd base is the winning run. Eustress could most likely arise for the winner because of the possibility of winning the game, and the thought of that excitement could cause eustress for the hitter. Although it is great excitement, the hitter may tremble a little bit and feel like their heart is going to beat out of their chest. The short lived adrenaline may cause the hitter to settle in and focus that much more to try and achieve the successful outcome. All of the sudden, the pitch is thrown and the hitter lines a ball up the middle for the team to win the game. That is a desirable type of result that an athlete could possible face. There are many types of scenarios in other sports as well for an athlete to feel this type of excitement.

            Benefits of eustress are extremely helpful in an everyday life of a human because the right amount of eustress can keep a person healthy (Mikulin, 2013).Those that are able to manage stress and achieve eustress can view stressors more as a challenge instead of seeing them as a threat (Mikulin, 2013). As stated earlier, eustress can be harmful on the body, but the body can differentiate between the two because of the different impacts that they can have on the body. Hopefully, most of us out there will start to view distress, negative stress, as more of a challenge because this shows that the outlook on the scenario is in a positive manner. It is definitely easier to just say it, but it is a challenge that most people should look forward to achieving. Healthiness and happiness will be the reward for taking on a challenge like this.

           

- Thomas Capaldi

Sources

Eustress. (2008). In W. Kirch (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Public Health (Vol. 1, p. 411). Retrieved March 26, 2013.

Mikulin, R. (2013). Eustress Facts. In Life123. Retrieved March 26, 2013.

Scott, E. (2012, October 23). Eustress. In Stress Management. Retrieved March 26, 2013.

Sports-Related Stress in Adolescents. (n.d.). In Northern Illinois University College of Education. Retrieved March 26, 2013.

Stress in the Workplace

Today, workloads, deadlines, and overtime hours are extremely high and it is placing a tremendous burden on the working people of our country. In 1983, Time magazine declared stress to be the epidemic of the Eighties. Many years later, in the 21^st century, it is evident that stress in the workplace is getting a lot worse. To some researchers, stress may now be the single largest issue that employers and employees face. Stress is forcing more people to be counterproductive in the workplace resulting in sub par work. The American Institute of Stress found that workplace stress causes approximately 1 million U.S. employees to miss work each day.

Unfortunately, being under too much stress decreases productivity and cohesiveness between coworkers. When people are knee deep in work assignments and deadlines, stress begins to take a serious physical and mental toll on them. Sadly, because of our current economy, workers must meet their quotas because layoffs and budget cuts have become very frequent for many entities since the market crash of 2008. As far as stress relating to cohesiveness between coworkers, it is contagious. Stress has an exceptionally strong impact on the people that surround you. For instance, when a particular assignment or workload stresses out my coworkers, I lend a hand to help them cope with their situation and suddenly I too begin to stress. I would consider it as a chain reaction.

For some situations stress is inevitable but must be addressed timely and accurately. According to Donald K. Farris, an experienced adult educator and mental health specialist trainer, “stress in neither good nor bad: it’s how we react to it that’s important.” Also, it is vital to understand that it is impossible to live a life completely stress free. Farris also replied, "You'll never be without stimulation and all stimulation produces some sort of stress," There are many coping and support strategies that people take to help them relieve their stress. Some of these strategies include, behavioral coping, cognitive coping, problem-focused coping, emotional-focused coping, social support, instrumental support, and emotional support. Each one of those methods helps reduce stress based on the type of person and situation they may be in. Aside from using any theory or strategy, some believe it is all in ones head. Donald K. Farris states, "A more realistic goal should be to no longer be overwhelmed by your stress and problems. It's important to keep things in perspective. If you predicate your happiness on being problem-free. you'll never be happy because you'll never be able to rid your life of all problems." Studies have shown that people who consistently do a relaxation process are less anxious, tense, and better able to resist stressful situations. These people also are happier, more energetic, and self-confident both at home and at their workplace.

Stress in the workplace directly relates to the theories, research and concepts we have covered in class. Whether employees are undergoing physiological strains, psychological strains, or behavior strains they must coped with in order to prevent decreased productivity. The main correlation I came across was the amount of stress that takes place at work. Both the book and the articles make it evident that stress is a serious problem that must be addressed. Many of the scholarly articles talked about many different topics of how to deal with stress related situations that greatly paralleled our lecture discussions.

Students can use this information to help them in their current classes as well as in their future careers. The piece that people must be aware of going forward in life is that stress is everywhere. Whether it is academically, athletically, socially, or in the workplace, stress will always follow. The objective is not to try and completely eliminate stress, but to cope with it effectively and make the best out of negative situations. There are many individual stress management strategies that employees use to leave some of their stress such as, peer support, exercise, and laughter. Just remember, everyone is different, the same coping mechanism will not work for every employee. Also, it is important to remember stress is contagious, both negatively and positively. The more positive energy a person gives off the better the working environment for everyone.

-Kyle Lachowicz

Sources

Siân Harrington. (2007, May 31). Stress in the workplace. Printweek, , 30-31. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230393694?accountid=12924

Arellano, J. (2007). Stress in the workplace. Rural Telecommunications, 26(3), 8-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/202688522?accountid=12924

Halsted, K. A. (1993). Stress in the workplace. CPA Management Consultant, 7(3), 11-11. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/194693454?accountid=12924

Carr, J., Kelley, B., Keaton, R., & Albrecht, C. (2011). Getting to grips with stress in the workplace. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(4), 32-38. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09670731111140748

Reducing Stress

People all around the world go through life thinking about their next worry. Overtime worrying about all of the obstacles throughout life can cause a great amount of stress on one person. Sometimes coping with stress can affect a person positively.

Simply coping with stress has not seemed to be the best method to deal with stress over the past years. When coping with stress a lot of people do not look at “the other side of the coin” (Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T.). As humans we find a way to deal with stress and never look at what other things around us are affected by our coping method. When coping with a heavy workload we may calm down the stress by just trying to finish the workload as fast as possible. Meaning that we will pay less attention to other people around us because right then getting rid of the stress by finishing the product is what matters. Or on the “other side of the coin” we may just put the work down and procrastinate with the work causing the performance of our work to decrease. Most stress does not result in something positive. People don’t normally stress out because something good in happening. It is normally the outcome, which resulted from the stress that is positive.

Different people handle stress in different ways. Each person is different so some of these methods may help while others may not. In the article “A Student’s Tips on Reducing Stress” the writer then explains the different ways students are stressed and how they can be reduced. The first tip was to have some confidence in yourself and what you can achieve. If you know that you’ve put the time into your work then there is no reason to always check your grades. Checking your grades often can result in high stress volumes with the student. Another useful tip was to create relaxing activities to do throughout your day that will get your mind off of what is stressing you. Come up with things that are flexible for you to do but also something that you’re not obligated to do. Some things that students can do are play a video games, listen to music, have a conversation with friends, or even play and instrument. Some people even result to something entertaining like watching short clips on YouTube. Anything that you can do that will temporarily distract you from your stressful activity will work.

In the article “Stress and Anxiety”, it refers to three different methods that can be used to reduce the amount of stress someone could have in everyday life. They discuss Exercise, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), as well as Relaxation and Other Alternative Techniques. “Exercise in combination with stress management techniques is extremely important for many reasons. Exercise is an effective distraction from stressful events.

Exercise may directly blunt the harmful effects of stress on blood pressure and the heart (Health Guide). Be sure that in your exercise that you input a decent amount of cardio. The cardio allows the toxins that are in your body that causes stress to be released from your body. “Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is among the most effective ways of reducing stress, whether the source of stress is chronic pain or a chronic disease. A typical CBT approach includes identifying sources of stress, restructuring priorities, changing one's response to stress, and finding methods for managing and reducing stress” (Health Guide). If you can eliminate what ever is stressing you the do so. With CBT if you know what is stressing you out then you are already half way to reducing the amount of stress that you have. Everyone needs to have some type of relaxation method. Weather this means that you light candles and meditate or just find a comedy on television to watch and relax your mind. There should be some type of relaxation method. “Relaxation lowers blood pressure, respiration, and pulse rate, releases muscle tension, and eases emotional strain” (Health Guide).

Everyone has to deal with stress and the many ways to cope with it. Some people try to relax and take their mind off it. Some people exercise. While others may just deal with the stress and fight through it until it over passes. No matter what we all have to deal with it and some of these tips should help others over come their stress.  

-Chris Carter

                                                                                  Sources

Fan, Will. "A Student’s Tips on Reducing Stress." The New York Times. N.p., 30 Oct. 2007. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55(6), 647-654. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.6.647

"Health Guide." Stress and Anxiety Lifestyle Changes. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

EFT

            When stress becomes a part of your life, how will you handle it? To be quite honest, stress will never be completely gone, but it can definitely be something that can be managed. There are ways to handle stress in ways like exercising and meditation, but there is a certain technique that can be forgotten about. Well, people are most likely thinking, “what is that technique?” It is called Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as “EFT.” I was introduced to Emotional Freedom Techniques by a former baseball coach that I played for. When I had first heard about this, I was kind of confused to be quite honest wondering how can this really help concentration and reduce stress levels. It also can help pain subside and help with implementing positive goals. Since our main topic is stress, this would be a great subtopic when dealing with stress.

            What is Emotional Freedom Technique? According to Gary Craig, it “Is a universal healing aid that rebalances the body’s energy system with respect to unresolved emotional issues. Energy meridians that run through our body can be blocked or disrupted by unresolved emotional issues, thereby compromising our natural healing potential. Re-aligning the energy meridians while focusing on an unresolved emotional issue can often provide increased personal peace and relief from many physical symptoms.” Gary Craig is considered the founder of Emotional Freedom Techniques. Dr. Roger Callahan, whom of which was a psychologist, served as a mentor to Craig when Craig was a student of his. There is a legend behind how EFT may have broken in. Apparently a patient of Dr. Callahan had a phobia of water. She wouldn’t take a shower, swim, or the most bizarre one which is she would not even go outside if there was going to be rain. The woman had been a patient of Callahan for about year and a half, and he was trying different techniques on her such as hypnosis and rational- emotive therapy. Then during one of their sessions, Dr. Callahan had told her to try tapping under her eyes, surprisingly the woman had tension relieved and the phobia appeared to have vanished. To make sure it was gone, Dr. Callahan took her by a pool and she wanted to jump in. Ever since that day, it has now evolved into a task that people can use on the daily. “The theory behind EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body’s energy field” (Brattberg, 2008)

            Now as far as how to use Emotional Freedom Techniques, there are multiple ways of how someone can use it: Tapping the top of the head making sure the fingers are back-to-back down the middle of the skull, above the eye brow, side of the eyes (temple area), under the eye, arm, and nose, chine, collar bone, and on the inside of the wrists (Mercola, 2013). When tapping, the person must tap hard enough, but obviously not hard enough to cause an injury and even if you are not tapping in the exact area that is alright. As long as you are in the right vicinity, that is more than efficient.  “This treatment is effective with most anxiety or trauma based issues, has remarkable effect with pain by treating remembered pain that contributes to chronic pain, is extremely safe, easy to teach, and is a natural self-help treatment intervention” (Gary A. Flint, 2001).

            After giving a brief background and how to perform Emotional Freedom Techniques, now it is time to put these techniques to the test. As far as students using this technique in school, the workforce, or in their careers, look at it this way, it can only help you. Stress is something that can’t really be avoided, it can only be maintained. There is always going to be those rough days where there is a lot going on and your head will be going in fifty different directions, so why not try techniques like Emotional Freedom Techniques to help control the mind and get back to solid mental state. Maybe it can be the difference someday when helping a student with an exam, or getting a task done at your job. After doing more research on Emotional Freedom Techniques, it seems that it is off to the races and will continue to become more popular throughout the world. The way these techniques are growing, it can become the leading way when dealing with mental and emotional issues.

-Anthony Capaldi

Sources

Brattberg, G. (2008). Self-administered EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) in individuals with fibromyalgia: a randomized trial. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal.

Flint, G. A., Lammers, W., & Mitnick, D. G. (2006). Emotional freedom techniques. Journal of aggression, maltreatment & trauma, 12(1-2), 125-150.

Mercola, Joseph. (n.d.). Basic Steps to Your Emotional Freedom. In Emotional Freedom Technique. Retrieved February 8, 2013, from http://eft.mercola.com/.