Using Nature to Relieve Stress
Hectic and busy lives seem to be the norm and a major part of today’s world. People are always rushing to get things done, whether it is a project deadline or just keeping up with the pace of life. These time constraints are usually related to external influences in our lives – work, school, traffic, family, friends and/or life in general. All these factors create drama in life and lead to stress; however, some people have higher levels of stress than others. Stress is not healthy; in fact, it has been proven to cause serious health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and even death. Sometimes, people just need to get away from the stresses of life, do something different and just RELAX!!! This may involve taking a day off from work or the stressor in life, going to the beach or some other place, getting a massage, or anything else to escape the stressor. What many people do not realize is there is something usually not far away that can relieve stress – nature.
For many people nature is the number one way to relieve stress. There are numerous videos, cassette tapes and CD’s on the market that show nature scenes and/or play nature sounds. One might ask why. Well, the answer is that nature tends to be peaceful, calm and relaxing. It is a place where someone can get away from the madness of a busy life. There are many companies and individuals trying to sell all kinds of things to get people to relax and “de-stress” their lives. In addition to the videos, tapes and CD’s, there is an abundance of marketing strategies to relieve stress including: counseling, exercise or health clubs, pills, massage therapists and health spas. All this “stuff” can becom...
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...ess, which in itself, may create more stress from the financial burden. Nature is basically free – all one has to do is get there. For most people, it is right in their back yards, and they may not even be aware that it is so close. Many large cities are creating greenways and natural areas with trails so that people can escape the hectic rush of city life and get back to nature. This is also a positive way of helping with pollution by having more trees to provide oxygen. You can just sit and relax, let your senses soak up nature, or take the verbal approach and scream out your stress. Whatever you choose to do, don’t bash nature as a way to relieve stress until you try it. Ultimately, stress is harmful and can have long-lasting physical and emotional effects on a person. Just do it - believe it or not, nature may be the one thing that can relieve stress.
Everybody has at least one thing in common. Can you guess what it is? If you guessed, heartbreak, you’re right, but that’s not the answer I’m looking for. The correct answer is stress. Everyone has stress in his or her life at one point or another. It’s one of many inevitable parts of life. Whether it’s busting out a research paper for Psychology at the last minute, expecting your first child to be born, to making sure you’re up in time to catch the Saturday morning cartoons, it’s clearly evident that everyone goes through stress. The real question is, how is stress handled in our society? A person is defined by how they handle the stressors in their lives and how they overcome stressful moments. This paper will explore the aspects of stress management; hoping to help others in their times of stress.
Richard Louv, the author of, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from nature deficit-disorder,” talks about nature and its benefits to a healthy development. Time Experiencing with nature allows people to have healthy development since it promotes creativity and imagination. It does not take more than a couple of steps outside to see nature. It is all around us. It can even be right outside our window. Leaving the blinds open can bring peace of mind, just by viewing it. As people experience time with nature, no matter the age, they develop greater creativity and imagination. It is like people today fear nature.
Stress is a condition that affects both genders and all age groups. It is a condition that is inevitable to live without in our society. However, the human race has exhausted the use of stress. Originally, stress initial purpose was to actually save us from life threatening situations. For example, when an animal senses a predator or comes into contact with it. The animal triggers its stress response, allowing the animal to burst into energy and trying to get away from the predator. Once the predator the animals' stress levels for example a zebra’s stress levels go down and return to normal. However, that is sadly not the case for humans who can't seem to shut off their stress response, but only know how to trigger it. Therefore, our high
Modern life is full of hassle, stress and frustrations. Stress is so common that is has become a way of life of many people. Stress isn’t always negative. In small measures, it can help you cope well under pressure and encourage you to do your best. Stress has known to be a common factor for students these days due to work overload. Stress can cause some lifestyle problems, for example, headaches, loss of appetite, heart attacks, obesity, aging, depression, nervous breakdown and loss of focus. There are many ways in which stress could be overcome, such as yoga and meditation. Studies have found that stress has both positive and negative effect on everyone. Even though meditation is conventional, people still practice it in hopes of stave off stress. Meditations have been used for centuries by everyone as one of the cures to help reduce stress in their daily life.
The feeling of stress is inevitable to avoid and remove entirely from our lives. As we go through life and our stress levels rise, for various reasons, resulting in the feeling of worry, anxiety, insomnia, etc. We search for strategies to assist with decreasing the feeling of stress or to better help cope with it. Coping is defined as “managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve life’s problems, and seeking to master or reduce stress” (p521). Individuals perform a wide range of different activities to help manage stress and decrease its effects such as working out at a gym regularly, attending routine social gatherings, and reading books. One stress reducer that our society often overlooks is nature and its benefits. There have been studies on forest bathing, which involves walking a forest trail or sitting on a boulder and observing nature with all five senses, that proves to minimize stress.
The legal aspect of newsgathering in war is a hotly debated topic. Propaganda can be both positive and negative. Throughout history, newsgathering at a time of war has been a very sensitive issue. The way that war is portrayed by the media has an immense effect on citizen's morale and the attitude of nations.
The Stress Reduction Theory (SRT) proposes the idea that nature “posits a healing power of nature that lies in an unconscious, autonomic response to natural elements that occur without recognition and most noticeably in individuals who have been stressed before the experience”(Bratman; Nature Experience, cognitive function, and mental health). Scientists tested this theory through the usage of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). By analyzing the brain activity demonstrated in the images, facial expressions and other factors that indicate changes in emotion, scientists, consequently; children are not fully familiar with their emotions and couldn’t describe what they were feeling in detail. The fMRI brain images indicated massive differences in the children who had had a nature experience prior to the brain scans (the control group) compared to those who had not. The second theory Attention Restoration Theory “centers the power of nature to replenish certain types of attention through conscious, cognitive processed in response to natural landscapes.” The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) focused primarily on the differences in attention spans and behavior of children who lived in urbanized areas compared to those who live in greener areas. In a natural experiment Taylor “compared children from the same population in a housing complex in Chicago, whose living conditions and demographic characteristics differed only by their views from home: a small pocket of urban park or a barren concrete area.” (Berman, Tennessen, Cimprich and Taylor; Nature experience, cognitive function, and mental function). Children in both areas demonstrated the effects of an environment on the behavior and proved the Attention Restoration Theory. A minor
Stress is defined as “any circumstance that threatens or is perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 72). Stress is a natural event that exists literally in all areas of one’s life. It can be embedded in the environment, culture, or perception of an event or idea. Stress is a constant burden, and can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. However, stress can also provide beneficial effects; it can satisfy one’s need for stimulation and challenge, promote personal growth, and can provide an individual with the tools to cope with, and be less affected by tomorrow’s stress (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 93).
Globalization, love it or hate it, but you can’t escape it. Globalization may be regarded as beneficial from an economic and business point of view, but however cannot be perceived the ditto when examined from the social sciences and humanities side of it. Globalization can be argued as a tool for economic growth, advancement and prosperity through co-operation between the developed and developing countries. The pro-globalization critics argue that the benefits that globalization brings to developing nations surpasses or outcasts the negative impacts caused by globalization and may even go a step further to state that it is the only source of hope for developing nations to prosper and stand out. However, the real question to be asked is as to what extent are the positives argued upon without taking into account the negative aspects of globalization towards developing countries. Moreover, how many developing countries out of many are exactly benefiting or even prospering from globalization is another question to consider. Therefore, my paper will dispute that indeed growth and advancement provided by globalization to developing countries is beneficial in short-term, but in the long-run, it will only bring upon negative impacts and challenges due to the obstacles involved such as exploitation of labour and resources, higher increase in poverty, and effects of multi-national corporations on local businesses and the economy, and to an extent the effects on the developing country itself.
Divorce is a word that haunts many young children. Kids don't understand why it's happening; all they know us that they now have two homes, two families, two Christmases. The lives of every member of the family are forever changed. Everything they know and are familiar with will be different. This significant shift in lifestyle can cause many effects on various age groups of people. When a married couple is miserable and unhappy, considering divorce seems like the only answer. Some parents do not consider how much the divorce will affect their lives, along with the lives of their children. When a married couple gets divorced, children in the family have trust issues, teens become rebellious, and the couple themselves often go into severe depression or sadness.
Stress is a normal physical response to events that make one feel threatened or upset one’s balance in some way. It comes to us naturally, when we need it. When working properly, it helps one stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save people’s lives; such as with the fight to flight response. So in situations it comes upon us to benefit us and to be helpful. The stress response also helps one rise to meet challenges, and also helps keep one’s concentration. Although stress can be good, beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to a person’s health, mood, productivity, relationships, and their overall quality of life (www.helpg...
In today’s society, life is fraught of troubles, deadlines, frustrations and demands. In the lives of many people, stress is so prevalent that it has become a way of life. According to many doctors and researchers stress refers to the response people have when facing circumstances that force them to act, change, or adjust in some way to maintain their footing, or to keep things balanced. Today, there are many important contributors to stress (called stressors) and the effects they cause to the human body and mind. Physical, cognitive and behavioral problems are some of the effects that stressors can contribute to the human body and mind. Stress can lead to financial problems, work problems, and relationship difficulties.
English spreads widely in each countries, no matter the area of region or information transfer, English becomes an important position in global language. As the specification of a global language, it essentially refers to a language that learned and spoken internationally, so English can be the most out-standing. According to the number of English-speaking calculations, English is the official language used by most countries, English is the most widely used second language in the world, and the percentage of web pages with English content is estimated to be over 50% (Crystal, 2003). Meanwhile, the history and usefulness cause English to be a global language, and they mainly influence to spread English faster in China and to bring convenience
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.