Approaching Stress, Preventing Overwhelm, & Strengthening Resilience
Date
Fall 2023
Type of Culminating Activity
Student presentation
Abstract
Stress affects pretty much everyone, period. However, how we respond to stress, how it impacts us, and how we view it depends on things like our mindset, our beliefs, and our level of resilience. In this capstone project, I wanted to find a way to help people find a solution to dealing with life stressors while also building resilience. Often times, many people turn to unhealthy coping strategies or simply lack the know-how on ways to approach the various challenges in life. So, I set out to help people in my community by creating a public, hands-on workshop where participants learned about stress, how it affects them, tools to manage it, and ultimately a plan to build resilience and overcome life challenges. This workshop consisted of educating participants, learning various stress-reduction tools, journal activities, and then teaching them a simple, easy-to-use plan for dealing with stress while enhancing resilience. When designing this workshop, I pulled from various sources which include my own experience working in the health and wellness industry, books on the subject, research articles, my education at Boise State, and consultations with everyday people who had to overcome major challenges. An underlying theme from all the research was that people can indeed overcome anything when they believe, have hope, and employ various therapeutic tools like breathing exercises. The result was a workshop that went deeper than simply providing education; I aimed to motivate and excite participants while also creating momentum to get them moving forward with the means necessary to approach stress. After the workshop, participants were asked to do a survey and I also got feedback from people who helped me while putting together the workshop. Overall, the survey results were favorable, as well as the feedback. According the survey, the workshop was well organized, logical, and helpful. However, about 64% if the survey results selected "agree" when asked if they were motivated while approximately 27% selected "strongly agree". To me, this shows that I was successful, but my motivational strategies can be improved upon. As far as verbal feedback, the workshop itself was put together well, helpful, and mostly effective.
Degree Program
Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Professional Studies
Mentors
Margaret Sass, J.D., Ed.D
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© 2023, John Scherwitz.