Stress and fear may seem to your students like the new normal, especially to those who face anxiety’s fury on a daily basis. When fear becomes their habitual state, teen brains literally begin to work against them? And yet studies show that increasingly students in upper grades must attend classes, complete homework, and collaborate on teams against backdrops of debilitating (not creative) tensions, and stress. Did you know that to laugh at yourself is to laugh away stress?
At secondary peer pressure forces students to compete in unfair races for lifeline scholarships. They must prepare for college where massive student loans sometimes force them to race for ill-fitted jobs that disappear like snow on a warm spring afternoon. And it’s not just celebrities who face an onslaught of tension’s wrath. In fact it’s been said depression exists in most classes.
Faculty too struggle against killer tone toxins in broken systems that hurl deadly strikes when least expected. Teacher stress escalates at alarming rates! Demands increase while securities and safety nets tend to fall away with political strife and a shrinking public purse.
It doesn’t have to be that way. So what then can be done within upper classes to help balance brain chemicals for more hope and less despair in teens and young adults?
It’s no surprise that gloom is highly contagious. But have you considered strategies to facilitate the power of moods and choice?
Holidays can be the worst time for depression and loneliness to spawn! But it doesn’t have to be this way, if you create space for mindfulness, stress shrinks by default!
Stress kills …
Innovative opportunities spiral into lost prospects, as seen recently in Robin William’s suicide.
Increased sickness spikes at alarming numbers, for those who lack serotonin strategies that win against stress attacks.
Harvard researchers show stress as gaining ground for increasing numbers of individuals and organizations.
With depression come deadly barbs:
Health and relationships suffer most from stress. For some who looked to home as a haven to unwind – stress holds an especially harmful grip. Research shows that a partner’s toxic personality drags deadly challenges into your health. Stressors that can even stunt recovery after illness.
Your ability to spot good plummets with the cortisol chemicals’ effects from stress. While you’ll be typically hit with about 22 stressors on any ordinary day, it takes an awareness of stress to use serotonin strategies for well being in response to daily stress strikes.
Sleep problems increase for those who fail to run from stress – just as you’d dash away from any serial killer. It often starts with an inability to remain calm under pressure. Reasons for sleeplessness differ, yet stressed people report remarkable similarities to sleepless nights.
Since stress has recently been proven to lock its prey into its rigid ruts just this side of adventure, it’s well worth deliberately stepping out to reach another side.
One sure way to exchange stress for mental muscles includes brain based tools to learn and assess at secondary and higher education. To replace the lecture or delivery-style meeting methods is to begin with tools to help others innovate and move forward mentally.
You’ll also enjoy this recent study to show how the brain builds natural chemicals for well being in a powerful placebo effect.
10 Brain-powered Pathways Away from Stress:
- Laugh – yes, especially when the chips are down, and you’ll build neuron pathways in directions away from stress.
- Golf as a way to relax in nature’s best– even as you capitalize on improving your swing with each new shot.
- Embrace a novel adventure, a playful distraction to rejuvenate your brain from ruts that imprison you in stress.
- Risk replacing one idol that holds you back – with an innovative alternative that could sprint you forward.
- Encourage another brainy bloke, rather than find flaws or name faults as stressed-out critics tend to nitpick.
- Recognize and flee from 10 tragic toxins in minds of bullies and cynics.
- Ask two-footed questions that shut off stressor spigots, and open your day into what if … possibilities.
- Act on even just one life-changing brain-powered dream. Then inspire others by using the tone to create across differences.
- Check out the wonders and woes of change – then flee from any fear that stunts new growth.
- Rewire your brain to act courageously by choosing ethics – even when good seems to lose against the odds.
How do you and those you enable, stack up against stress that shrinks the brain, fosters unforgiveness, can lead to dementia, and robs growth opportunities?
Related tool: Yearly planner with brain boosters and prompts to reboot your brain so that you tap and develop hidden and unused capabilities.
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Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset
Hi There,
My name is Sally and I am writing because of a personal connection to mental health problems caused by financial stress. The life of a freelance writer can be financially insecure as you might imagine, but I have learned recently how money matters can affect the mental and physical health of older adults like my parents who are now planning for retirement.
Recently, I came across brainleadersandlearners.com while researching a piece inspired by my own family. A combination of my father being downsized in his 60s and my mother falling ill have combined to seriously affect their financial planning for retirement and has exacerbated their health problems. They have inspired me to write a guide for seniors and their families about the most common causes of financial stress, how it affects the person, and provide some coping strategies. You can read it here: http://reversemortgagealert.org/financial-stress-coping-guide-seniors/. I thought you might be interested in it after reading https://brainleadersandlearners.com/ellen-weber/stress-masks-as-savior-to-strike-as-killer/.
It would be wonderful if you could give my resource a little mention on your site because many of your readers will find it useful and interesting. Of course, I would love to write a short introduction for you on the same topic. Just let me know which you prefer.
Best Regards,
Sally
Nice work, Sally – and thanks for sharing your thoughtful work. So sorry to hear of the challenges your family has faced, and wish you the very best as you walk forward with these excellent ideas.
It takes many of us who work with neural related applications to spread the word about the problems related to stress and the possibilities related to neural practices. You may well want to contact each of the sources you referenced for your article – as I think they would likely be keenly interested in your post.
All the very best, Sally! Ellen
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