What is Stress?
Objectives
- Define the biological and psychological concept of stress.
- Analyze how stress impacts the entire body, including mind-body connections.
- Assess the effects of stress across various facets of daily life, including sleep, academic performance, and interpersonal relationships.
- Demonstrate how mindfulness practices can help ease and regulate physiological responses to stressful situations.
Quote
You can’t stop the waves,
but you can learn to surf.
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
overview
Being aware of our stressors and the signs of stress in our bodies and minds can help us make more informed decisions about how to manage them.
Mindfulness, which involves paying attention to how the body feels, what we think, and what we feel, can help prevent the buildup of negative stress effects.
Mindful awareness can enhance our well-being and resiliency.
We will explore:
- What is stress?
- How does stress affect experience?
- How can mindfulness & awareness help manage the effects of negative stress?
Arriving Practice - Listening to the Bell
Listening to the Bell
Listen
What is the point of an Arriving Practice?
The point of a mindful arriving practice is to anchor your mind and body in the present moment, shifting you out of “autopilot” or mental time-traveling. It breaks the cycle of daily rushing and anxiety by helping you consciously step into the “here and now”.
Benefits:
- Stress Reduction: It signals to your nervous system that you are safe, allowing your body to release built-up tension before transitioning into work or a new task.
- Improved Focus: By grounding yourself first, you clear mental clutter, which enhances concentration and helps you avoid burnout.
- Emotional Control: It creates a “buffer” between you and your immediate reactions, giving you the ability to choose how you respond to situations rather than acting on impulse.
Reflection Question
- What do you do to help yourself make transitions from one mental/physical space to another?
Mindful Check-In: Energy
Energy
Listen
If you were a battery:
Where is your energy now?
What do you need?
What is the point of a check-in
A mindful check-in is a purposeful pause used to assess your current mental, emotional, and physical state without judgment. Its primary point is to shift you out of “autopilot,” helping you regulate emotions, reduce stress, and meet your immediate needs with clarity.
Benefits:
- Emotional Regulation: It help you determine what you are feeling so you can respond to situations thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively.
- Stress Reduction: It releases physical tension and re-centers your energy, helping to prevent burnout.
- Self-Compassion: It nurtures a caring relationship with yourself by acknowledging your needs in real time.
Without knowing where you are at, you cannot assess what you need. ~ Heidi Bornstein
Breath Practice - Conductor Breath
Conductor Breath
Watch
A movement and breath combination for moving energy.
Feeling tired? Feeling Wired? Try this to regulate your energy.
Benefits:
Reduces stress and anxiety,
Boosts energy,
Increases focus
Releases stored emotional or physical tension.
Reflection Questions:
- How are you feeling after this practice?
- If you were wired, did it help calm you down?
- If you were tired, did it give you a bit more energy?
Stress Information
Automatic Nervous System
Chemicals of Stress
Physiology of Stress
Perception of Stress
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
Sympathetic
Nervous System
(Alert/Act)
Freeze
Response
(Shut Down/Protect)
Parasympathetic
Nervous System
(Rest and Recover)
How It All Connects
- Fight or flight — Sympathetic nervous system: The body mobilizes energy to respond to danger.
- Freeze — A defensive response involving interacting nervous system pathways: When a threat feels overwhelming or escape seems difficult, the body may become very still, with increased muscle tension and changes in heart rate and breathing.
- Rest and digest — Parasympathetic nervous system: When the threat has passed and safety is restored, the body can settle, recover and resume functions such as digestion.
Chemicals of Stress
The Three Major Stress Hormones:
Adrenaline, Cortisol, Norepinephrine
When stressed, our bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood, giving us more energy and strength.
Physiology of Stress
Perception of Stress
Our perception can impact our response
Mindful awareness can help manage the effects of negative stress by viewing stress as a challenge rather than a threat.
Unhealthy Stress
Reacting to stress as a threat that you feel you don’t have the resources to overcome (e.g. time)
Healthy Stress
Responding to stress as a challenge that will be difficult, but you think you can successfully tackle
The Relaxation Response
Reflection Questions
- What activities help you?
- Which ones are part of your life?
- Which one could you consider to including in your life?
Healthy Habits - Overview
There are 12 Healthy Habits which support well-being, especially brain function. We will be examining each of these in the next lessons.
Mindful Attitudes - Overview
You cannot control what happens to you,
but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you,
and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.
~ Brian Tracey
There are 10 foundational mindful attitudes that support infusing mindfulness into your life. The underlying principle is interest and curiosity in your own experience as it unfolds. We will be examining each of these in the next lessons.
Breath Practice – The Physiological Sigh
The Physiological Sigh
Watch
Benefits
- Rapid Stress Reduction: Triggers an immediate shift from the sympathetic “fight-or-flight” state to the parasympathetic “rest-and-digest” state.
- Lowers Heart Rate: Long, slow exhales cause the diaphragm to move upward, signaling the brain to slow down the heart’s pacing.
- Maximizes Oxygen Exchange: The second “sip” of air forcefully reinflates deflated air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs, expanding their surface area.
Reflection Questions
- How did you feel before and after the practice?
- What sensations did you notice in your body?
- How could you use this technique in everyday life?
Mindful Movement & Focus Practice - Standing Like a Mountain & Vitruvian Balance
Mountain to Vitruvian
Watch
Standing LIke a Mountain Benefits
- Increasing body awareness
- Increases strength, power, and mobility in the feet, legs, and hips
- Strengthens the thighs, knees, ankles, and core while increasing power and mobility in the feet, legs, and hips.
- Promotes better posture, steadier breathing, and greater balance.
Balance Benefits
- Builds core stability
- Enhances proprioception (body awareness in space)
- Sharpen mental focus
Regularly practicing these poses strengthens smaller stabilizing muscles, and improves overall posture.
Reflective Questions
- How do you feel? Calm? Stressed?
- Did this make you feel more tired or more energized?
- Did this balancing practice help you focus?
My Mindful Journey Reflection Journal
How Does Stress Affect You?
Complete the 4 activities and Evaluation:
- What Stresses You Out? Quiz
- What is Your Stress Signature?
- Where Do You Feel Stress in Your Body? Quiz
- How Do You Feel Emotionally When You are Stressed? Quiz
1. What Stresses You Out? Quiz
2. What is Your Stress Signature?
3. Where do you feel stress in your body? Quiz
4. How Do You Feel Emotionally When You are Stressed? Quiz
The Wrap Up
Key Points About Stress
- Stress is neither good nor bad; stress is your body’s way of responding to any demand.
- Too much stress for too long can become harmful to the body, mind and heart.
- How you view stress – as a challenge instead of a threat can mitigate the negative impact of stress.
- Recognizing the physical symptoms of stress and identifying stressors can help manage stress.
- Managing stress can help us recover more quickly from stressful experiences.
Final Check-in & Reflection
What Did We Do Today?
- Arriving: Listening to the Bell
- Check-in: Energy Level
- Breathing: Conductor Breath / Physiological Sigh
- Movement: Standing Like a Mountain
- Focus: Vitruvian Man
- Stress: Information, Activities and Practices – please specify
- MIndful Attitude: Overview
- Healthy Habit: Overview
How is your energy now?
- Was there a shift in how you feel after doing this lesson, learning about stress and doing the activities and practices?
- Which practices helped you with coping with stress?
- What are your Strategies for Stress Management?
Explore
Stress Lesson Activities
Art Activity
Learn More
Videos to Watch
Resources
Stress Lesson Activities
Additional stand-alone activities that support the lesson theme
Multitasking Activity
Are You Good At Multitasking? Let’s test the theory…..
Reflection Questions
- How does multitasking impact your stress levels?
- When is the stress of multi-tasking energizing and when is it
overwhelming? - Which activities can overwhelm your stress levels – i.e., trying to
finish 2 projects at once?
Steps
Debrief Questions
Impacts of Multitasking
Art Activity - Drawing the Breath
Reflection Questions – Drawing the Breath Activity
- What colour did you choose as your starting colour? Why?
- What does it now represent to you as part of your breath artwork?
- What colours did you add?
- Did drawing your breath help you understand how you are feeling in the moment? How?
- What shapes and colours do you see in your final artwork?
- Did you draw your breath big or small?
- How would you describe your breath artwork to someone else?.
Learn More
About Anxiety
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is…
- normal
- not dangerous
- adaptive
- part of life
but it can become a problem if it leads to avoidance and diminished quality of life.
Foods That May Lower Anxiety
Videos To Watch
Resources
Websites
Mindfulness For Teens: https://www.mindfulnessforteens.com/
Teen’s Health Stress & Coping Centre: https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/
center/stress-center.html
Mindful Edge YouTube Stress Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOeE_TREkM-MzTXPam05LMfh5Uzgk7Zbn
