Stress and self improvement

There is relationship between stress and work. Stress can have a significant impact on working life, with negative effects on both attitude and behavior. People will burnout if they can no longer deal with the pressure. Burnout can be defined as ‘a syndrome Of emotional exhaustion, diversification, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity’ (Mismatch et al. , 1996, P. 4). Since always need to overtime for my work and also need to study after work, I always feel that I am burnout. Therefore, it is important to reduce the stress level.

In this self-improvement project, I would like to do exercise regularly to reduce my stress level. It helps to prevent burnout or other negative consequences in our daily life and our workplace. However, it was necessary to define stress before starting the self-improvement project. Different people will define stress differently. In general, most psychologists define stress as a process in which some event occurs in our life which we fear we do not have the ability to cope with. As a result, we exhibit a range Of behavioral responses that cause us distress (Mill et al. 2002). There are different methods to reduce stress level such as thinking positive and sharing with others. However, doing exercise is the easiest method which we can control and keep doing regularly. Therefore, my hypothesis is that doing exercise every day reduces my stress level. There are some research to support the relationship between exercise and decrease of stress level. Firstly, a study showed that benefits of exercise in later adulthood may extend to minimizing detrimental effects of stress on the hippopotamus and memory (Head et al. 2012) Secondly, a study showed that doing exercise appeared to protect those experiencing high stress by buffering its relationship with telemeter length (Paternal et al. , 201 0) Methods Measure There were three measurement methods to test whether succeeded or not. Firstly, Perceived Stress Scale was used to test my stress level in this project (Cohen et al. , 1983). There were 10 questions in the scale. All the scale items were in the form of statements with five possible responses: Never, Almost Never, Sometimes, Fairly Often and Very often.

This was in effect a five-point skirt-type scale. Among 10 items, there were 4 items are reverse-scored items. According to the scoring method set out in the Perceived Stress Scale, items were to record a score from O (Never) to 4 (Very Often) and 4 reverse- cored items were to record a score from 4 (Never) to O (Very Often). Scale scores were computed as summing the participant’s item response. Higher scores in Perceived Stress Scale meant higher the stress level. Secondly, I logged which exercise I had done actually and my personal reflection about stress level after exercise in my diary’.

Thirdly, Comment was collected from the friend who monitored my self-improvement project to see whether my stress level was reduced or not. Procedure Before starting the 8-week program, had done Perceived Stress Scale to measure my stress level. I also bought a notebook to log the details every day during these 8 weeks. For the procedure used to implement, I planned to do exercise every night. However, the type of exercise did not be limited. Every exercise would be counted in this program. After doing exercise, I wrote what type of exercise I had done and my refection.

Also, planned to meet my friend every week. It was used to update the progress to him and let him observe the stress level of me. After the completion of the 8-week program, did the Perceived Stress Scale to measure my stress level again. Also, I would look at my diary to see my reflection. Loud also count the positive words and emotions in my diary. Rest Its After the 8-week program of change, it was showed that my stress level was reduced under all there measurement methods. For Perceived Stress Scale, the score changed from 17 to 15.

For the self-report data in my diary, it also showed that my stress level was reduced. Felt good after doing exercise. Also, there were more positive words and emotions in the latter part of my diary. For the comments of my friend, he told me that my stress level was reduced. He told me that had a trick of pulling my hairs when felt stress. However, after the 8-week program of change, the frequency of pulling hairs was reduced. Discussion The result was consistent with prior research. Doing exercise helps to reduce the stress level.

In this 8-evoke program of change, I learnt that self-change was possible. Actually, I was very stressful and nervous before the program. Knew that I always pulled my hairs to reduce my stress level. It was very unhealthy. Now, I become healthier and have reasonable stress level. In the program, there were some difficulties to implement the program. Firstly, I need to do exercise every day. It is very difficult for me to insist. Eldon did exercise before the program. However, had to insist to do exercise every day during these 8 weeks.

Also, the weather is another problem to implement to the program. Some of days were raining during these 8 weeks. It affected me not to go outside for running and I had to do another type of exercise. Thirdly, I was busy for my work and study. It was difficult for me to arrange time to do exercise. Therefore, insistence was very important in this program. There were so many reasons to affect the implementation of the program. However, if you insisted to do exercise every day, you would achieve your Laos. Moreover, you would feel more happy and successful if you insisted to do exercise every day.

It was not only because you achieved the goals, but also you insisted on one thing. Therefore, I felt very happy after 8-week program. For the program, there was one thing which we had to pay more attention. It was the duration for exercise per day. If the duration was too short, the effectiveness might not too strong. However, if the duration was too long, you might feel tired. If you felt tired every day, you stress level might become higher than the program. Therefore, suitable duration for exercise as very important for the program.