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DIANNE HALES with JULIA HALES
Personal Stress
Management
FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING
Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Personal Stress Management
Personal Stress
Management
From Surviving to Thriving
Dianne Hales
with Julia Hales
Australia ● Brazil ● Mexico ● Singapore ● United Kingdom ● United States
Personal Stress Management: From Surviving © 2018 Cengage Learning
to Thriving
Unless otherwise noted, all art is © Cengage Learning.
Dianne Hales, Julia Hales
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein
Product Director: Dawn Giovanniello may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, except as
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Printed in the United States of America

Print Number: 01 Print Year: 2016
Brief Contents
Preface xi
Part I Stress and Its Impact

C h a p t er 1 Understanding Stress 1
C h a p t er 2 Stress and Your Body 20
C h a p t er 3 Stress and Your Mind 39
Part II Stress on Campus

C h a p t er 4 Stress on Campus 61
C h a p t er 5 Your Personal Environment, Time, and Money 79
C h a p t er 6 Relationships, Social Health, and Stress 101
Part III Managing Stress

C h a p t er 7 Personal Change 125
C h a p t er 8 Psychological Approaches 144
C h a p t er 9 Stress-Resistant Health Habits 166
C h a p t er 10 Spirituality, Life Balance, and Resilience 192
C h a p t er 11 Occupational and Environmental Stress 213
Part IV Stress Reduction and Relaxation Techniques

C h a p t er 12 Breathing, Relaxation, and Guided Imagery 232
C h a p t er 13 Mindfulness, Meditation, and Self-hypnosis 248
C h a p t er 14 Physical Techniques 264
C h a p t er 15 Complementary, Alternative, and Creative Therapies 282
Glossary 296
References 300
Index 309
Contents
Preface xi Stress and the Immune System 27
Stress and the Cardiovascular System 28
Stress and the Gastrointestinal System 29
Part I Stress and Its Impact Stress and the Muscles 30
Stress and the Skin 32
Chapter 1 Stress and the Reproductive System 33
Understanding Stress 1 Stress and Cancer 33
What Is Stress? 3 Stress and Aging 34
Stress: Good, Bad, and Neutral 4 Rx: Relax 35
Stress and the Dimensions of Health 5 Chapter Summary 35
Physical Health 5 Stress Relievers 36
Psychological Health 5
Spiritual Health 5 Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 37
Social Health 5
Intellectual Health 5
Occupational Health 5
Chapter 3
Environmental Health 5 Stress and Your Mind 39
Stress in America 5 Psychological Health 41
Types of Stressors 6 Stress and the Brain 41
Acute Stressors 6
Episodic Acute Stressors 6
Perception-Based Theories of Stress 43
Chronic Stressors 7 Locus of Control 43
Self-Efficacy 43
Common Stressors 7 Expectations 44
Daily Hassles 7 Attributions 44
Life Change Events 7
Psychosocial Stressors 9 Taking Charge of Your Thoughts 45
Trauma 9 Thought Awareness 45
Cognitive Restructuring/Reframing 46
Inside Stress: The General Adaptation Syndrome 9 Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy 46
How the Body Responds to Stress 10 Thinking Traps 47
Automatic Stress Responses 10 Why Worry? 48
Fight or Flight 10
Talking Back to Stress 48
Freezing 10
Self-Talk 49
Submission 10
Negate the Negatives 49
Challenge Response Model 11
Affirm Yourself 50
Tend-and-Befriend Model 12
Transactional or Cognitive-Reappraisal Model 12 Stress and Mental Health 50
Anxiety 51
How Much Stress Is Too Much? 13
Depression 51
Rethinking Stress 14
The Stress Paradox 14
Stress-Related Mental Disorders 52
Adjustment Disorder 52
Stress Mindsets 15
Acute Stress Disorder 52
From Surviving to Thriving 15
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 53
Chapter Summary 16
Suicide 54
Stress Relievers 17 Harnessing the Powers of Your Mind 55
Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 18 Chapter Summary 56
Chapter 2 Stress Relievers 57

Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 59
Stress and Your Body 20
The Biology of Stress 22
The Inside Story 22 Part II Stress on Campus
The Key Players 23
Sounding the Stress Alarm 23 Chapter 4
Stress and Susceptibility 24
Biological Sex 24 Stress on Campus 61
Race and Ethnicity 25 Students under Stress 63
Genes 25 Gender Differences 64
Family History 25 Students under Age 25 65
The Toll of Excess Stress 26 Nontraditional-Age Students 65
vi
Entering Freshmen and First-Generation College Shyness 108
Students 66 Social Anxiety 108
Minority Students 66 Living in a Wired World 109
Academic Stress 68 Social Media on Campus 109
Inside Academic Stress 69 Online Eustress 109
Your Study Style 69 Digital Distress 110
Test Stress 71 Sexual and Romantic Relationships 110
Common Campus Stressors 73 Gender Identity 111
Risky Behaviors 74 Intimate Relationships 114
Illness and Disability 74 Cohabitation 114
Violence and Crime 75 Marriage 114
Coping with Campus Stress 76 Marriage and Health 115
Chapter Summary 76 Resolving Conflict 115
Stress Relievers 77 Dysfunctional Relationships 116
Emotional and Verbal Abuse 116
Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 78 Codependency and Enabling 117
Intimate Partner Violence 118
Chapter 5 Sexual Victimization 118
When Love Ends 119
Your Personal Environment, Time, Breaking Up and Rejection 119
and Money 79 Divorce 119
Managing Your Personal Environment 82 Building Better Relationships 120
Rules of Order 82 Chapter Summary 121
Your Study Space 82
Stress Relievers 122
Establishing Order 83
Managing Your Time 84
Day Planning 84
Visualize Your Time 84
Take Time for Yourself 85
Part III Managing Stress
Pre-empting Procrastination 86
Live in Real Time 86 Chapter 7
The Myth of Multitasking 87
The Now Imperative 88
Personal Change 125
Time Management for Commuting and Working Choosing Change 127
Students 88 Why Change Seems Stressful 127
Managing Your Money 89 What You Need to Know about Change 127
Financial Homeostasis 90 What You Can and Can’t Change 128
Frugal Living 92 The Stages of Change 129
Personal Finances 101 93 Precontemplation 129
Your Credit Score 93 Contemplation 130
Banking Basics 93 Preparation 130
Avoid Debit and Credit Card Stress 94 Action 131
Digital Financial Management 95 Maintenance 131
Debt Relief 95 Relapse 131
Protect Your Private Information 96 Is This the Best Time to Make
a Change? 131
Taking Control 96 See the Steps of Change 132
Chapter Summary 97 Motivating Change: Go for Your Goals 133
Stress Relievers 98 Your Big Dream 133
Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 99 Your Destination Goal 133
Setting Long-Term Goals 134
Your Short-Term Goals 134
Chapter 6 The Language of Change 135
Relationships, Social Health, Loophole Language 135
Real Talk 135
and Stress 101
Boosting Your Power to Change 136
Social Health and Support 103 Beyond Willpower 137
Getting Along with Others 104 Making Personal Change Inevitable 137
Communicating 101 104 Are You Getting in Your Own Way? 138
How Men and Women Communicate 106 Changing for Good 139
Agreeable but Assertive 106
Managing Your Behaviors 140
Forming Relationships 107
Chapter Summary 141
Family Ties 107
Friendship 107 Stress Relievers 142
Loneliness 108 Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 143
Contents vii
Chapter 8 Physical Activity 187
Better Sleep 187
Psychological Approaches 144 Healthier Eating 188
Psychological and Emotional Health 146 Chapter Summary 188
Emotional Intelligence 146 Stress Relievers 189
The Power of Positivity 148 Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 190
Emotional Spirals 148
“Undoing” Stress 149
Boost Self-Esteem 149 C h a p t e r 10
Recognize Your Personality Traits 150 Spirituality, Life Balance,
Practice Self-Compassion 150
Meet Your Needs 151 and Resilience 192
Cultivate Gratitude 151 Spirituality 194
Pursue Happiness 152 Spirituality and Health 194
Become Optimistic and Hopeful 153 Spiritual Intelligence 194
Detoxifying Negative Feelings 154 Enriching Your Spiritual Life 194
Fear 154 The Power of Prayer 195
Anger 155 Forgiveness 196
Mood Control 156 Naikan 197
Taking Charge of Risky Behaviors 157 Karma 197
Gambling 157 Your Values 197
Alcohol 157 Clarifying Your Values 198
Drugs 159 Compassion 198
Tobacco 160 Altruism 199
Strengthening Your Coping Muscles 161 A Life in Balance 200
Chapter Summary 162 Resilience 201
Lessons from Resilient People 202
Dealing with Setbacks 203
Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 164 Block Your Escape Routes 204
No Failure to Fear 204
Chapter 9 The Power of Plan B—and C 204
Relapse Rehearsals 205
Stress-Resistant Health Habits 166 Tools for Finding Meaning and Joy 205
Physical Activity and Exercise 168 Expressive Writing and Journaling 205
The Stress of Sedentary Living 168 The Benefits of Expressive Writing and Journaling 206
Exercise, Stress, and the Brain 168 Types of Journaling 206
Fitness Fundamentals 169 Humor or Laughter Therapy 207
Get F.I.T.T. 171 Coping with Life’s Ups and Downs 209
Sleep and Stress 171 Chapter Summary 209
The Toll of Stress 171
Student Night Life 173 Stress Relievers 210
How Much Sleep Do You Need? 173 Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 212
Stress-induced Insomnia 174
How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep 174 C h a p t e r 11
Napping 176
Healthy Eating 177 Occupational and Environmental Stress 213
Essential Nutrients 177 Preparing for Your Future 215
Healthy Eating Guidelines 177 Balancing Work and School 215
Mindful Eating 178 Building Your Resume While in College 215
Nutrition and Mood 178 Choosing a Career 216
Liquid Stress 178 Finding a Job 216
Body Image and Stress 181 Networking 217
“Fat Talk” 182 Preparing for a Job Interview 217
Weight and Stress 183 Handling Interview Stress 218
Stress Fat 183 On the Job 218
Excess Weight 184 What Kind of Worker Are You? 218
Who’s in Control of Your Weight? 184 Time and Task Management 219
Beyond Diets 185 Emotional Intelligence at Work 219
Intuitive Eating 185 Occupational Stress 220
Stress and Disordered Eating 186 Causes of Occupational Stress 220
Stress Eating 186 Coping with Occupational Stress 221
Compulsive Overeating 186 Burnout 221
Binge Eating 186 Causes of Burnout 222
Eating Disorders 187 The Stages of Burnout 222
Creating a Stress-Resistant Lifestyle 187 Job Loss and Unemployment 223
viii Contents
Environmental Stress 224 Stress Relievers 261
Climate Change 225 Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 262
Pollution 225
Noise 226
Cell Phones 228 C h a p t e r 14
Chapter Summary 228 Physical Techniques 264
Stress Relievers 229 Autogenics 265
Your Personal Stress Management Toolbox 230 Understanding Autogenics 265
The Benefits of Autogenics 266
What You Need to Know 266
Part IV Stress Reduction and Relaxation The Stages of Autogenics 266
Techniques Biofeedback 267
Understanding Biofeedback 267
The Benefits of Biofeedback 267
C h a p t e r 12 What You Need to Know 268
Breathing, Relaxation, Yoga 268
Understanding Yoga 269
and Guided Imagery 232 The Benefits of Yoga 276
Breathing 233 What You Need to Know 276
Understanding Breathing 233 Tai Chi 276
The Benefits of Diaphragmatic Breathing 234 Understanding Tai Chi 277
What You Need to Know 235 The Benefits of Tai Chi 277
Introductory Breathing Exercise 235 What You Need to Know 277
Guided Imagery 238 Pilates 278
Understanding Guided Imagery 239 Understanding Pilates 278
The Benefits of Guided Imagery 239 The Benefits of Pilates 278
What You Need to Know 240 What You Need to Know 278
Introductory Guided Imagery Exercise 240 Dance or Movement Therapy 278
Relaxation 241 Chapter Summary 279
Understanding Relaxation 241
The Benefits of Relaxation 241 Stress Relievers 280
What You Need to Know 242 Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 280
ABC Relaxation 244
Chapter Summary 245 C h a p t e r 15
Complementary, Alternative,
and Creative Therapies 282
C h a p t e r 13 Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Understanding CAM 283
283
Mindfulness, Meditation, CAM for Stress Management 284

and Self-hypnosis 248 Alternative Medical Systems 284
Mind–Body Medicine 285
Mindfulness 250 Manipulative and Body-based Methods 285
Understanding Mindfulness 250 Biologically-based Therapies 287
The Benefits of Mindfulness 251 Energy Therapies 288
What You Need to Know 251 Other Complementary and Alternative Techniques 288
Mindfulness Skills 252
Creative or Expressive Therapies 289
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 252
Art Therapy 290
Mindfulness Practices 253
Music Therapy 291
Meditation 255
Understanding Meditation 255 Chapter Summary 293
The Benefits of Meditation 255 Stress Relievers 293
What You Need to Know 256 Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit 294
Meditation Practices 257
Meditation Exercises 258
Self-Hypnosis 259 Glossary 296
Understanding Hypnosis 259
The Benefits of Hypnosis 259
What You Need to Know 260
References 300
Self-Hypnosis Exercise 260
Chapter Summary 261
Index 309
Contents ix
Key Features
Pre-Chapter Check-in Reflection (a self-assessment designed to
Every chapter begins with a self-assessment that focuses on a deepen students’ self-understanding)
specific aspect of stress related to a student’s life: Getting to Know Your Personal Stress 18
Your Stress Signals 2 How Relaxed Are You? 37
Where Do You Feel Stress? 21 Are You Internal or External? 59
Are You in Balance? 40 Are You Showing Signs of Campus Stress? 78
Student Stress Scale 62 Do You Have a Procrastination Problem? 99
Where Does Your Time Go? 80 Building Blocks of a Good Relationship 123
Is Your Relationship Healthy? 102 Dream Big 143
What Would You Change? 126 How Grateful Are You? 164
How Are You Doing? 145 Stress Eating 190
Healthy Habits Inventory 167 A Day in Your Life 212
How Satisfied Are You with Your Life So Far? 193 How Green Is Your Lifestyle? 230
Rate Your Job Stress 214 What Are Your Tension Targets? 246
How Do You Normally Breathe? 233 Are You Present? 262
How Mindful Are You? 249 Why Try a Mind-Body Technique? 280
Which Mind-Body Practice Is Best for You? 265 Should You Try a Complementary, Alternative,
Have You Tried Complementary, Alternative, or Creative or Creative Therapy? 294
Therapies? 283
Technique (a practical stress-reducing
Check-ins technique for students to put to immediate
These are quick in-text self-assessments that ask students use and continue indefinitely in the future)
direct, personal questions that they can relate and response to Introductory Breathing Exercise 18
or that present an intriguing concept or research finding.
Tense and Relax Exercise 37
Mindfulness Meditation 59
Stress Relievers Mindful Studying 78
These are quick, practical steps that students can take immedi- Complete the Incompletes 100
ately or in the near future to reduce stress. The Stress Relievers Listen Up! 123
appear in the text and are summarized at the end of every Create a Timeline 143
chapter.
Taming a Toxic Temper 165
Get a Grip on Stress Eating 191
Your Personal Stress Management Toolkit Pie Chart 212
Because students are all different, with different backgrounds, Instant Stress Relievers to Go 230
personalities, life circumstances, and stressors, there is no one- Breathing for Tension Relief 247
size-fits-all stress management technique for them to use for Sitting Meditation 262
every stressor they encounter in life. As they progress through Introductory Autogenics Exercise 281
your course, students can use this unique interactive feature to
Express Your Stress 295
assemble a collection of coping strategies—a toolkit for per-
sonal stress management—that they can tailor to specific situ-
ations and stressors.
To build this toolkit, each chapter includes:
x Contents
Preface
To the Student most important lessons students can learn in college. This is
the reason I wanted to write a textbook on stress management.
However old you are, wherever you came from, whatever your I collaborated on this project with my daughter, Julia Hales,
goals, the only sure thing in your life is stress. Don’t assume who has a graduate degree in psychology and extensive expe-
that’s all bad. Although you may have thought of it as an enemy rience in counseling clients of all ages. She adapted ther-
to avoid whenever possible, stress isn’t innately and invariably apy-based techniques into practical strategies and skills that
dangerous. In fact, it is an unavoidable part of life. students can apply immediately in their daily lives.
There is no magic, no hidden secret to dealing with Personal Stress Management presents a positive, proactive,
stress. There are, however, techniques and tools that can evidence-based approach. Although we discuss the negative
empower you to approach stress as a challenge rather than a effects of excess stress, we take a new perspective. As we see
threat. You will discover and master them in Personal Stress it, stress can be an opportunity for learning and growth that
Management. You will see how stress can serve as a cata- enables individuals to thrive—that is, to function at a higher
lyst for developing greater strength and even greater wisdom. level both psychologically and physically, build mental tough-
You will discover that stress, rather than breeding anxiety or ness, clarify values, enrich relationships, and deepen apprecia-
aggression, can foster caring and compassion. You will learn tion for life.
how stress can lead to greater meaning and sense of purpose Among the features that set Personal Stress Management
and strengthen human connections. Although you can never apart from existing texts are:
avoid or eliminate difficulties and disappointments, you can ● Student Focus. An entire section examines students under
change the way you think about them. This is the key to stress in their classrooms and in their roles as friends,
changing the way you respond to stress—physically, men- roommates, partners, parents, employees, and members of
tally, and emotionally. larger communities. Three chapters address concerns such
A key premise of this book is that stress is always personal. as academic and test stress; first-year, first-generation, and
The very same experience—whether it be auditioning for a community college challenges; time management; financial
dance video, zip-lining, or studying abroad—might seem thrill- issues; social networking; sex on campus; and relation-
ing to one person and terrifying to another. No one has your ships (virtual and actual).
unique mix of values and vulnerabilities, genetic predisposi- ● Diversity and Stress. Gender, race, ethnicity, and cul-
tions and childhood experiences, social support and individual
ture have an enormous impact on stress and its effects on
aptitudes. That’s why learning about stress begins with learning
individuals and families. An Asian-American, a Hispanic, a
about yourself. You—and only you—can transform your think-
Caucasian, and an African-American student may experi-
ing, which in turn can transform your feelings, your behaviors,
ence a similar situation as extremely to slightly to not at
and your responses to stress.
all stressful. Understanding such differences, we believe,
Personal Stress Management, based on decades of scientific
can provide students with insight into themselves and their
research and clinical practice, presents a positive, proactive,
classmates.
research-based view of stress—not as an ordeal to survive, but
as an opportunity to thrive. As you will discover, this book—
● Stress and Health. Personal Stress Management reports
like this class—is different in one critical way: Your other on the most recent stress-related findings from psychoneu-
courses prepare you for further academic pursuits and a future roimmunology, neuroscience, exercise physiology, nutri-
career; Personal Stress Management prepares you for life. tion, and medicine. While other texts emphasize stress and
disease, we provide substantive coverage of how healthy
habits, such as regular exercise, better sleep habits, and
To the Instructor good nutrition, defend against stress and prevent burnout.
● The Psychology of Stress. We explore the relationship
Your students know about stress. They live with it every day, of stress to anxiety, depression, unhealthy risk-taking, and
whether they’re cramming for a final, figuring out how to traumatic experiences (reported by the majority of under-
live on a budget, juggling a part-time job, or dealing with graduates). We also highlight the contributions of positive
a difficult roommate. Today’s undergraduates report greater psychology, including insights on the “stress paradox” (the
stress and more sources of stress than students did twenty observation that a certain degree of stress, rather than low
years ago, and higher percentages say they frequently feel or no stress, is linked to greater life satisfaction) and the
overwhelmed. impact of a “stress-is-enhancing” versus a “stress-is-debili-
As the author of An Invitation to Health, the leading col- tating’ mindset. As part of our integrated mind-body-spirit
lege health textbook, I have always considered the abil- approach, we report on the role of spirituality and related
ity to cope with stress a key determinant of student health. practices as well as the contributions of happiness, grati-
Managing stress, like maintaining good health, is one of the tude, and resilience.
xi
● Personal Change. The most constant stressor in life is via www.cengage.com/login. Access and download PowerPoint
change, yet other texts provide minimal, if any, cover- presentations, images, instructor’s manual, videos, and more.
age of scientific research on the subject. Personal Stress
Management devotes a chapter to the ground-breaking Global Health Watch
transtheoretical model of change and the stages of behav-
ioral change. In addition, within each chapter, we trans- Bring currency to the classroom with Global Health Watch
late theory and research into practical stress management from Cengage Learning. This user-friendly website provides
“tools” that students can implement and evaluate. By convenient access to thousands of trusted sources, including
choosing those they find most useful, they can assemble academic journals, newspapers, videos, and podcasts, for you
their own customized “Personal Stress Management to use for research projects or classroom discussion. Global
Toolkit” by the end of the term. Health Watch is updated daily to offer the most current news
about topics related to nutrition.
A class in stress management can and should be transforma-
tional. Unlike instruction that presents only factual information, Cengage Learning Testing Powered by Cognero
teaching students about stress provides a unique opportunity
to share knowledge in ways that promote both learning and This flexible online system allows the instructor to author, edit,
personal growth. We created Personal Stress Management as a and manage test bank content from multiple Cengage Learning
tool for you to use to equip students with the insights and skills solutions; create multiple test versions in an instant; and deliver
that will help them now and in the years to come. tests from an LMS, a classroom, or wherever the instructor wants.
We are excited by the opportunity to work with you to engage
students in a dynamic new approach to managing stress. We Acknowledgments
welcome your comments and look forward to hearing from you.
Many people contributed to the creation of Personal Stress
Management over the last several years. I will always be grateful
for the support and friendship of my original editorial team at
Supplemental Resources Cengage—Sean Wakely, Aileen Berg, Yolanda Cossio, and Nedah
Rose. I applaud and appreciate Krista Mastroianni, product man-
Health MindTap for Personal Stress ager, who enthusiastically adopted this project, and Miriam Myers,
Management: From Surviving to Thriving senior content developer, who expertly took up the reins and
shepherded Personal Stress Management through completion.
A new approach to highly personalized online learning.
I thank Michael Cook, senior designer, and his design team;
Beyond an eBook, homework solution, digital supplement, or
Marina Starkey for her invaluable aid as our product assistant;
premium website, MindTap is a digital learning platform that
Tanya Nigh, senior content project manager; Lynn Lustberg of
works alongside your campus LMS to deliver course curriculum
MPS Limited; Gopala Krishnan Sankar, our photo researcher;
across the range of electronic devices in your life. MindTap is
Christine Myaskovsky, who managed the overall permissions;
built on an “app” model, allowing enhanced digital collabora-
and to Kellie Petruzzelli, who supervised the ancillaries.
tion and delivery of engaging content across a spectrum of
Finally, I would like to thank the reviewers whose input has
Cengage and non-Cengage resources.
been invaluable in sharpening our vision and creating this book.
Diet & Wellness Plus Chalyce Carlsen, Utah State University

Diet & Wellness Plus helps you understand how nutrition relates Paul Bondurant, MS. Macomb Community College
to your personal health goals. Track your diet and activity, gen- Robert Hess, MS, LAT, ATC, Community College
erate reports, and analyze the nutritional value of the food you of Baltimore County
eat. Diet & Wellness Plus includes over 75,000 foods, as well as Leigh Hilger, Western Carolina University
custom food and recipe features. The Behavior Change Planner Dr. Jerome Kotecki, Boston State University
helps you identify risks in your life and guides you through the Melissa Lee, MS, MBA, Florida Atlantic University
key steps to make positive changes. Allison B. Oberne, MA, MPH, CPH, College of Public Health
Desiree D. Reynolds, Indiana University Bloomington
Dr. Margaret M. Shields, University of Alabama
Instructor Companion Site Stephen P. Sowulewski (Associate Professor of Health),
Everything you need for your course in one place! This collec- Reynolds Community College
tion of book-specific lecture and class tools is available online Deborah Wuest, Ithaca College
xii Preface
About the Authors
Dianne Hales is the author of An Invitation to Health, An Invitation to Wellness,
and An Invitation to Personal Change. Her trade books include Mona Lisa: A Life
Discovered, La Bella Lingua, Just Like a Woman, and Caring for the Mind, with
translations into Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German,
Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Polish, and Korean. A graduate of Columbia University
Journalism School, Dianne served as a contributing editor for Parade, Ladies’
Home Journal, Working Mother, and American Health and has written more than
1,000 articles for national publications. Her writing awards include honors from
Robert E. Hales
the American Psychiatric Association. The American Psychological Association,
and the Council for the Advancement of Scientific Education. The government of
Italy bestowed its highest honor—knighthood, with the title Cavaliere dell’ Ordine
della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italian
Solidarity)—in recognition of her book La Bella Lingua as “an invaluable tool for
promoting the Italian language.”
Julia Hales, who earned a baccalaureate in psychology and sociology from the
University of California, Davis and a master’s in counseling psychology with an
emphasis in marital and family therapy from the University of San Francisco, has
worked as a therapist and researcher in schools, treatment centers, hospitals,
and universities. Her clinical experience includes individual and group therapy
for children, adolescents, and adults with developmental and mental disorders,
crisis intervention, psychological assessment, and social skills training. Drawing
on her professional expertise, Julia developed and adapted psychoeducational
Robert E. Hales
materials, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), solution-focused
therapy, self-assessments, and mindfulness-based exercises, for Personal Stress
Management.
xiii
Personal Stress Management
Jakub Cejpek/Shutterstock.com
Chapter 1
Understanding Stress
after reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1.1 Describe the concept of stress.
1.2 Differentiate among eustress, distress, and neustress.
1.3 Assess the effects of common stressors on the overall well-being of individuals.
1.4 Analyze the experience of stress in America.
1.5 Classify the most common types of stressors.
1.6 Identify common causes of stress.
1.7 Describe how different proposed models explain the “fight-or-flight” physiological stress
response of the body.
1.8 Discuss theories and models that describe responses to stress.
1.9 Explain the Yerkes-Dodson law.
1.10 Summarize the positive and negative aspects of stress (stress paradox).
1
pre-Chapter CheCk-in: Your StreSS SignalS
How can you tell when you’re stressed? Does your heart Feeling irritable, anxious, angry, or apathetic.
race? Do your shoulders feel tight? Do you bite your nails, Working or studying longer and harder than usual.
grind your teeth, scratch at a cut or bug bite? Does your Exaggerating, to yourself and others, the importance of
stomach churn or your head ache? Do you eat more or less what you do.
than usual? Do you have problems falling or staying asleep? Becoming accident-prone.
As you tune into your body and observe your behavior, Breaking rules, whether it’s a curfew at the dorm or a
you can hone your ability to spot stress signals before you speed limit on the highway.
feel overwhelmed. Read through the list of warning signs Going to extremes, such as drinking too much,
below, and check any that apply to you. overspending, or gambling.
Physical symptoms, including chronic fatigue, If you checked one or more of these red flags, pay closer
headaches, indigestion, and diarrhea. attention to both the number and the intensity of stressors
Sleep problems. in your life.
Frequent illnesses or worrying about getting sick.
Self-medicating, including use of alcohol and drugs Start tracking symptoms as they develop, and look for
(legal and otherwise). patterns that may help you recognize, avoid, or cope better
Problems concentrating on studies or work. with your stress triggers.
Y ou know about stress. You live female, minority, and first-generation students
register the most stress, but no one is immune.2
with it every day—whether you’re What you may not know about stress is that you
a full- or a part-time student, en- have more control over it than anyone or anything
else—even if at times you may not feel this way.
rolled in a community college or a Stress is an unavoidable part of living, lov-
ing, learning, growing, relating, trying, failing,
private university. You may lose your
stretching, and achieving. But simply by being
cell phone, blow your budget, or fail human, you are magnificently equipped to man-
age it. Our species would have died out eons
a test. You may be juggling school ago if we were not in possession of remark-
and a job, missing your family, uncer- able skills for adapting to new challenges and
circumstances. You, as a descendant of resource-
tain about a major, or worried about ful, resilient ancestors, are hardwired to cope.
your job prospects. If—like more un- Although you may have thought of it as an
enemy to avoid whenever possible, stress isn’t in-
dergraduates than ever—you’re older nately and invariably dangerous. When viewed as
a challenge rather than a threat, stress serves as a
than the traditional college student,
catalyst for developing greater strength and even
you may be breathlessly keeping greater wisdom.3 Rather than breeding anxiety or
aggression, stress can foster caring and compas-
up with children, rent, housework, sion; rather than increasing anxiety and depres-
and homework. Your life can be con- sion, it can lead to greater meaning and sense of
purpose; rather than isolating you from others, it
fusing, engaging, exhausting, thrill- can strengthen human connections. When under-
ing, terrifying—sometimes all in the stood and accepted, stress can be beneficial and
even essential for health and growth.
course of a single day. As you progress through college, you will not
be able to anticipate every challenge or prepare for
every contingency. But you can take steps that will
You aren’t alone. According to the Ameri- help you avoid some stressors, reduce the negative
can College Health Association (ACHA) national impact of others, and learn and grow from stress-
surveys, stress ranks as the number-one barrier ful experiences. By assessing your life situation
to academic achievement in college.1 First-year, realistically, without exaggerating or downplaying
2 Chapter 1 Understanding Stress
problems and obstacles, you can determine where
you are and what you need to make the most of
What Is Stress?
your circumstances. Although you can never avoid In everyday life, stress has become a catch-
or eliminate difficulties and disappointments, you all phrase for everything that goes wrong. We
can change the way you think about them. This use “stress” to describe what’s going on inside
is the key to changing the way you respond to us—thoughts, feelings, physical symptoms—and
stress—physically, mentally, and emotionally. what’s happening around us. The word itself stress The nonspecific
Personal Stress Management, based on de- comes from the Latin stringere, which means “to response of the body
cades of scientific research and clinical practice, draw tight.” In physics, stress means strain, pres- to any demands
presents a positive, proactive, research-based made upon it; may
sure, or force on a system. In psychology, the
way of thinking about stress—not as an ordeal be characterized by
word can refer to an external force that causes
to survive, but as an opportunity to thrive. It muscle tension and
someone to become tense or upset, and/or to an acute anxiety, or may
will help you learn to anticipate stressful events, internal state of arousal, and/or the physical re- be a positive force for
overcome obstacles, reduce unnecessary stress, sponse of the body when it must adapt or adjust action.
prevent stress overload, and find alternatives to to a challenge.
an endless cycle of alarm, panic, and exhaustion. Dr. Hans Selye, the father of scientific re- stressor An event
A key premise of this book is that stress is search into stress, defined it as “the non-specific or situation that an
always personal. The very same experience— response of the body to any demand made upon individual perceives as
auditioning for a dance video, zip-lining, study- a threat; precipitates
it.” As he demonstrated, laboratory animals and
ing abroad—might seem thrilling to one person either adaptation or the
people respond in the same way to a stressor stress response.
and terrifying to another. No one views some- (anything that triggers a state of arousal), regard-
thing unknown or potentially upsetting exactly less of whether it is positive or negative: by mo- perception A person’s
the way you do. No one has your unique mix bilizing internal resources and tensing for action. cognitive (mental)
of values and vulnerabilities, genetic predisposi- Unlike the physical threats that endangered interpretation of events.
tions and childhood experiences, social support our early ancestors, most contemporary stressors
and individual aptitudes. That’s why learning do not pose an immediate threat to our lives, A wedding brings the
about stress begins with learning about yourself. and a physical response cannot resolve con-
You—and only you—can transform your think- joy of eustress, while
flict or ease fear, worry, and anger. For higher
ing, which in turn can transform your feelings, a car crash triggers
primates like humans, perception (one’s way
your behaviors, and your responses to stress. of evaluating, understanding, and interpreting distress. Watching
As you will discover, this class is different in a situation) has emerged as a critical factor be- televised coverage of
one critical way: Your other courses prepare you cause it influences how you evaluate and react a terrorist attack or
for further academic pursuits and a future career; to stress. The American Institute of Stress, cre- natural disaster can
Personal Stress Management prepares you for life. ated by Selye as a nonprofit clearinghouse of cause neustress, even
though it doesn’t
affect you directly.
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com
Blend Images/Shutterstock.com
iStockphoto.com/Zoranm
What Is Stress? 3
stress-related information, incorporates percep- reported in the media may deeply upset you. You
tion into its most recent definition by describ- experience emotions commonly related to stress,
ing stress as “a condition or feeling experienced but your response is briefer and less severe than
when a person perceives that demands exceed if you or a loved one had been in danger.
the personal and social resources the individual
is able to mobilize.”4 Your perception of whether ✔ Check-in: Stress in your life
or not you can handle a challenge—not the
situation itself—determines whether or not you Give an example of eustress that you
experience stress. experienced recently. What were the
circumstances? How did you feel during and
after the experience?
Stress: Good, Bad, Give an example of distress in your life.
and Neutral Describe the circumstances and how you felt
“Stress is not necessarily something bad,” noted during and after the experience.
Hans Selye, who coined the word “eustress” Give an example of neustress that may have
(the Greek prefix eu means “good”) for the posi-
tive, energizing stress that challenges us to grow,
affected you and how you felt as a result.
adapt, and find creative solutions. When you’re
gaming with friends, stress strengthens your con-
centration; when you’re taking a tough exam, it
sharpens your thinking; when you’re walking on table 1.1 Types of Stressors
a deserted street at night, it alerts you to potential eustress—Sources of Stress in Daily Life with
dangers. However, too much eustress can also positive Connotations:
be problematic. A wedding, for instance, is a joy-
ful event, but planning and organizing can create Committed relationship
anxiety and take up so much time that they inter- Marriage
fere with other commitments.
Certain forms of eustress are so thrilling that Promotion
you’ve probably paid money to experience Having a Baby
them—by riding a roller-coaster, for instance, or
Winning Money
going to a scary movie. Such experiences, which
we think of as stimulating rather than stressful, New Friends
involve only moderate amounts of stress, and are
Graduation
time-limited. Anxiety makes us uncomfortable;
stress helps us to rise to the occasion by speed- Distress — Sources of Stress in Daily Life with
ing thought processes and making the most of Negative Connotations:
internal resources.
Breaking up
Although stress can be helpful in keeping
you alert for a limited time, intense or prolonged Divorce
stress can strain body and brain. “Distress,” the
Punishment
negative stress caused by trauma, loss, and other
upsetting occurrences, depletes or even destroys Injury
life energy. Rather than mobilizing our internal Rejection, anger, and other negative feelings
eustress Positive resources, distress undermines well-being, tar-
stress, which stimulates Financial Problems
gets vulnerable organs, and gets in the way of
a person to function
our ability to reach our fullest potential. Distress Work Difficulties
properly.
breeds overreaction, confusion, poor concentra-
distress A negative tion, and performance anxiety. We cannot func- Neustress—Stress with Neither Negative nor
stress that may result in tion at our best; we feel off, distracted, or edgy. positive Connotations:
illness. As discussed in Chapter 2, we’re more likely to An explosion, mass shooting, plane crash, or terrorist
develop physical symptoms and ailments. attack that does not affect you or your loved ones
neustress Neutral
Some experts have introduced another cat-
stressors that do not A natural disaster, such as a tornado or flood, that
affect us immediately egory: “neustress,” or neutral stressors caused
does not affect you or your loved ones
or directly but that may by an upsetting event that does not affect us im-
trigger anxiety, sadness, mediately or directly but that may trigger anxi- A public health threat, such as an Ebola outbreak
fear, and other stressful ety, sadness, fear, and other stressful feelings. For
An environmental threat, such as global warming
feelings. example, an airplane crash or a mass shooting
Stress and the Intellectual health
Dimensions of health Intellectual health encompasses your ability to
learn from life experience, your openness to new
ideas, and your capacity to question and evalu- health A state of
✔ Check-in: The dimensions of health complete well-being,
ate information. Even mild stressors can interfere
including physical,
As you read the following section, ask yourself with your brain’s functioning by impairing sleep,
psychological, spiritual,
dampening creativity, disrupting concentration
which dimensions of your health are most social, intellectual,
and memory, and undermining your ability to and environmental
affected by stress. How so? make good choices and decisions. dimensions.
More than the absence of disease or infirmity, holistic A view
health is the process of discovering, using, and
Occupational health of health and the
protecting all the resources within your body, Most undergraduates—about 60 to 70 percent— individual as a whole
mind, spirit, family, community, and environ- are employed, with 20 percent working full-time rather than part by part.
ment. From a holistic perspective, which looks year-round. They are more likely to feel over-
physical health The
at health and the individual as a whole rather whelmed and report greater anxiety and stress
functioning of the cells,
than part by part, stress can have an impact on than students without jobs. Many factors contrib-
tissues, organs, and
every dimension of well-being: ute to job stress; these can range from the work- systems that make up
place environment to office politics to sexual the body.
physical health harassment (see Chapter 11). Employees in dead-
end jobs with little or no control or status are psychological
Stress triggers molecular changes within your especially vulnerable to stress-related problems health Psychological
body that affect your heart, muscles, immune sys- such as hypertension. health encompasses
tem, bones, blood vessels, skin, lungs, gastroin- both our emotional
testinal (digestive) tract, and reproductive organs. and mental states—that
As explained in Chapter 2, these physiological environmental health is, our feelings and
changes, although useful in the short term, can our thoughts—and
External forces such as pollution, noise, natural
involves the ability to
make us more susceptible to many illnesses, disasters, exposure to toxic chemicals, and threats
recognize and express
worsen existing health conditions, and speed up to your safety can cause or intensify stress. These emotions, to function
the aging process. days you also have to cope with a byproduct of our independently, and
24/7, nonstop digital world: technostress, created to cope with the
psychological health by an unending barrage of texts, tweets, e-mails, challenges of stress.
notifications, blogs, alerts, Instagrams, pins, pokes,
Chronic stress affects both thoughts and feelings, spiritual health The
streaming videos, and other digital distractions.
impairing your ability to learn and remember and principles and values
Although you can’t control every aspect of your
contributing to anxiety and depression. Negative that guide a person and
environment, you can create a buffer zone that pro-
emotions linked with excess stress, such as anger give meaning, direction,
tects you from constant intrusions (see Chapter 11).
and fear (see Chapter 8), can be harmful to both and purpose to life.
mind and body. Positive emotions and attitudes,
social health The
such as compassion and gratitude, can buffer the
ill effects of stress and enhance satisfaction and
Stress in america ability to interact
effectively with other
genuine happiness. Every year the American Psychological Associa- people and the social
tion asks men and women across the country to environment to develop
Spiritual health rank their stress level on a scale of 1 (little or satisfying relationships
and fulfill social roles.
Stress can undermine your ability to identify your no stress) to 10 (a great deal of stress). In its
basic purpose in life and to achieve your full po- most recent Stress in America survey, the average intellectual
tential). When nurtured, your spirit can imbue stress level was 5.1, significantly higher than the health Ability to learn
your life with meaning and help you both resist 3.8 Americans see as a healthy stress rating. from life experience,
and recover from stress (see Chapter 10). Here are some other key findings: 1 accept new ideas, and
question and evaluate
● About a third of adults report that their stress information.
Social health has increased over the past year; about a
quarter say they experienced “extreme” stress occupational
Your relationships with your family, friends, co-
(a rating of 8, 9, or 10). health The ability
workers, and loved ones—whether comforting or
to work productively,
complicated, frustrating or fulfilling— affect and ● Adults reporting extreme stress are twice to meet job
are affected by the stress in your life. Skills such as likely to describe their health as “fair” or requirements, and to
as communicating clearly and resolving conflicts, “poor,” compared to those with low stress gain satisfaction from
discussed in Chapter 5, can both strengthen your levels, who are more likely to say their health completion of assigned
ties to others and reduce your stress level. is “very good” or “excellent.” responsibilities.
Stress in America 5
● Across the nation younger respondents expe- Some stressors don’t occur very often, but
rience higher stress levels. Millennials (born when they do, they’re intense. You may be cruis-
in the 1980s and 1990s) report an average ing along the highway and spot a state trooper’s
stress level of 6.0 and Gen-Xers (born be- car, siren roaring and lights flashing, behind you;
tween 1965 and 1980) of 5.8, compared to or your plane may hit a sudden batch of turbu-
4.3 for Baby Boomers. lence and bounce violently. In seconds, your
● Women report higher stress levels than men stress levels spike. When the trooper passes you
(5.3 versus 4.9 on a 10-point scale ). by or the plane stabilizes, your body calms itself
and returns to a state of balance.
● Almost one-third of adults report that stress What matters most to your health is the dura-
has a very strong or strong impact on their tion of stress—how long your body and brain
body/physical health and mental health. remain in a state of arousal. If prolonged or re-
● The most common sources of stress na- peated, even subtle forms of stress, such as worry
tionwide are money, work, and family re- about finding a job, can undermine your physical
sponsibilities, followed by personal health and psychological well-being.
concerns, health issues affecting family mem-
bers, and the economy. acute Stressors
● Adults in urban areas report a significantly An acute stressor is time-limited. You reach for
higher stress level (5.6) than those in subur- your wallet and it’s not where you thought you
ban (5.0) and rural (4.7) settings left it. As you search frantically through pockets,
● Nearly seven in ten adults report that they have peer under seat cushions, and try to recall the
experienced discrimination, including being ha- last time you used it, your heart pounds; beads
rassed, threatened, or treated with less respect, of sweat may form on the back of your neck.
on the basis of age, race or ethnicity, disability, After what feels like an eternity, you remember
sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity. that you wore your roommate’s jacket the eve-
Six in ten of these individuals encountered ning before, and sure enough, your wallet is still
some form of discrimination on a daily basis. in the pocket. The crisis is over; you take a deep
● Regardless of its cause, individuals experienc- breath; your body calms itself, and your distress
ing discrimination report greater stress and quickly dissolves.
poorer health. Hispanics reporting discrimi-
nation had higher levels than those who did
not (6.1 compared to 5.1); the stress level Stress reliever: Refocus
of Blacks reporting discrimination averaged
Upload a photo of a favorite person, place,
5.5, compared with 3.8 for African-Americans
who did not experience it.5 or pet to your cell phone or computer.
environmental As soon as you start feeling stressed,

health The impact click on it. Block all other thoughts, and
the world around you types of Stressors focus completely on the happiness you
has on well-being and
the impact you can Stressors—internal or external demands that associate with this image. Breathe slowly
have by protecting upset balance and affect physical and psycho- and deeply.
and preserving the logical well-being—come in all varieties: big,
environment. small, brief, long, intense, mild, trivial, terrible. To
technostress Tension
evaluate the impact of a stressor, consider three episodic acute Stressors
and anxiety associated crucial factors:
Some situations, events, or encounters, such as
with technology and Frequency: How often does it occur?
●
a challenging semester-long internship or a slow
the nonstop barrage of
digital media. ● Intensity: How intense is your response? recovery from a serious injury, where exposure
to one or more acute stressors can be frequent
● Time: For how long does your stress re-
acute stressor A and repeated, can be called episodic acute
sponse continue?
short-term event stressors. As distress mounts, you may find
or situation that an During your first days on campus, you may yourself misplacing things, forgetting deadlines,
individual perceives as have felt nonstop stress as you struggled to get losing forms, or not charging your phone. Some-
a threat.
your bearings, find your classes, buy books, start thing always seems to be going wrong, and you
episodic acute assignments, meet people, and complete time- feel increasingly tense and irritable. In addition
stressor Frequent and consuming paperwork. As you settled into a rou- to frayed nerves, episodic acute stress can cause
repeated experience of tine, you may have felt that you could at least headaches, stomachaches, and other stress-linked
an acute stressor. come up for air occasionally. symptoms described in Chapter 2.
Chronic Stressors
Chronic stressors, or long-term stressors, are
ongoing problems that grind on and on relent-
lessly. You may be living with the world’s messi-
est roommate; your boss may be micromanaging
everything you do; your brother may have gam-
bled away the money you loaned him. While your
body returns to its normal resting state shortly
after an acute or time-limited stress, chronic
stressors—either repeated or prolonged—
reactivate the stress response time and again,
affecting every aspect of your life. You may de-
velop chronic health problems or feel so worn
out that you lose hope and become depressed.
CREATISTA/Shutterstock.com
Common Stressors
Whether trivial or traumatic, the entire range of
events that fill our days can spike our stress lev-
els. The following sections explain why. Everyday hassles
like waiting in long
Daily hassles lines are a common
Your phone battery dies; the ATM eats your debit ankle, and fall in love. The good, the bad, and stressor.
card; you can’t find an overdue library book; you the mundane may merge together in the whirl of
lose $20 playing fantasy football. “No big deal,” day-to-day experience, but “life change events”
you may tell yourself—and you’re right; yet string (defined as occurrences that require some sort
several such upsets together, and you find your- of psychological or social adjustment) can have
self in the middle of a miserable, no good, very a cumulative effect. A series of too-intense pres-
bad day. Over time, irritations that seem like “small sures or too-rapid changes can push anyone
stuff” can have big consequences for your health, closer and closer to exhaustion—and illness.
particularly if combined with chronic stress.7 Stress experts Drs. Thomas Holmes and
What matters more than how many hassles Richard Rahe first documented an association
you encounter is how you view and respond to between stressful life events and the onset of a
them. In national surveys, the most commonly disease. Their Schedule of Recent Experiences
named sources of everyday stress involve sched- (SRE) evaluates individual levels of stress and
uling, errands, commuting, social media, and rou- potential for coping on the basis of life change
tine chores.8 These normal and expected parts units, determined by the degree of readjustment
of everyone’s life are neither life-threatening nor necessary to adapt successfully to an event. The
even physically challenging; they become stress- death of a partner or parent ranks high on the
ful when we view them as unwanted imposi- list, but even positive events, such as a vacation
tions that interfere with what we would rather trip, involve some degree of stress. Each indi-
be doing. vidual responds to changes differently, and the
consequences vary from person to person.
✔ Check-in: What’s hassling you? Take the quiz on page 8 to assess how much
your life has changed in the last year.
List your top three hassles. On a scale of 1
(totally trivial) to 10 (life-shattering), how ✔ Check-in: Holmes-Rahe stress inventory
would you rate each of them? Can you identify If you score high, think about the reasons
a simple step that might make at least one of why there has been so much turmoil in your
them less stressful? life. Some events, such as a sister’s accident
or a devastating hurricane, are beyond your
chronic
control. But even so, you can respond in ways
Life Change events stressor Unrelenting
that may lower stress and protect you from demands and pressures
In the course of twelve months, you may start that go on for an
disease.
a new school, move, change jobs, sprain your extended time.
Common Stressors 7
table 1.2 Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory
the Social readjustment rating Scale
INStrUCtIONS: Mark down the point value of each of these life events that has happened to you during the
previous year. Total these associated points.
Life event Mean Value
1. Death of spouse 100

2. Divorce 73
3. Marital separation from mate 65
4. Detention in jail or other institution 63
5. Death of a close family member 63
6. Major personal injury or illness 53
7. Marriage 50
8. Being fired at work 47
9. Marital reconciliation with mate 45
10. Retirement from work 45
11. Major change in the health or behavior of a family member 44
12. Pregnancy 40
13. Sexual difficulties 39
14. Gaining a new family member (i.e. birth, adoption, older adult moving in, etc.) 39
15. Major business readjustment 39
16. Major change in financial state (i.e. a lot worse or better off than usual) 38
17. Death of a close friend 37
18. Changing to a different line of work 36
19. Major change in the number of arguments w/spouse (i.e. either a lot more or a lot 35
less than usual regarding child rearing, personal habits, etc.)
20. Taking on a mortgage (for home, business, etc.) 31
21. Foreclosure on a mortgage or loan 30
22. Major change in responsibilities at work (i.e. promotion, demotion, etc.) 29
23. Son or daughter leaving home (marriage, attending college, joined mil.) 29
24. In-law troubles 29
25. Outstanding personal achievement 28
26. Spouse beginning or ceasing work outside the home 26
27. Beginning or ceasing formal schooling 26
28. Major change in living condition (new home, remodeling, deterioration of 25
neighborhood or home etc.)
29. Revision of personal habits (dress manners, associations, quitting smoking) 24
30. Troubles with the boss 23
31. Major changes in working hours or conditions 20
32. Changes in residence 20
33. Changing to a new school 20
34. Major change in usual type and/or amount of recreation 19
35. Major change in church activity (i.e. a lot more or less than usual) 19
36. Major change in social activities (clubs, movies, visiting, etc.) 18
37. Taking on a loan (car, tv, freezer, etc.) 17
38. Major change in sleeping habits (a lot more or a lot less than usual) 16
39. Major change in number of family get-togethers (“ ”) 15
40. Major change in eating habits (a lot more or less food intake, or very different 15
meal hours or surroundings)
41. Vacation 13
42. Major holidays 12
43. Minor violations of the law (traffic tickets, jaywalking, disturbing the peace, etc.) 11
Now, add up all the points you have to find your score.
150 pts or less means a relatively low amount of life change and a low susceptibility to stress-induced health breakdown.
150 to 300 pts implies about a 50% chance of a major health breakdown in the next 2 years.
300 pts or more raises the odds to about 80%, according to the Holmes-Rahe statistical prediction model.
Source: http://www.stress.org/holmes-rahe-stress-inventory
psychosocial Stressors Resistance:
If the stressor continues,
Psychosocial stressors don’t pose an immediate the body mobilizes to
threat to survival. No one pulls a gun; no fire withstand the stress and
return to normal. Exhaustion:
breaks out; no railing gives way as you lean on it.
Ongoing, extreme
But “nonevents,” such as conflict with a friend or stressors eventually
relative, can have painful, long-lasting repercus- deplete the body’s
sions that affect your sense of self and self-worth resources so we
Alarm: function at less
and alter immune responses for months.9 Those The body initially than normal.
involving rejection, not belonging, and isola- responds to a
tion can trap individuals in self-blame and other stressor with
changes that lower
negative thinking patterns. Some psychosocial resistance.
stressors, such as a parent’s illness or a cancelled
scholarship, may trigger specific physiological
responses as well as emotional ones. The stron-
gest antidote, as researchers have documented, is Stressor: Homeostasis:
social support—the comfort, caring, and com- The stressor The body systems
passion you receive from family, friends, and oth- may be threatening maintain a stable
or exhilarating. and consistent Return to
ers.10 (See Chapter 5 on relationships and stress.) homeostasis
(balanced) state.
Socioeconomic status has an inverse rela-
tionship with stress: the lower income falls, the
Illness and death: Illness
greater the stress—and the higher the levels of The body’s resources are not
stress hormones such as cortisol.11 Poverty makes replenished and/or additional
every aspect of daily life more stressful—from stressors occur; the body
suffers breakdowns. Death
having to live in crowded, low-quality housing
in dangerous neighborhoods to lacking resources
Figure 1.1 General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): The
for health care. It also can foster unhealthy be-
haviors, such as poor sleep, substance abuse,
three stages of Selye’s GAS are alarm, resistance, and
smoking, violence, and aggression.12 Individuals exhaustion.
in the lowest socioeconomic levels are more than
three times as likely to suffer from depression,
heart disease, and diabetes, and to die prema- occurs so often that half of all Americans—about
turely, as those earning the highest incomes.13 60 percent of men and 50 percent of women—
Although money can buffer the ill effects of report at least one potentially traumatizing event
financial stress, it cannot buy happiness or elimi- during the course of their lives.14 Certain groups,
nate stress. If you are financially secure, you are including veterans who have served in combat
able to meet your basic needs for safety, survival, zones, are even more likely to experience trauma
and shelter. Beyond this level, more money does and its consequences. (See Chapter 3 for a discus-
not bring greater fulfillment or protection from sion of trauma-related mental disorders.) Severe
stress. trauma-related conditions can cause disabling
Earning money presents challenges of its own. symptoms that persist for years or decades. How-
As discussed in Chapter 11, occupational stressors ever, with appropriate support and the passage of
can take many forms—from a noisy, open-office time, most people manage to move forward with
environment to sexual harassment to anxiety over their lives in an adaptive manner.
potential layoffs. Workers who lose their jobs must social support An
deal with the stress of multiple losses: the loss of a individual’s knowledge
paid position, a daily routine, and the camaraderie Inside Stress: the General or belief that he or she
is cared for and loved,
of coworkers, as well as the possible loss of the abil-
ity to support themselves and their families. Even if adaptation Syndrome belongs to a network
or community, and has
you’re not working while in school, you may worry
Our bodies, Hans Selye postulated, continu- a mental obligation
about your parents’ job security or about your own
ally strive to maintain a stable and consistent with others in the
employment prospects in the future. network.
physiological state, called homeostasis. When
a stressor—physical, psychological, emotional, trauma An intensely
trauma environmental—disrupts this state, it triggers a upsetting, scary, or
nonspecific physiological response, consisting of disturbing event.
Cars crash; floods wipe out entire neighborhoods;
three distinct stages:
shooters open fire on peaceful campuses. Trauma homeostasis The
(an event that is extremely upsetting, frightening, or 1. Alarm. As it becomes aware of a stressor, the body’s natural state of
disturbing to those experiencing or witnessing it) body mobilizes various systems for action. balance or stability.
Inside Stress: The General Adaptation Syndrome 9
Levels of certain hormones rise; blood pres- Your heart beats harder to pump blood to
sure and flow to the muscles increase; the your large muscles; you breathe more rapidly to
digestive and immune systems slow down. take in more oxygen.
2. Resistance. If the stress continues, the body Your body mobilizes energy and delivers it
draws on its internal resources to try to sus- to the brain, heart, and lungs; shuts off nones-
tain homeostasis, but this requires greater sential functions like digestion and the sex drive,
and greater effort. and ramps up the immune system to prepare for
quick healing in case of injury. This classic threat
3. Exhaustion. If stress continues long enough, response primes you to run for your life or go on
normal functioning becomes impossible. the offense and fight back.
Even a small amount of additional stress In interpersonal situations in contemporary
at this point can lead to a breakdown. life, individuals “fight” by arguing, opposing,
In animal experiments, Selye found that demanding, criticizing, accusing, insisting, or
persistent stress caused illnesses similar refusing. Alternatively, they may take flight—by
to those seen in humans, such as heart physically removing themselves or by withdraw-
attacks, stroke, kidney disease, and ing, not talking, dissociating, changing the topic,
rheumatoid arthritis. or otherwise “checking out.”
Selye’s theory has been criticized as being too
abstract and failing to take into account varia-
tions among individuals and differences between Freezing
minor and major stressors and positive and nega- Scientists have identified an acute stress response
tive stress. However, although the GAS model that may precede fight or flight: freezing, a sur-
fails to take these variations and differences into vival mechanism that stems from some of the old-
account, it nonetheless remains fundamental to est circuits within the brain.15 Animals, like deer
our understanding of the impact of stress on the suddenly caught in the headlights of a car, often
body. stop as soon as they become aware of a danger.
In the wild, freezing makes them less likely to
be detected by a bear or coyote that has not yet
how the Body responds caught their scent and may delay an attack if the
predator is nearby.
to Stress Freezing may last for seconds or minutes—
although it may feel longer. As evolutionary
Over more than a century of scientific study, re- scientists explain, early humans also may have
searchers have formulated models to describe frozen in place at the sight or sound of a potential
how our bodies and brains react under stress. hazard, using this time to stop, look, listen, assess
fight or flight They include: what was happening, and mobilize for action. If,
response The body’s for instance, they spotted a lion at some distance,
automatic physiological they would turn and flee. If the beast was already
response that prepares automatic Stress responses charging at them, they braced for a fight.
the individual to take
action upon facing a Prehistoric humans faced constant life-or-death
perceived threat or dangers. Without warning, a saber-toothed tiger
danger. might pounce, or an enemy tribe might attack. Submission
Our ancestors evolved quick reactions that re- If unable to flee from or fight off a predator,
freezing A survival quired no conscious thought but mobilized their animals may become immobile in the hope that
mechanism that stems bodies in ways that helped ensure the survival of their attacker will lose interest. In humans, this
from some of the oldest our species.
circuits within the sort of reaction is called dissociation. Their minds
brain; freezing gives go blank. Too overwhelmed to say a word or
a person time to stop, move a muscle, they submit, forfeit, yield, give up
look, listen, and assess
Fight or Flight or give in, lower their expectations, settle, agree
what is happening in Physiologist Walter Cannon, another pioneer with others, or surrender their aspirations.16
the face of a stressor. in stress research, dubbed the complex, near- Submission occurs when no other option
instantaneous sequence of internal changes that seems possible. Hostages held by armed gun-
submission If unable
kicks in when you confront any potential dan- men, for instance, comply with their orders be-
to flee from or “fight
off” a stressor, a person ger the “fight or flight” response. When your cause they fear for their lives. In a less dramatic
may give up or give brain perceives a threat, it sounds the body’s situation, you might discover that a friend’s ro-
in, agree with others, alarm and sends signals for production of natu- mantic partner is cheating, but you may not say
or surrender his or her ral stimulants that speed up thinking, heart rate, anything because you fear that the emotional fall-
aspirations. breathing, immunity, metabolism, and blood flow. out would be devastating for everyone.
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ears as of a Siren’s song; I was stunned, startled with it, as from deep
sleep; but I had no notion then that I should ever be able to express
my admiration to others in motley imagery or quaint allusion, till the
light of his genius shone into my soul, like the sun’s rays glittering in
the puddles of the road. I was at that time dumb, inarticulate,
helpless, like a worm by the way-side, crushed, bleeding, lifeless; but
now, bursting from the deadly bands that ‘bound them,
‘With Styx nine times round them,’
my ideas float on winged words, and as they expand their plumes,

catch the golden light of other years. My soul has indeed remained in
its original bondage, dark, obscure, with longings infinite and
unsatisfied; my heart, shut up in the prison-house of this rude clay,
has never found, nor will it ever find, a heart to speak to; but that my
understanding also did not remain dumb and brutish, or at length
found a language to express itself, I owe to Coleridge. But this is not
to my purpose.
My father lived ten miles from Shrewsbury, and was in the habit of
exchanging visits with Mr. Rowe, and with Mr. Jenkins of
Whitchurch (nine miles farther on) according to the custom of
Dissenting Ministers in each other’s neighbourhood. A line of
communication is thus established, by which the flame of civil and
religious liberty is kept alive, and nourishes its smouldering fire
unquenchable, like the fires in the Agamemnon of Æschylus, placed
at different stations, that waited for ten long years to announce with
their blazing pyramids the destruction of Troy. Coleridge had agreed
to come over to see my father, according to the courtesy of the
country, as Mr. Rowe’s probable successor; but in the meantime I
had gone to hear him preach the Sunday after his arrival. A poet and
a philosopher getting up into a Unitarian pulpit to preach the Gospel,
was a romance in these degenerate days, a sort of revival of the
primitive spirit of Christianity, which was not to be resisted.
It was in January, 1798, that I rose one morning before daylight, to
walk ten miles in the mud, and went to hear this celebrated person
preach. Never, the longest day I have to live, shall I have such
another walk as this cold, raw, comfortless one, in the winter of the
year 1798. Il y a des impressions que ni le tems ni les circonstances
peuvent effacer. Dusse-je vivre des siècles entiers, le doux tems de
ma jeunesse ne peut renaître pour moi, ni s’effacer jamais dans ma
mémoire. When I got there, the organ was playing the 100th psalm,
and, when it was done, Mr. Coleridge rose and gave out his text, ‘And
he went up into the mountain to pray, HIMSELF, ALONE.’ As he gave out
this text, his voice ‘rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes,’ and
when he came to the two last words, which he pronounced loud,
deep, and distinct, it seemed to me, who was then young, as if the
sounds had echoed from the bottom of the human heart, and as if
that prayer might have floated in solemn silence through the
universe. The idea of St. John came into mind, ‘of one crying in the
wilderness, who had his loins girt about, and whose food was locusts
and wild honey.’ The preacher then launched into his subject, like an
eagle dallying with the wind. The sermon was upon peace and war;
upon church and state—not their alliance, but their separation—on
the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christianity, not as the same,
but as opposed to one another. He talked of those who had ‘inscribed
the cross of Christ on banners dripping with human gore.’ He made a
poetical and pastoral excursion,—and to shew the fatal effects of war,
drew a striking contrast between the simple shepherd-boy, driving
his team afield, or sitting under the hawthorn, piping to his flock, ‘as
though he should never be old,’ and the same poor country lad,
crimped, kidnapped, brought into town, made drunk at an alehouse,
turned into a wretched drummer-boy, with his hair sticking on end
with powder and pomatum, a long cue at his back, and tricked out in
the loathsome finery of the profession of blood.
‘Such were the notes our once-lov’d poet sung.’
And for myself, I could not have been more delighted if I had heard
the music of the spheres. Poetry and Philosophy had met together.
Truth and Genius had embraced, under the eye and with the sanction
of Religion. This was even beyond my hopes. I returned home well
satisfied. The sun that was still labouring pale and wan through the
sky, obscured by thick mists, seemed an emblem of the good cause;
and the cold dank drops of dew that hung half melted on the beard of
the thistle, had something genial and refreshing in them; for there
was a spirit of hope and youth in all nature, that turned every thing
into good. The face of nature had not then the brand of Jus Divinum
on it:
‘Like to that sanguine flower inscrib’d with woe.’
On the Tuesday following, the half-inspired speaker came. I was

called down into the room where he was, and went half-hoping, half-
afraid. He received me very graciously, and I listened for a long time
without uttering a word. I did not suffer in his opinion by my silence.
‘For those two hours,’ he afterwards was pleased to say, ‘he was
conversing with W. H.’s forehead! ‘His appearance was different
from what I had anticipated from seeing him before. At a distance,
and in the dim light of the chapel, there was to me a strange wildness
in his aspect, a dusky obscurity, and I thought him pitted with the
small-pox. His complexion was at that time clear, and even bright—
‘As are the children of yon azure sheen.’
His forehead was broad and high, light as if built of ivory, with large
projecting eyebrows, and his eyes rolling beneath them like a sea
with darkened lustre. ‘A certain tender bloom his face o’erspread,’ a
purple tinge as we see it in the pale thoughtful complexions of the
Spanish portrait-painters, Murillo and Velasquez. His mouth was
gross, voluptuous, open, eloquent; his chin good-humoured and
round; but his nose, the rudder of the face, the index of the will, was
small, feeble, nothing—like what he has done. It might seem that the
genius of his face as from a height surveyed and projected him (with
sufficient capacity and huge aspiration) into the world unknown of
thought and imagination, with nothing to support or guide his
veering purpose, as if Columbus had launched his adventurous
course for the New World in a scallop, without oars or compass. So at
least I comment on it after the event. Coleridge in his person was
rather above the common size, inclining to the corpulent, or like
Lord Hamlet, ‘somewhat fat and pursy.’ His hair (now, alas! grey)
was then black and glossy as the raven’s, and fell in smooth masses
over his forehead. This long pendulous hair is peculiar to
enthusiasts, to those whose minds tend heavenward; and is
traditionally inseparable (though of a different colour) from the
pictures of Christ. It ought to belong, as a character, to all who
preach Christ crucified, and Coleridge was at that time one of those!
It was curious to observe the contrast between him and my father,
who was a veteran in the cause, and then declining into the vale of
years. He had been a poor Irish lad, carefully brought up by his
parents, and sent to the University of Glasgow (where he studied
under Adam Smith) to prepare him for his future destination. It was
his mother’s proudest wish to see her son a Dissenting Minister. So if
we look back to past generations (as far as eye can reach) we see the
same hopes, fears, wishes, followed by the same disappointments,
throbbing in the human heart; and so we may see them (if we look
forward) rising up for ever, and disappearing, like vapourish
bubbles, in the human breast! After being tossed about from
congregation to congregation in the heats of the Unitarian
controversy, and squabbles about the American war, he had been
relegated to an obscure village, where he was to spend the last thirty
years of his life, far from the only converse that he loved, the talk
about disputed texts of Scripture and the cause of civil and religious
liberty. Here he passed his days, repining but resigned, in the study
of the Bible, and the perusal of the Commentators,—huge folios, not
easily got through, one of which would outlast a winter! Why did he
pore on these from morn to night (with the exception of a walk in the
fields or a turn in the garden to gather broccoli-plants or kidney-
beans of his own rearing, with no small degree of pride and
pleasure)?—Here were ‘no figures nor no fantasies,’—neither poetry
nor philosophy—nothing to dazzle, nothing to excite modern
curiosity; but to his lack-lustre eyes there appeared, within the pages
of the ponderous, unwieldy, neglected tomes, the sacred name of
JEHOVAH in Hebrew capitals: pressed down by the weight of the
style, worn to the last fading thinness of the understanding, there
were glimpses, glimmering notions of the patriarchal wanderings,
with palm-trees hovering in the horizon, and processions of camels
at the distance of three thousand years; there was Moses with the
Burning Bush, the number of the Twelve Tribes, types, shadows,
glosses on the law and the prophets; there were discussions (dull
enough) on the age of Methuselah, a mighty speculation! there were
outlines, rude guesses at the shape of Noah’s Ark and of the riches of
Solomon’s Temple; questions as to the date of the creation,
predictions of the end of all things; the great lapses of time, the
strange mutations of the globe were unfolded with the voluminous
leaf, as it turned over; and though the soul might slumber with an
hieroglyphic veil of inscrutable mysteries drawn over it, yet it was in
a slumber ill-exchanged for all the sharpened realities of sense, wit,
fancy, or reason. My father’s life was comparatively a dream; but it
was a dream of infinity and eternity, of death, the resurrection, and a
judgment to come!
No two individuals were ever more unlike than were the host and
his guest. A poet was to my father a sort of nondescript: yet whatever
added grace to the Unitarian cause was to him welcome. He could
hardly have been more surprised or pleased, if our visitor had worn
wings. Indeed, his thoughts had wings; and as the silken sounds
rustled round our little wainscoted parlour, my father threw back his
spectacles over his forehead, his white hairs mixing with its sanguine
hue; and a smile of delight beamed across his rugged cordial face, to
think that Truth had found a new ally in Fancy![50] Besides, Coleridge
seemed to take considerable notice of me, and that of itself was
enough. He talked very familiarly, but agreeably, and glanced over a
variety of subjects. At dinner-time he grew more animated, and
dilated in a very edifying manner on Mary Wolstonecraft and
Mackintosh. The last, he said, he considered (on my father’s
speaking of his Vindiciæ Gallicæ as a capital performance) as a
clever scholastic man—a master of the topics,—or as the ready
warehouseman of letters, who knew exactly where to lay his hand on
what he wanted, though the goods were not his own. He thought him
no match for Burke, either in style or matter. Burke was a
metaphysician, Mackintosh a mere logician. Burke was an orator
(almost a poet) who reasoned in figures, because he had an eye for
nature: Mackintosh, on the other hand, was a rhetorician, who had
only an eye to common-places. On this I ventured to say that I had
always entertained a great opinion of Burke, and that (as far as I
could find) the speaking of him with contempt might be made the
test of a vulgar democratical mind. This was the first observation I
ever made to Coleridge, and he said it was a very just and striking
one. I remember the leg of Welsh mutton and the turnips on the
table that day had the finest flavour imaginable. Coleridge added that
Mackintosh and Tom Wedgwood (of whom, however, he spoke
highly) had expressed a very indifferent opinion of his friend Mr.
Wordsworth, on which he remarked to them—‘He strides on so far
before you, that he dwindles in the distance!’ Godwin had once
boasted to him of having carried on an argument with Mackintosh
for three hours with dubious success; Coleridge told him—‘If there
had been a man of genius in the room, he would have settled the
question in five minutes.’ He asked me if I had ever seen Mary
Wolstonecraft, and I said, I had once for a few moments, and that
she seemed to me to turn off Godwin’s objections to something she
advanced with quite a playful, easy air. He replied, that ‘this was only
one instance of the ascendancy which people of imagination
exercised over those of mere intellect.’ He did not rate Godwin very
high[51] (this was caprice or prejudice, real or affected) but he had a
great idea of Mrs. Wolstonecraft’s powers of conversation, none at all
of her talent for book-making. We talked a little about Holcroft. He
had been asked if he was not much struck with him, and he said, he
thought himself in more danger of being struck by him. I complained
that he would not let me get on at all, for he required a definition of
every the commonest word, exclaiming, ‘What do you mean by a
sensation, Sir? What do you mean by an idea?’ This, Coleridge said,
was barricadoing the road to truth:—it was setting up a turnpike gate
at every step we took. I forget a great number of things, many more
than I remember; but the day passed off pleasantly, and the next
morning Mr. Coleridge was to return to Shrewsbury. When I came
down to breakfast, I found that he had just received a letter from his
friend T. Wedgwood, making him an offer of 150l. a-year if he chose
to wave his present pursuit, and devote himself entirely to the study
of poetry and philosophy. Coleridge seemed to make up his mind to
close with this proposal in the act of tying on one of his shoes. It
threw an additional damp on his departure. It took the wayward
enthusiast quite from us to cast him into Deva’s winding vales, or by
the shores of old romance. Instead of living at ten miles distance, of
being the pastor of a Dissenting congregation at Shrewsbury, he was
henceforth to inhabit the Hill of Parnassus, to be a Shepherd on the
Delectable Mountains. Alas! I knew not the way thither, and felt very
little gratitude for Mr. Wedgwood’s bounty. I was presently relieved
from this dilemma; for Mr. Coleridge, asking for a pen and ink, and
going to a table to write something on a bit of card, advanced
towards me with undulating step, and giving me the precious
document, said that that was his address, Mr. Coleridge, Nether
Stowey, Somersetshire; and that he should be glad to see me there in
a few weeks’ time, and, if I chose, would come half-way to meet me. I
was not less surprised than the shepherd-boy (this simile is to be
found in Cassandra) when he sees a thunderbolt fall close at his feet.
I stammered out my acknowledgments and acceptance of this offer (I
thought Mr. Wedgwood’s annuity a trifle to it) as well as I could; and
this mighty business being settled, the poet-preacher took leave, and
I accompanied him six miles on the road. It was a fine morning in the
middle of winter, and he talked the whole way. The scholar in
Chaucer is described as going
——‘Sounding on his way.’
So Coleridge went on his. In digressing, in dilating, in passing from

subject to subject, he appeared to me to float in air, to slide on ice.
He told me in confidence (going along) that he should have preached
two sermons before he accepted the situation at Shrewsbury, one on
Infant Baptism, the other on the Lord’s Supper, shewing that he
could not administer either, which would have effectually
disqualified him for the object in view. I observed that he continually
crossed me on the way by shifting from one side of the foot-path to
the other. This struck me as an odd movement; but I did not at that
time connect it with any instability of purpose or involuntary change
of principle, as I have done since. He seemed unable to keep on in a
strait line. He spoke slightingly of Hume (whose Essay on Miracles
he said was stolen from an objection started in one of South’s
sermons—Credat Judæus Apella!) I was not very much pleased at
this account of Hume, for I had just been reading, with infinite
relish, that completest of all metaphysical choke-pears, his Treatise
on Human Nature, to which the Essays, in point of scholastic
subtlety and close reasoning, are mere elegant trifling, light summer-
reading. Coleridge even denied the excellence of Hume’s general
style, which I think betrayed a want of taste or candour. He however
made me amends by the manner in which he spoke of Berkeley. He
dwelt particularly on his Essay on Vision as a masterpiece of
analytical reasoning. So it undoubtedly is. He was exceedingly angry
with Dr. Johnson for striking the stone with his foot, in allusion to
this author’s Theory of Matter and Spirit, and saying, ‘Thus I confute
him, Sir.’ Coleridge drew a parallel (I don’t know how he brought
about the connection) between Bishop Berkeley and Tom Paine. He
said the one was an instance of a subtle, the other of an acute mind,
than which no two things could be more distinct. The one was a
shop-boy’s quality, the other the characteristic of a philosopher. He
considered Bishop Butler as a true philosopher, a profound and
conscientious thinker, a genuine reader of nature and of his own
mind. He did not speak of his Analogy, but of his Sermons at the
Rolls’ Chapel, of which I had never heard. Coleridge somehow always
contrived to prefer the unknown to the known. In this instance he
was right. The Analogy is a tissue of sophistry, of wire-drawn,
theological special-pleading; the Sermons (with the Preface to them)
are in a fine vein of deep, matured reflection, a candid appeal to our
observation of human nature, without pedantry and without bias. I
told Coleridge I had written a few remarks, and was sometimes
foolish enough to believe that I had made a discovery on the same
subject (the Natural Disinterestedness of the Human Mind)—and I
tried to explain my view of it to Coleridge, who listened with great
willingness, but I did not succeed in making myself understood. I sat
down to the task shortly afterwards for the twentieth time, got new
pens and paper, determined to make clear work of it, wrote a few
meagre sentences in the skeleton-style of a mathematical
demonstration, stopped half-way down the second page; and, after
trying in vain to pump up any words, images, notions,
apprehensions, facts, or observations, from that gulph of abstraction
in which I had plunged myself for four or five years preceding, gave
up the attempt as labour in vain, and shed tears of helpless
despondency on the blank unfinished paper. I can write fast enough
now. Am I better than I was then? Oh no! One truth discovered, one
pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the
fluency and flippancy in the world. Would that I could go back to
what I then was! Why can we not revive past times as we can revisit
old places? If I had the quaint Muse of Sir Philip Sidney to assist me,
I would write a Sonnet to the Road between W——m and
Shrewsbury, and immortalise every step of it by some fond
enigmatical conceit. I would swear that the very milestones had ears,
and that Harmer-hill stooped with all its pines, to listen to a poet, as
he passed! I remember but one other topic of discourse in this walk.
He mentioned Paley, praised the naturalness and clearness of his
style, but condemned his sentiments, thought him a mere time-
serving casuist, and said that ‘the fact of his work on Moral and
Political Philosophy being made a text-book in our Universities was a
disgrace to the national character.’ We parted at the six-mile stone;
and I returned homeward pensive but much pleased. I had met with
unexpected notice from a person, whom I believed to have been
prejudiced against me. ‘Kind and affable to me had been his
condescension, and should be honoured ever with suitable regard.’
He was the first poet I had known, and he certainly answered to that
inspired name. I had heard a great deal of his powers of
conversation, and was not disappointed. In fact, I never met with any
thing at all like them, either before or since. I could easily credit the
accounts which were circulated of his holding forth to a large party of
ladies and gentlemen, an evening or two before, on the Berkeleian
Theory, when he made the whole material universe look like a
transparency of fine words; and another story (which I believe he has
somewhere told himself) of his being asked to a party at
Birmingham, of his smoking tobacco and going to sleep after dinner
on a sofa, where the company found him to their no small surprise,
which was increased to wonder when he started up of a sudden, and
rubbing his eyes, looked about him, and launched into a three-hours’
description of the third heaven, of which he had had a dream, very
different from Mr. Southey’s Vision of Judgment, and also from that
other Vision of Judgment, which Mr. Murray, the Secretary of the
Bridge-street Junto, has taken into his especial keeping!
On my way back, I had a sound in my ears, it was the voice of
Fancy: I had a light before me, it was the face of Poetry. The one still
lingers there, the other has not quitted my side! Coleridge in truth
met me half-way on the ground of philosophy, or I should not have
been won over to his imaginative creed. I had an uneasy, pleasurable
sensation all the time, till I was to visit him. During those months the
chill breath of winter gave me a welcoming; the vernal air was balm
and inspiration to me. The golden sunsets, the silver star of evening,
lighted me on my way to new hopes and prospects. I was to visit
Coleridge in the spring. This circumstance was never absent from
my thoughts, and mingled with all my feelings. I wrote to him at the
time proposed, and received an answer postponing my intended visit
for a week or two, but very cordially urging me to complete my
promise then. This delay did not damp, but rather increased my
ardour. In the meantime, I went to Llangollen Vale, by way of
initiating myself in the mysteries of natural scenery; and I must say I
was enchanted with it. I had been reading Coleridge’s description of
England in his fine Ode on the Departing Year, and I applied it, con
amore, to the objects before me. That valley was to me (in a manner)
the cradle of a new existence: in the river that winds through it, my
spirit was baptised in the waters of Helicon!
I returned home, and soon after set out on my journey with
unworn heart and untired feet. My way lay through Worcester and
Gloucester, and by Upton, where I thought of Tom Jones and the
adventure of the muff. I remember getting completely wet through
one day, and stopping at an inn (I think it was at Tewkesbury) where
I sat up all night to read Paul and Virginia. Sweet were the showers
in early youth that drenched my body, and sweet the drops of pity
that fell upon the books I read! I recollect a remark of Coleridge’s
upon this very book, that nothing could shew the gross indelicacy of
French manners and the entire corruption of their imagination more
strongly than the behaviour of the heroine in the last fatal scene, who
turns away from a person on board the sinking vessel, that offers to
save her life, because he has thrown off his clothes to assist him in
swimming. Was this a time to think of such a circumstance? I once
hinted to Wordsworth, as we were sailing in his boat on Grasmere
lake, that I thought he had borrowed the idea of his Poems on the
Naming of Places from the local inscriptions of the same kind in
Paul and Virginia. He did not own the obligation, and stated some
distinction without a difference, in defence of his claim to originality.
Any the slightest variation would be sufficient for this purpose in his
mind; for whatever he added or omitted would inevitably be worth
all that any one else had done, and contain the marrow of the
sentiment. I was still two days before the time fixed for my arrival,
for I had taken care to set out early enough. I stopped these two days
at Bridgewater, and when I was tired of sauntering on the banks of
its muddy river, returned to the inn, and read Camilla. So have I
loitered my life away, reading books, looking at pictures, going to
plays, hearing, thinking, writing on what pleased me best. I have
wanted only one thing to make me happy; but wanting that, have
wanted everything!
I arrived, and was well received. The country about Nether Stowey
is beautiful, green and hilly, and near the sea-shore. I saw it but the
other day, after an interval of twenty years, from a hill near Taunton.
How was the map of my life spread out before me, as the map of the
country lay at my feet! In the afternoon, Coleridge took me over to
All-Foxden, a romantic old family-mansion of the St. Aubins, where
Wordsworth lived. It was then in the possession of a friend of the
poet’s, who gave him the free use of it. Somehow that period (the
time just after the French Revolution) was not a time when nothing
was given for nothing. The mind opened, and a softness might be
perceived coming over the heart of individuals, beneath ‘the scales
that fence’ our self-interest. Wordsworth himself was from home, but
his sister kept house, and set before us a frugal repast; and we had
free access to her brother’s poems, the Lyrical Ballads, which were
still in manuscript, or in the form of Sybilline Leaves. I dipped into a
few of these with great satisfaction, and with the faith of a novice. I
slept that night in an old room with blue hangings, and covered with
the round-faced family-portraits of the age of George I. and II. and
from the wooded declivity of the adjoining park that overlooked my
window, at the dawn of day, could
‘——hear the loud stag speak.’
In the outset of life (and particularly at this time I felt it so) our
imagination has a body to it. We are in a state between sleeping and
waking, and have indistinct but glorious glimpses of strange shapes,
and there is always something to come better than what we see. As in
our dreams the fulness of the blood gives warmth and reality to the
coinage of the brain, so in youth our ideas are clothed, and fed, and
pampered with our good spirits; we breathe thick with thoughtless
happiness, the weight of future years presses on the strong pulses of
the heart, and we repose with undisturbed faith in truth and good. As
we advance, we exhaust our fund of enjoyment and of hope. We are
no longer wrapped in lamb’s-wool, lulled in Elysium. As we taste the
pleasures of life, their spirit evaporates, the sense palls; and nothing
is left but the phantoms, the lifeless shadows of what has been!
That morning, as soon as breakfast was over, we strolled out into
the park, and seating ourselves on the trunk of an old ash-tree that
stretched along the ground, Coleridge read aloud with a sonorous
and musical voice, the ballad of Betty Foy. I was not critically or
sceptically inclined. I saw touches of truth and nature, and took the
rest for granted. But in the Thorn, the Mad Mother, and the
Complaint of a Poor Indian Woman, I felt that deeper power and
pathos which have been since acknowledged,
‘In spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,’
as the characteristics of this author; and the sense of a new style and
a new spirit in poetry came over me. It had to me something of the
effect that arises from the turning up of the fresh soil, or of the first
welcome breath of Spring,
‘While yet the trembling year is unconfirmed.’
Coleridge and myself walked back to Stowey that evening, and his
voice sounded high
‘Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fix’d fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute,’
as we passed through echoing grove, by fairy stream or waterfall,

gleaming in the summer moonlight! He lamented that Wordsworth
was not prone enough to believe in the traditional superstitions of
the place, and that there was a something corporeal, a matter-of-
fact-ness, a clinging to the palpable, or often to the petty, in his
poetry, in consequence. His genius was not a spirit that descended to
him through the air; it sprung out of the ground like a flower, or
unfolded itself from a green spray, on which the gold-finch sang. He
said, however (if I remember right) that this objection must be
confined to his descriptive pieces, that his philosophic poetry had a
grand and comprehensive spirit in it, so that his soul seemed to
inhabit the universe like a palace, and to discover truth by intuition,
rather than by deduction. The next day Wordsworth arrived from
Bristol at Coleridge’s cottage. I think I see him now. He answered in
some degree to his friend’s description of him, but was more gaunt
and Don Quixote-like. He was quaintly dressed (according to the
costume of that unconstrained period) in a brown fustian jacket and
striped pantaloons. There was something of a roll, a lounge in his
gait, not unlike his own Peter Bell. There was a severe, worn pressure
of thought about his temples, a fire in his eye (as if he saw something
in objects more than the outward appearance), an intense high
narrow forehead, a Roman nose, cheeks furrowed by strong purpose
and feeling, and a convulsive inclination to laughter about the
mouth, a good deal at variance with the solemn, stately expression of
the rest of his face. Chantry’s bust wants the marking traits; but he
was teazed into making it regular and heavy: Haydon’s head of him,
introduced into the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, is the most
like his drooping weight of thought and expression. He sat down and
talked very naturally and freely, with a mixture of clear gushing
accents in his voice, a deep guttural intonation, and a strong tincture
of the northern burr, like the crust on wine. He instantly began to
make havoc of the half of a Cheshire cheese on the table, and said
triumphantly that ‘his marriage with experience had not been so
unproductive as Mr. Southey’s in teaching him a knowledge of the
good things of this life.’ He had been to see the Castle Spectre by
Monk Lewis, while at Bristol, and described it very well. He said ‘it
fitted the taste of the audience like a glove.’ This ad captandum
merit was however by no means a recommendation of it, according
to the severe principles of the new school, which reject rather than
court popular effect. Wordsworth, looking out of the low, latticed
window, said, ‘How beautifully the sun sets on that yellow bank!’ I
thought within myself, ‘With what eyes these poets see nature!’ and
ever after, when I saw the sunset stream upon the objects facing it,
conceived I had made a discovery, or thanked Mr. Wordsworth for
having made one for me! We went over to All-Foxden again the day
following, and Wordsworth read us the story of Peter Bell in the open
air; and the comment made upon it by his face and voice was very
different from that of some later critics! Whatever might be thought
of the poem, ‘his face was as a book where men might read strange
matters,’ and he announced the fate of his hero in prophetic tones.
There is a chaunt in the recitation both of Coleridge and
Wordsworth, which acts as a spell upon the hearer, and disarms the
judgment. Perhaps they have deceived themselves by making
habitual use of this ambiguous accompaniment. Coleridge’s manner
is more full, animated, and varied; Wordsworth’s more equable,
sustained, and internal. The one might be termed more dramatic,
the other more lyrical. Coleridge has told me that he himself liked to
compose in walking over uneven ground, or breaking through the
straggling branches of a copse-wood; whereas Wordsworth always
wrote (if he could) walking up and down a straight gravel-walk, or in
some spot where the continuity of his verse met with no collateral
interruption. Returning that same evening, I got into a metaphysical
argument with Wordsworth, while Coleridge was explaining the
different notes of the nightingale to his sister, in which we neither of
us succeeded in making ourselves perfectly clear and intelligible.
Thus I passed three weeks at Nether Stowey and in the
neighbourhood, generally devoting the afternoons to a delightful
chat in an arbour made of bark by the poet’s friend Tom Poole,
sitting under two fine elm-trees, and listening to the bees humming
round us, while we quaffed our flip. It was agreed, among other
things, that we should make a jaunt down the Bristol-Channel, as far
as Linton. We set off together on foot, Coleridge, John Chester, and I.
This Chester was a native of Nether Stowey, one of those who were
attracted to Coleridge’s discourse as flies are to honey, or bees in
swarming-time to the sound of a brass pan. He ‘followed in the
chase, like a dog who hunts, not like one that made up the cry.’ He
had on a brown cloth coat, boots, and corduroy breeches, was low in
stature, bow-legged, had a drag in his walk like a drover, which he
assisted by a hazel switch, and kept on a sort of trot by the side of
Coleridge, like a running footman by a state coach, that he might not
lose a syllable or sound that fell from Coleridge’s lips. He told me his
private opinion, that Coleridge was a wonderful man. He scarcely
opened his lips, much less offered an opinion the whole way: yet of
the three, had I to chuse during that journey, I would be John
Chester. He afterwards followed Coleridge into Germany, where the
Kantean philosophers were puzzled how to bring him under any of
their categories. When he sat down at table with his idol, John’s
felicity was complete; Sir Walter Scott’s, or Mr. Blackwood’s, when
they sat down at the same table with the King, was not more so. We
passed Dunster on our right, a small town between the brow of a hill
and the sea. I remember eying it wistfully as it lay below us:
contrasted with the woody scene around, it looked as clear, as pure,
as embrowned and ideal as any landscape I have seen since, of
Gaspar Poussin’s or Domenichino’s. We had a long day’s march—
(our feet kept time to the echoes of Coleridge’s tongue)—through
Minehead and by the Blue Anchor, and on to Linton, which we did
not reach till near midnight, and where we had some difficulty in
making a lodgment. We however knocked the people of the house up
at last, and we were repaid for our apprehensions and fatigue by
some excellent rashers of fried bacon and eggs. The view in coming
along had been splendid. We walked for miles and miles on dark
brown heaths overlooking the Channel, with the Welsh hills beyond,
and at times descended into little sheltered valleys close by the
seaside, with a smuggler’s face scowling by us, and then had to
ascend conical hills with a path winding up through a coppice to a
barren top, like a monk’s shaven crown, from one of which I pointed
out to Coleridge’s notice the bare masts of a vessel on the very edge
of the horizon and within the red-orbed disk of the setting sun, like
his own spectre-ship in the Ancient Mariner. At Linton the character
of the sea-coast becomes more marked and rugged. There is a place
called the Valley of Rocks (I suspect this was only the poetical name
for it) bedded among precipices overhanging the sea, with rocky
caverns beneath, into which the waves dash, and where the sea-gull
for ever wheels its screaming flight. On the tops of these are huge
stones thrown transverse, as if an earthquake had tossed them there,
and behind these is a fretwork of perpendicular rocks, something like
the Giant’s Causeway. A thunder-storm came on while we were at
the inn, and Coleridge was running out bare-headed to enjoy the
commotion of the elements in the Valley of Rocks, but as if in spite,
the clouds only muttered a few angry sounds, and let fall a few
refreshing drops. Coleridge told me that he and Wordsworth were to
have made this place the scene of a prose-tale, which was to have
been in the manner of, but far superior to, the Death of Abel, but
they had relinquished the design. In the morning of the second day,
we breakfasted luxuriously in an old-fashioned parlour, on tea, toast,
eggs, and honey, in the very sight of the bee-hives from which it had
been taken, and a garden full of thyme and wild flowers that had
produced it. On this occasion Coleridge spoke of Virgil’s Georgics,
but not well. I do not think he had much feeling for the classical or
elegant. It was in this room that we found a little worn-out copy of
the Seasons, lying in a window-seat, on which Coleridge exclaimed,
‘That is true fame!’ He said Thomson was a great poet, rather than a
good one; his style was as meretricious as his thoughts were natural.
He spoke of Cowper as the best modern poet. He said the Lyrical
Ballads were an experiment about to be tried by him and
Wordsworth, to see how far the public taste would endure poetry
written in a more natural and simple style than had hitherto been
attempted; totally discarding the artifices of poetical diction, and
making use only of such words as had probably been common in the
most ordinary language since the days of Henry II. Some comparison
was introduced between Shakespear and Milton. He said ‘he hardly
knew which to prefer. Shakespear appeared to him a mere stripling
in the art; he was as tall and as strong, with infinitely more activity
than Milton, but he never appeared to have come to man’s estate; or
if he had, he would not have been a man, but a monster.’ He spoke
with contempt of Gray, and with intolerance of Pope. He did not like
the versification of the latter. He observed that ‘the ears of these
couplet-writers might be charged with having short memories, that
could not retain the harmony of whole passages.’ He thought little of
Junius as a writer; he had a dislike of Dr. Johnson; and a much
higher opinion of Burke as an orator and politician, than of Fox or
Pitt. He however thought him very inferior in richness of style and
imagery to some of our elder prose-writers, particularly Jeremy
Taylor. He liked Richardson, but not Fielding; nor could I get him to
enter into the merits of Caleb Williams.[52] In short, he was profound
and discriminating with respect to those authors whom he liked, and
where he gave his judgment fair play; capricious, perverse, and
prejudiced in his antipathies and distastes. We loitered on the
‘ribbed sea-sands,’ in such talk as this, a whole morning, and I
recollect met with a curious sea-weed, of which John Chester told us
the country name! A fisherman gave Coleridge an account of a boy
that had been drowned the day before, and that they had tried to
save him at the risk of their own lives. He said ‘he did not know how
it was that they ventured, but, Sir, we have a nature towards one
another.’ This expression, Coleridge remarked to me, was a fine
illustration of that theory of disinterestedness which I (in common
with Butler) had adopted. I broached to him an argument of mine to
prove that likeness was not mere association of ideas. I said that the
mark in the sand put one in mind of a man’s foot, not because it was
part of a former impression of a man’s foot (for it was quite new) but
because it was like the shape of a man’s foot. He assented to the
justness of this distinction (which I have explained at length
elsewhere, for the benefit of the curious) and John Chester listened;
not from any interest in the subject, but because he was astonished
that I should be able to suggest any thing to Coleridge that he did not
already know. We returned on the third morning, and Coleridge
remarked the silent cottage-smoke curling up the valleys where, a
few evenings before, we had seen the lights gleaming through the
dark.
In a day or two after we arrived at Stowey, we set out, I on my
return home, and he for Germany. It was a Sunday morning, and he
was to preach that day for Dr. Toulmin of Taunton. I asked him if he
had prepared anything for the occasion? He said he had not even
thought of the text, but should as soon as we parted. I did not go to
hear him,—this was a fault,—but we met in the evening at
Bridgewater. The next day we had a long day’s walk to Bristol, and
sat down, I recollect, by a well-side on the road, to cool ourselves and
satisfy our thirst, when Coleridge repeated to me some descriptive
lines from his tragedy of Remorse; which I must say became his
mouth and that occasion better than they, some years after, did Mr.
Elliston’s and the Drury Lane boards,—
‘Oh memory! shield me from the world’s poor strife,
And give those scenes thine everlasting life.’
I saw no more of him for a year or two, during which period he had
been wandering in the Hartz Forest in Germany; and his return was
cometary, meteorous, unlike his setting out. It was not till some time
after that I knew his friends Lamb and Southey. The last always
appears to me (as I first saw him) with a common-place book under
his arm, and the first with a bon-mot in his mouth. It was at
Godwin’s that I met him with Holcroft and Coleridge, where they
were disputing fiercely which was the best—Man as he was, or man
as he is to be. ‘Give me,’ says Lamb, ‘man as he is not to be.’ This
saying was the beginning of a friendship between us, which I believe
still continues.—Enough of this for the present.
‘But there is matter for another rhyme,
And I to this may add a second tale.’
PULPIT ORATORY—DR. CHALMERS AND
MR. IRVING
The Liberal.]
[1823.
The Scotch at present seem to bear the bell, and to have ‘got the
start of the majestic world.’ They boast of the greatest novelists, the
greatest preachers, the greatest philanthropists, and the greatest
blackguards in the world. Sir Walter Scott stands at the head of these
for Scotch humour, Dr. Chalmers for Scotch logic, Mr. Owen for
Scotch Utopianism, and Mr. Blackwood for Scotch impudence.
Unrivalled four! Nay, here is Mr. Irving, who threatens to make a
fifth, and stultify all our London orators, from ‘kingly Kensington’ to
Blackwall! Who has not heard of him? Who does not go to hear him?
You can scarcely move along for the coronet-coaches that besiege the
entrance to the Caledonian chapel in Hatton-garden; and when, after
a prodigious squeeze, you get in so as to have standing-room, you see
in the same undistinguished crowd Brougham and Mackintosh, Mr.
Peel and Lord Liverpool, Lord Landsdown and Mr. Coleridge. Mr.
Canning and Mr. Hone are pew fellows. Mr. Waithman frowns stern
applause, and Mr. Alderman Wood does the honours of the Meeting!
The lamb lies down with the lion, and the Millennium seems to be
anticipated in the Caledonian chapel, under the new Scotch
preacher. Lords, ladies, sceptics, fanatics, join in approbation,—some
admire the doctrine, others the sound, some the picturesque
appearance of the orator, others the grace of action, some the
ingenuity of the argument, others the beauty of the style or the bursts
of passion, some even go so far as to patronize a certain brackish
infusion of the Scottish dialect, and a slight defect of vision. Lady
Bluemount declares it to be only inferior to the Excursion in
imagination, and Mr. Botherby cries—‘Good, good!’ The ‘Talking
Potato’[53] and Mr. Theodore Flash have not yet been.
Mr. Irving appears to us the most accomplished barbarian, and the
least offensive and most dashing clerical holder-forth we remember
to have seen. He puts us in mind of the first man, Adam, if Adam had
but been a Scotchman, and had had coal black hair. He seems to
stand up in the integrity of his composition, to begin a new race of
practising believers, to give a new impulse to the Christian religion,
to regenerate the fallen and degenerate race of man. You would say
he had been turned out of the hands of Nature and the Schools a
perfect piece of workmanship. See him in the street, he has the air,
the free swing, the bolt upright figure of an Indian savage, or a
northern borderer dressed in canonicals: set him in the pulpit, and
he is armed with all the topics, a master of fence, the pupil of Dr.
Chalmers! In action he has been compared to Kean; in the union of
external and intellectual advantages, we might start a parallel for
him in the admirable Crichton. He stands before Haydon’s picture of
Lazarus, and says, ‘Look at me! ’ He crosses Piccadilly, and clears
Bond-street of its beaux! Rob Roy, Macbriar is come again. We saw
him stretched on a bench at the Black Bull in Edinburgh,—we met
him again at a thirteen-penny ordinary in London, in the same
attitude, and said, without knowing his calling, or his ghostly parts,
‘That is the man for a fair saint.’ We swear it by
‘His foot mercurial; his martial thigh;
The brawns of Hercules, but his jovial face!’
Aye, there we stop like Imogen—there is a want of expression in it.

‘The iron has not entered his soul.’ He has not dared to feel but in
trammels and in dread. He has read Werter but to criticise him;
Rousseau, but to steel himself against him; Shakespear, but to quote
him; Milton, but to round his periods. Pleasure, fancy, humanity, are
syrens that he repels and keeps at arms-length; and hence his
features are hardened, and have a barbaric crust upon them. They
are not steeped in the expression of Titian or Raphael; but they
would do for Spagnoletti to paint, and his dark profile and matted
locks have something of the grave commanding appearance of
Leonardo da Vinci’s massive portraits.
Dr. Chalmers is not so good-looking a man as Mr. Irving; he wants
the same vigour and spirit. His face is dead and clammy, cold, pale,
bloodless, passionless, and there is a glazed look of insincerity about
the eyes, uninformed, uninspired from within. His voice is broken,
harsh, and creaking, while Mr. Irving’s is flowing and silvery: his
Scotch accent and pronunciation are a terrible infliction on the
uncultivated ear. His ‘Whech observation I oorge upon you my frinds
and breethren’ desolates and lays waste all the humanities. He grinds
out his sentences between his teeth, and catches at truth with his
fists, as a monkey catches an apple or a stick thrown at him with his
paws. He seems by his action and his utterance to say to difficulties,
‘Come, let me clutch thee,’ and having got them in his grasp, tears
and rends them in pieces as a dog tears an old rag to tatters or
mumbles a stone that is flung in his way. Dr. Chalmers engages
attention and secures sympathy solely by the intensity of his own
purpose: there is neither eloquence nor wisdom, neither imagination
nor feeling, neither the pomp of sound nor grace nor solemnity of
manner about him, but he is in earnest, and eager in pursuit of his
argument, and arrests the eye and ear of his congregation by this
alone. He dashes head foremost into the briars and thorns of
controversy, and drags you along with him whether you will or no,
and your only chance is to push on and get out of them as well as you
can, though dreadfully scratched and almost blinded. He involves
you in a labyrinth, and you are anxious to escape from it: you have to
pass through many a dark, subterranean cavern with him in his
theological ferry-boat, and are glad enough to get out on the other
side, with the help of Scotch logic for oars, and Scotch rhetoric for
sails! You hear no home truths, nothing that touches the heart, or
swells or expands the soul; there is no tide of eloquence lifting you up
to Heaven, or wafting you from Indus to the Pole.—No, you are
detained in a canal, with a great number of locks in it.—You make
way by virtue of standing still, your will is irritated, and impelled
forward by stoppages—you are puzzled into sympathy, pulled into
admiration, tired into patience! The preacher starts a difficulty, of
which you had no notion before, and you stare to see how he will
answer it. He first makes you uneasy, sceptical, sensible of your
helplessness and dependence upon his superior sagacity and
recondite learning, and proportionably thankful for the relief he
affords you in the unpleasant dilemma to which you have been

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Part I Stress and Its Impact

Part II Stress on Campus

Part III Managing Stress

Part IV Stress Reduction and Relaxation Techniques

Chapter 2 Stress Relievers 57

Mindfulness, Meditation, CAM for Stress Management 284

Diet & Wellness Plus Chalyce Carlsen, Utah State University

after reading this chapter, you should be able to:

2 Chapter 1 Understanding Stress

4 Chapter 1 Understanding Stress

environmental As soon as you start feeling stressed,

6 Chapter 1 Understanding Stress

Life event Mean Value

1. Death of spouse 100

8 Chapter 1 Understanding Stress

Inside Stress: The General Adaptation Syndrome 9

10 Chapter 1 Understanding Stress

my ideas float on winged words, and as they expand their plumes,

On the Tuesday following, the half-inspired speaker came. I was

So Coleridge went on his. In digressing, in dilating, in passing from

as we passed through echoing grove, by fairy stream or waterfall,

Aye, there we stop like Imogen—there is a want of expression in it.

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