Blog 5: Remember to Breathe

Reading Chapter 5 was timely for me today as we just discussed stress and anxiety during one of our group facilitation sessions last evening. As part of the session, we completed a stress inventory analyzing different stressors in our lives to determine our total stress score for the current period. Different events have different scores in the inventory-for instance, experiencing a death of a close family member totaled 100 points, while going through a divorce totaled 60 points. My stress level was higher than I expected, and I reflected on this in the group. I recently went through some major personal transitions all at once: a divorce, career change, and a move resulting from that career change, but I feel as if I’m on tail end of all of these changes and have moved forward and have embraced and accepted these changes. In comparing my stress levels as I was going through my divorce (felt out of control at times), to my current mood now, I can appreciate the serenity and sense of calm I feel now. Without having this situation to compare to, I made not be as grateful for the place that I’m in now. I really liked the personal examples that were shared in the text and the article as they helped me to connect to the material. The authors describe the case of Lou who experienced asthma whenever he was feeling stressed or anxious. However, when Lou began to express his feelings and talk about what was bothering him, he found that he could control his symptoms. As I shared in an earlier blog, expressing my emotions more effectively is something that I’m also working on for my theory class and have found that it also helps me to manage my stress levels more effectively. Similarly, I could connect to the concept of mindfulness described in Greason and Cashwell’s article by relating to the mindful counselor who would be able to accept that a client may have ambivalent feelings about leaving a partner who is abusing her, while a less mindful counselor may impart judgment, describing the women’s emotions as “wrong or bad” and [their] “attentional focus may shift from being present with the client to trying to think of ways to fix the client’s situation” (Greason, P., and Cashwell, C., 2009, p. 14). I definitely have this tendency to want to fix people and provide solutions, so this is a habit that I will have to temper in my counseling practice. Corey, G. & Corey, M. S. (2008). Your Body and Wellness. In Brooks/Cole (9th edition), I Never Knew I Had a Choice (106-131). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Greason, P.B, & Cashwell, C.S. (2009). Mindfulness and Counseling Self Efficacy: The Mediating Role of Attention and Empathy.