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| Meet Dr. Blonna |
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Hello,
I am Dr. Richard Blonna, the editor of the Healthy Stress Newsletter. I am a nationally certified Coach (CPC), Counselor (NCC), and Health Education Specialist (CHES) with over 25 years of experience helping people just like you manage their stress.
I am the author of a best-selling college textbook and two self-help books in the field of stress management.
Besides teaching stress management in college I work with people at-a-distance using telephone and web-based instruction and coaching.
In addition to stress management I specialize in motivational coaching; helping people get unstuck and live their lives based on their values, goals, and dreams.
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| What's New? | |
My new book, Stress Less, Live More: How Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can Help You Live a Busy, Yet Balanced Life is available from New Harbinger Publications. Look for it at your favorite bookstore or order a copy online directly from the publisher.
www.newharbinger.com
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| Volume # 2010, Issue # 7 | August/2010 |
Dear Subscriber,
This month I am going to shift gears and start discussing coping with stress. I'm going to introduce my Five R's of Coping Model©. I developed this holistic model over 20 years ago and first presented it in my best-selling college textbook, Coping With Stress in a Changing World, now in its 5th edition with McGraw-Hill Publishers.
I am going to spend the next several months going over the levels of coping presented in the model and teaching you several different new strategies that you can use to develop your own personalized stress management plan.
If you would like help doing this please call me and arrange for some personal stress coaching.
I hope you enjoy my free newsletter and podcast. I look forward to helping you learn how to manage your stress and turn your potential stressors into challenges!
Sincerely,
Dr. Richard Blonna |
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| The Five R's of Coping |
My unique approach to helping people manage their stress is based on my Five R's of Coping Model © that teaches you five different levels of coping skills.
The Five R's of Coping are; Reorganize, Relax, Release, Rethink, and Reduce. Although each of the "Rs" can be used independently to cope with stressors, they work best when combined together into a personal stress management program. My untimate goal is to help you develop a personal stress management plan that is based on your personality and lifestyle, your stressors, and coping skills that work for you.
Rethink - teaches you how to defuse potential stressors by (1) changing the way you think about some of them and, (2) learning how to accept others. Rethink uses the latest principles and practices from ACT, mindfulness, and Naikan self-reflection.
Reduce - teaches you how to cut back on the overall level of stressors in your life and turn the rest of your potential stressors into challenges.
Relax - teaches you how to achieve true relaxation using proven, easy-to-learn techniques (diaphragmatic breathing, breath meditation, visualization, mindfulness etc.) that you can practice anywhere. You'll learn how to short-circuit the stress response by putting your body into a relaxed state on a regular basis.
Release - teaches you how to use physical activity, exercise, and orgasm to release stress-related energy and tension in a healthy way instead of relying on alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs.
Reorganize - teaches you how to create a healthy, more stress-resistant lifestyle based on hardy health habits. These habits provide the energy and resilience you need to cope with stress in a changing world.
Over the next several months I will work through all five levels of coping teaching you several different stategies along the way. I hope you enjoy the journey. |
| StressBuster Tip # 10 |
View Stress Management as a Multi-Level Process
Most people fail in their efforts to cope with stress because they only learn one coping strategy and try to apply it to all stressors and stressful situations. Such an approach to stress management is doomed to fail because even the best coping technique will not work with every stressor under all circumstances.
Sometimes, the technique will not even work with the same stressor on a different occasion. The reason this might happen is because people, situations, and stressors change over time and sometimes what worked for you with the original stressor will not be effective the second, third, or tenth time you are exposed to it.
In order to adapt to the ever-changing nature of stressors and stressful situations you need to have a stress management program that is flexible and has many levels of coping strategies to draw from. My Five R's of Coping Model is based on such a plan.
How to Change Your View:
- Accept that potential stressors change over time.
- Accept that you will also change over time.
- Don't expect to be able to cope with all stressors and stressful situations with just one coping strategy.
- Realize that even if a strategy worked with a specific stressor under certain conditions that it might not work the next time you are confronted by that potential stressor because it is a different time and place (context).
- Accept that the goal of stress management is managing , not eliminating stress. The only time you are stress-free is when you are dead (at least I think you are stress-free then).
- Be willing to co-exist with the pain and suffering of your remaining stress as you move forward towards your goals.
Next month we'll talk about the distinction between eliminating and managing stress and get started on the first level of coping, Reorganize.
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For more information about my stress management related products and services go to my website:
For my latest free podcast go to the link below: http://www.healthystressdoctor.com/podcasts.html and click on the cast you want to view. Sincerely, Dr.Richard Blonna
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