Summary Post

It's hard to decide how this project went upon reflection. On one hand, it was frustrating, annoying, time-consuming, and hard to follow through. On the other hand, I can say that I know a little bit more about stress relief and alternative methods of relieving stress.

In terms of my activities for the last session of the project, I used a stress intervention eleven times out of 49 days. I used yoga three times, mostly at the end of my session. I went on a cross-country driving trip and really enjoyed the yoga as both a nighttime destress activity and as a way to stretch out tired muscles. In this manner, it was a great intervention. I also used exercise 3 times during the last session. I think it was a rarely used intervention because July and August in North Carolina is very hot and humid. Also, the end of the summer semester was very busy with classes and finals that I could not find time to exercise. Mantram use was the most popular: five times. I think this was due to the ease of use and the stress of my cross-country trip. It's hard to deal with stress while locked in a car for hours upon hours--mantram use was the only intervention at my disposal and was used during that time period.

I'm not sure if I naturally gravitate towards one type of stress intervention or the other. In part, I feel like project is artificial from the start. The baseline was not normal for me. Nursing school is not a normal lifestyle, unless you're a nursing student. Then again, every person has a baseline that is not "normal" due to their unique lifestyles. When I compare my life and my stressors (namely nursing school induced) to the lives of patients with chronic diseases, I realize that everyone is different and has to build up the coping skills needed for their situations. For someone with cancer, exercise might not be a good coping skill, but mantrams might be perfect. The best thing about stress interventions is that they are as varied as the person's imagination and creativity will allow--which is something that I'm just beginning to appreciate.

Looking back over the past seven months, I am surprised to be here, in my last semester of nursing school and without having gone through a full-blown nervous breakdown. Maybe that's due to me, on my own. Maybe that's due to the fact that nursing school isn't that bad actually. Maybe its because, without me realizing it, this project has helped me. It has helped me realize when I'm stressed and how to deal with it. I pay attention to subtle cues more and am more ready to try something to help with my stress rather than ignore it, allowing stress to escalate to unmanageable levels. All in all, this project has been helpful. I'm not sure if it was a success in terms of specific outcomes, but for me it was successful for my personal goals and skills.