Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Nicholson.

And welcome to lesson on stress.

During this lesson we're going to be doing some sensitive issues.

So if you want to talk to somebody now please do so before we start.

If at any point during the lesson, you want to stop it and go and have a chat with someone once again, please do.

At the end of the lesson, you may wish to talk to them about what you've learned.

During this lesson I want us to make some notes.

So please ensure you have an exercise book or a piece of paper to hand and a pen with which to write.

If you need to go and get one, please do so now and pause the video.

When you're ready press play.

If you've already got them, let's carry on.

Before you start this lesson you should complete your introductory quiz.

So please make sure you have done.

When we've done that we're going to look at the common signs of ill health.

Within that we're going to start looking at what is stress.

As a question we're going to be able to answer by the end of this lesson.

And also be able to think about how we can deal with stress better.

At the end of it I'd like to complete the exit quiz as well.

Ensuring that you've done the introductory quiz and the exit quiz will help you understand and consolidate your learning throughout the series of lessons and within this lesson itself.

Thinking about what you've learned in this series of lessons or within introductory quiz, think about what anxiety and depression are.

What I'd really like to do is to pause the video now, write down a definition of anxiety and a definition of depression.

And when you've done that press play.

Now, let's see what you wrote.

Let's see what I've got here.

Anxiety is a natural reaction of the body to any situation which we refer to as fight and flight.

Talked about that before, and it's in the introductory quiz.

The idea of depression is a mental health wellbeing issue which affects moods and feelings.

Both of these become really important this lesson.

So if you need to write your definitions, please do so now.

Now that we know anxiety and depression are, we defined those already.

I'd like to think about what the word stress means.

What do you think it means? I'd like you to pause the video spend some time thinking about it and write down your response to this question.

What do you think the word stress means? And when you're ready, press play.

As I go through what the word stress means maybe add something to your own definition.

If you want to start again, write this one down.

Stress is going to be important throughout this lesson when we're talking about how we can deal with it and what it is.

So it's good that we have a definition to begin with.

Here we are.

Stress is a normal reaction to demands in our lives.

It is a response to events in life when your brain releases hormones for the fight or flight response.

We've mentioned fight or flight earlier.

When your body is ready to either stand up for yourself, i.

e.

the fight mode or to run away to protect yourself.

The flight mode is a common occurrence in all of us when dealing with stress and anxiety.

As I said before if you want to write this down, please do so.

In order that you'll need to pause the video and press play when you're ready.

We're now going to look at the idea of being stressed.

I'm going to ask you to pause the video again here and write down times when you felt you've been stressed in your life.

Either the spider diagram or bullet point them.

But spend some time thinking clearly, when did you feel stressed? Maybe even to begin to think about why you felt stressed in that situation.

Jot them down and when you've made your list, press play and we will carry on.

Are these are times when you felt stressed? This list will be very personal to you.

Here's some ideas I've thought of though.

When you do something new for the first time.

When you see or hear something you don't know how to react.

When you have an exam or a test.

When you meet somebody new.

When you started at secondary school and when something is out of your control.

If any of the things you've written make you feel bad or you want to talk about them please pause the video and have a chat with an adult now.

When you're ready, press play.

If you don't want to have that chat we'll carry on with the lesson.

When were looking at anxiety earlier, I mentioned the fight or flight process, but when our body responds to stress, we either fight, flight or freeze.

What I'd would like to do is when I've gone through these pause the video and make some notes of your own on these three things.

Fight is when your body is prepared take action against the situation it finds itself in.

Your body demands something of you and that's our fight response.

Flight is when the body is ready to escape from the situation to keep it safe.

And freeze is when our bodies and minds are so overwhelmed by the situation we don't react.

We just literally do not know what to do.

As I mentioned earlier, I'd like to pause the video now, make some notes on fight, flight and freeze for me.

When you've done that press play and we can carry on.

Here are some examples of fight flight or freeze in action.

Look at what they are and think about your own examples.

Have you ever had to fight, flee or freeze.

Fight is when you're ready for a school test you are fully prepared for it, you know the demands and you're ready to get in there and do as well as you can.

Flight might be when you're running away from an angry dog that is chasing you you're ready to run away to maintain your safety.

And freeze you could be watching a scary movie and you're so scared by it but you can't stop watching it.

That's known as the freeze reaction.

So we have fight, flight or freeze and this example here.

I'd like you to think about your own examples.

We may be able to use those later on in some of the activities we're doing.

Think about when you've had to fight, flee or freeze and you may wish to use these examples as well.

Here's where those examples I actually think about may come in useful.

I want you to write down these four headings for me.

Feelings, body, thoughts and behaviour.

And then I'd like to answer the questions you can see beneath them.

What effect may stress have on feelings? What effect may stress have on the body? What thoughts may stress bring up in you? And what may stress make you do? It's a lot easier if you think about when you felt stressed and why you felt stressed in those situations and what you could or could not do.

Think about fight, flight and freeze again make these relevant to you.

So it is personal.

So if you want to talk to somebody, please do so.

But in order to do this, I'd like to pause the video complete the activity and press play when you're finished.

Here's some of my ideas.

Obviously I've not related to them stress in my life, but you may have done.

And that's a really good thing to do 'cause it helps show understanding in your learning.

Feelings you may be scared.

You may be frightened.

In terms of your body increased heart rate, dilated pupils, faster breathing.

Thoughts you may feel inadequate and confused.

And behaviour is our fight, flight or freeze mechanism.

As I say, it's really good if you can give an example here for me, as it personalises your learning and helps share your understanding and by the end of the lesson it will consolidate what we've done.

If you need to pause the video, please do so.

If not, we'll carry on.

Now here's a true or false statement I'd like you to answer.

Please read it carefully.

The key word here is all.

All stress is a bad thing.

I'd like to pause the video and think about this really carefully.

But remember, I've emphasised the word here all.

When you're ready, press play.

Now I emphasised the word all for a reason because the answer here is false.

False because stress is a natural response but our reaction to it can be a bad thing.

So stress is a natural response, but our actions can be bad and therefore make it a bad thing.

In that case stress may become quite debilitating for us.

If ever you feel like that you must talk to somebody see what you can do, see how they can help you.

There's many organisations out there who will help you as well as people in school and at home.

So remember it's false because it's a natural response but how we react to it can be a bad thing.

You want to ride that down, please do so.

It's an important point in our learning today.

That how deal with stress is as important as understanding the stress itself.

I'd like to read this really carefully.

There are two types of stress.

And the first one I'm looking at is positive.

You'll need this later on in the lesson.

It's a kind of stress that helps us to be motivated to do well.

It allows us to challenge ourselves without expending all of our bodily resources or energy.

It's actually energises us and helps us to accomplish the tasks we've been given to do.

So positive stress is a good thing and helps us accomplish what we've been asked to do.

If you think about the idea of fight and flight, this is where positive stress will come in.

It's important that you remember this, so read it carefully for me.

There is also negative stress and this is what we often refer to when we say, we are feeling stressed.

It's when we feel overwhelmed and we don't have the ability to cope with the demands being placed on us.

Sometimes this is what would cause a freeze reaction.

We really don't know what to do, what to say or how to act in that situation.

We feel really stressed.

I'd like to read this carefully because I'm going to ask you to do something with this in a moment.

It's important if you know the difference between positive and negative stress.

And we're also going to look at how we can see the signs of this and how we can help combat some forms of stress in our lives.

Having read those definitions of positive, negative stress.

I'd now like you to do this for me.

Define in your notes what is meant by positive and negative stress and then explain the impact of positive and negative stress.

Think back to what we've done earlier about anxiety.

Think about fight, flight and freeze.

Think about the definition of stress.

And the ideas we've looked at around it.

In order to do this, you'll need to pause the video and when you're ready, press play and we'll look at what the answers could be.

And here we are, positive stress is that which motivates us and challenges us to do well.

Negative stress makes us overwhelmed and stops us doing what we want to.

Make sure you've got those ideas down in your notes.

It's really important we know the difference between the two.

Positive stress helps us with fight or flight.

Negative stress makes us freeze.

So once again make sure you've got that in your notes as well before we move on.

I'd now like to turn to how we can cope with stress.

We've looked at the signs.

We've looked at positive and negative stress.

Now let's look at how we cope with stress.

I've given you here seven ways in which we can cope with stress.

And I've started off with ways of coping.

The seven words here that I'd like you to try and think about how they relate to coping with stress.

I want you to pause the video when I've been through these, write down what you think they mean.

When you're ready you'll press play, and we'll go through them.

But the seven words here are focus, play, connect, physical, alone, downtime, sleep.

And the last one there I've put, there are lots of things you can do.

So be able to build this into a way of helping people to understand how they can cope with stress.

So once again, we've got focus play, connect, physical, alone, downtime and sleep.

Pause the video, write those seven down and try and think and explain in your own words how they would help people cope with stress.

And when you've done that I'd like to press play so we can carry on.

Now that you've come up with your own ideas, let's look at what we can add in and add some of these into your own notes as we go along.

Now that you've come up with your own ideas, let's look at these and see how we can add these to your own notes.

Focus, be goal oriented and take a challenge to focus on.

Keep the mind occupied and busy.

Play, be creative.

It makes new connections in the brain and makes us feel happier.

Connect, make time to talk to people and do things with them.

If you're alone all the time, it means you've got a lot of time to think about yourself and what's going on in your life.

Whereas if you connecting with other people that will tend to occupy you more.

Physical, exercise will release endorphins and they automatically make us feel better.

That the body's way of making us feel a lot better about ourselves.

So said before, if you need to add something to your notes please do so now.

Now I did mentioned about connecting with other people.

'Cause sometimes being alone is a bad thing if you're stressed, but it can be a good thing.

It gives you time to reflect on what's happening to you and calms your brain down.

Down, don't sometimes focus on anything.

Just let your mind wander.

It really helps your brain recharge and sleep.

Sleep is really important.

Allows our brains to rest and consolidates the learning we've done from that day all over our lives already.

Once again, if you need to add something to your own definitions, please do so.

I'd now like us to bring all of our learning together.

And I want you to read this scenario about Malik, who's about to choose his options and he's feeling really stressed about it.

Think about the seven areas we just looked at and what Malik can do to reduce his stress levels.

Pause the video, but keep Malik's story in front of you and complete the activity.

And when you've done that press play and we'll look at what Malik can do to relieve his stress.

Now here's some ideas I've put together.

Make a list of questions to ask the teacher about the options.

Focusing the mind.

Take on a new activity completely unrelated to the options choice process.

Play.

Talk to teachers, parents and the careers advisor.

Connect with somebody else.

Go for a run.

Focus on that physical time.

Stop talking to friends about options that makes it confusing.

The idea of being alone and being in your own thoughts here.

Just let your mind wander and just be.

Malik can just think about anything he wants rather than his options.

Idea of downtime.

And develop a routine which prepares for a good night's sleep.

So his mind is rested when he goes to bed in order to get that good night's sleep to help him consolidate what he's been thinking about during the day.

You'll have come up with your own ideas and that's really good, but if you want to add anything, please do so.

Thank you for taking part this lesson.

If you want to share your work with us, please do so.

The links are here.

I hope you've enjoyed your lesson on stress and seeing the signs, the idea behind stress and how we can cope with stress.

I'd really like you to complete the exit quiz now because that will consolidate your learning.

Once again, thank you very much for taking part and goodbye.