#174 - Stress Inoculation

Stress is natural. It’s our body’s response when we are faced with dangerous or challenging circumstances. 

No matter how negative the meaning of this word is, stress can be beneficial—it helps us in staying motivated and focused. However, experiencing an excessive amount of stress can be detrimental to both our physical and mental health.

It's important that we learn how to recognize and cope with stress in a healthy way. We should make every effort to prevent experiencing an excessive amount of stress by taking immediate action to address the factors that are contributing to it.

Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) is a cognitive-behavioral therapy that aims to help us develop skills that can be used to better manage our stress and anxiety. The purpose of SIT is to strengthen us and improve our capacity to deal with stress in real-life situations by putting us in circumstances where we are exposed to controlled levels of stress. This type of therapy might not be suitable for everyone and needs to be supervised by a trained mental health professional.

We can deal with stress by simply doing relaxation exercises like meditation, regular exercise, maintaining a good diet, getting enough sleep, and, if necessary, receiving help from close friends, family members, or a mental health professional.

Listen to Episode 174 to learn more about stress inoculation!

• What makes us stressed? [3:05]
• The negative impact of stress [6:46]
• Stress inoculation training [7:39]
• Three phases of stress inoculation [9:02]
• The cold water exposure exercise [11:14]
• The Blessed Couple Podcast [13:47]
• The positive impact of stress inoculation training [14:16]
• The beauty of meditation [16:13]