During the first ten minutes of class, write a summary of your reading from John Medina’s Brain Rules, Stress in your notebook. Before our next class, post a comment to this blog post containing your typed and revised summary.
ENG1101 D340 English Composition I, SPR2015
Official site for ENG1101 D340
Stress is something that everyone goes through unfortunately. Obviously no one like to be stressed out, it’s a total inconvenience. The way john medina explains stress in brain rules is informative. I never knew that people needed stress to survive. I’ve always assumed that stress was a part of life, and it is but I didn’t realize we needed it. I’m actually coming from my math class which is ironic because that class really stresses me out, I hate math and I’m not to crazy about the teacher either. I know in college things are different and the teachers go at a faster pace, but in my opinion he’s not a teacher cause he wants to be, he’s just there to get paid.
In John Medina.s Brain Rules chapter 4, stress I learned a lot about the brain and how it functions. One main fact I found interesting was that kids who come from a household of stressed parents are also stressed themselves. A part that I thought related well to me was that if you’re stressed outside of school, you will also have a hard time or not do as well in school. I’ve been feeling this way and I can see myself not reaching the ability I can reach.
Experiencing stress is probably one of the most dreadful parts of life because many of us do not know how to handle our stress. John Medina described that stress in most cases hurts more than just our brains. After reading this chapter I believe New York City would be a delightful place if everyone knew how to manage their stress and found a healthy outlet so that it does not hurt more than our brains. Medina also mentioned that people who are stressed do not do math very well, they have poorer memories and in a more general explanation they cannot concentrate. These are the things that define NYC and I think it’s the reason why I had much interest in this chapter because I could relate to it. It’s also important that Medina pointed out that stress is the reason for people falling into depression. The craziest part of reading this is understanding that stress can be healthy and poisoning to an individual.
The Chapter “Stress” basically talks about how stress is a normal part of life. We can experience stress from the environment, body, and thoughts. And It also talks about how our human body is designed to experience stress and react to it. Interesting fact I learned while reading the chapter is that sometimes stress is actually good for us. It boosts our brainpower and it motivates you to succeed.
According to John Medina “Brain Rules”, “stress” is neutral just depending on its severity and how long we’re exposed to it. Equally important, stress hormones can disconnect neural networks and if it is prolonged it pushes people to depression. Moreover, stress affects both our bodies and brains meaning that it affects our immune response because our immune system is very sensitive to stress. Also, it affects memory where stress begins to harm learning since we can’t concentrate. This is the Chronic stress which hurts our ability to learn. However, our reactions can help us manage these threats. In addition, without the soft aim of stress response, we can not continue living. I feel stressed all the time, that’s the negative feeling I have when I face a situation I think I cannot manage. For example, I feel under pressure to do something and fear I may fail like taking my math exam.Thus, there is a balance in stress that oversimplify my decision to be agree with Medina that stress is good and bad.
Stress is part of everyone’s life, so many things cause stress: people, work, exams, animals, even our environment. Stress can really mess us up physically and mentally, so it’s always good to stay relaxed and calm. Medina claims that stress is needed to live, I can actually agree because we need it to move on without the stress we would probably be slacking off and wouldn’t have any motivation to get rid of the stress. Also living in a stressful house or environment can really mess you up too. I learned in my physical education class can “damage” you physically and mentally which is not good for self esteem, it’s always good to stay calm but a little stress is ok.
Even though some people might work very well, maybe even better under a lot of pressure and stress, most of us does not. In the stress chapter in John Medinas Brain Rules he talks about the impact stress has on human behavior and the brains performance. From an evolutionary point of view, our brains is only built to deal with stress for no more than 30 seconds. Predators would either kill you, or you would escape, but the threat was usually over in a minute or so. In our modern society, we are dealing with a lot of long term stress. Say for example if you have a bad boss, the predator can chase you for years. This kind of long term stress is not healthy for the brain, and it is proven that it damages virtually every kind of cognition that exists. It can damage your memory, motor skills. Long time stress can also disrupt your immune system, your ability to sleep and you might get depressed. Today we are all experiencing a lot of stress every day. We only have one brain, and the stress you are experiencing at home will affect your performance at work, and vice versa. So we all need to find ways to cope with the stress that we experience each day.
In the beginning of the chapter Medina gives us an example of an experiment with German Shepherd, which I actually found very cruel.
Also it was mentioned, that not all stress is the same. Some types hurt learning, some of it boost learning process.
Physically it is very hard to identify stress. Stress and pleasure have very similar characteristics.
When body is stressing your pulse races, your blood pressure rises, you feel a massive release of energy, it is adrenaline at work.
But not only adrenaline as a hormone is getting into human’s body. Another hormone is working as well. It is called cortisol.
Stress helps us to manage threats that could keep us from procreating.
Medina’s 8th chapter called “Stress” is the best way to understand how the brain works when you are stressed out and how it could damage the memory. According to the author certain types of stress really hurt learning, but some types of stress boost learning and it is because your brain is built to deal with stress that last 30 seconds but is not designed to long terms stress when the things are out of control, even though, the stressing experiences are the ones people remember the most. Personally, I do not work efficiently when I am stressed, I just do not know what to do, I get really depressed because I like to take my time to do my things and when I feel that I do not have enough time I just get very frustrated. Also Medina explains that “Stress damages virtually every kind of cognition that exists. It damages memory and executive function. It can hurt your motor skills. When you are stressed out over a long period of time it disrupts your immune response. You get sicker more often. It disrupts your ability to sleep. You get depressed.” There is no person that haven’t been stressed at least once in their lives and everyone has different ways of dealing with stress, it depends on your capacity of tolerate it. You should try to be the less stressed as you can because according to Medina’s researches is does not lead to nothing good, you have to learn to deal with it because it is reflected on every area of your life; work, school and home.
In the reading of John Medinas Brain rules of stress what I found very interesting was that not all stress are the same and that some type of stress hurt the learning process but others can actually boost the learning process and I found it very strange because I always thought of stress as a distraction from things that you want to do or learn. In the reading is says that is hard to notice someone experiencing stress, also you can feel stressed getting to you like when your pulse rices or blood pressure and you feel a lot of energy being released, Also a man named Martin Seligman spend the rest of his career studying how human respond to optimism.
I believe that stress is very healthy for a human. I feel as if without stress many people wouldn’t be as good to what they’re doing in life than they are now! there’s usually small amounts of stress and in some cases a bigger amount of stress. I feel as though after reading the chapter that small stress amounts tends to weigh more dividend then one particular issue. It’s like when you have a lot on your mind and your best bet is to get it all out and vent. With stress, many people tend to have their personal relievers that helps for the time being but takes a big toll of lowering their stress level a couple notches. John Medina really taught me that stress in adrenaline which comes from our brain’s hypothalamus, in which, happens to be in the middle of our brain. Stress can lead to many things and i personally think that everyone should have a reliever!
Summary of John Medina’s Brain Rules, Stress
Stress is a part of our daily lives that everyone has to deal with at some point. According to Medina’s Brain Rules, Stress, these day, our stresses are measured in hours, days, and sometimes months with hectic workplaces, screaming toddlers, and money problems. He explains that our system was not build for that. And when moderate amounts of stress hormones build up to large amounts, or hang around too long, they become quite harmful. However, Medina states that not all stress is the same. He explains that certain type of stress really hurts learning, but some types of stress boost learning. For instance, out-of-control stress which is bad news for the brains of most people. Take Jill’s life experience as an example, even though she was molested by her father during her preschool years, she still became a talented singer and honor student.
Nevertheless, Medina believes that stress affects our bodies and our brains in both good and bad ways, such as, it affects our immune response in regards to how our bodies will fight infection, and it affects memory in the way we think. Furthermore, Medina argues that stress hormones can do some truly nasty things to your brain if boatloads of stuff are given free access to you central nervous system. Moreover, he states severe stress can cause brain damage in the very tissues most likely to help you succeed in life. For example, it can result in leading people into depression, it affects learning such as, stressed people do not do well in math very well, they do not process language very efficiently, and they have poorer memories, both short and long form. Also, severe stress like chronic stress can result in heart attack, stroke or death. However, Medina discusses that research shows that memories of stressful experiences are formed almost instantaneously in the human brain, and that they can be recalled very quickly during times of crises.
Even though they may not be a cure for stress, there are things that we can do to minimize the stress in our lives. Such as taking a long shower to relax our minds, play the kind of music you enjoy and dance to take your mind off things, you can take a walk in the park, or even do what you believe is best for you, or will help your situation.
Stressed brains don’t learn the same way, Stress brain doesn’t function the same way as a normal brain either. When an experiment was done on a German shepherd and days passed by his resistance subsided. The dog began to receive a clear message the pain wasn’t going to stop and there is no way out. Same as the dog in real life we don’t have to do an experiment the pain is never going away. We start to stress in small things from a very small age, like medina says when he gave his 18 months baby a carrot. The baby went ballistic: he screamed and cried and peed on his diaper. I know when I am stressed a lot I like to sit alone and watch stand up comedy and try to forget that. Medina says, A lot of stress is harmful to human body, under chronic stress, adrenaline creates scars in our blood vessels that can cause a heart attack or stroke and cortisol damage the cells of the hippocampus, crippling your ability to learn and remember. Stress affects memory. Emotional or physical stress have an impact on people’s day to day lifestyles. Affecting how they grow and their ability to learn new skills. Emotional stress has huge impact across society, on children’s ability to learn in school and on employees’ productivity at work. Medina also talks about how all types of stress are not equal. Although individually, the worst kind of stress is the feeling that you have no control over the problem-you are helpless.
Justin Echevarria
When John Medina explains stress I kind of agree with him due to the fact that there will never be no such thing as a “Utopia”. Although everyone would like to imagine as living a stress free life it’ll never happen. A reason for me thinking this is because many people suffer from vanity and will always want things for themselves If someone was to get everything they ever wanted what will they ever truly be happy. From personal experience I enjoy collecting sneakers which most people find insane because how much money ill spend on a pair of sneakers, but when ever I get the sneaker I was looking for a while I’l get excited. The feeling of excitement is temporary though after a while ill just live with the feeling of having something. What I think people enjoy is wanting something they can’t instantly get as humans were programmed odd and confusing.