For today’s class, you read the “Stress” chapter from John Medina’s Brain Rules. Spend the first ten minutes of class summarizing what you remember from the reading in your notebooks. Before our class on Monday, you will want to type and save copies of your summaries for today’s reading and the previous one on the “Sleep” chapter. Then, copy-and-paste your summary on “Stress” as a comment to this blog post, and copy-and-paste your summary of “Sleep” to the previous blog post that is specifically about that chapter. You will not receive credit for putting your work in the wrong place. Read the blog posts carefully and post your work accordingly. This is building your digital literacy and professional attention to detail. Your summaries for both chapters are due before we come into class on Monday.
19 thoughts on “Beginning of Class Writing: John Medina’s Brain Rules, “Stress””
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So I have read the chapter known as ” Stress”. From John Medina’s ” Brain Rules” . Here is the Chapter summary: Stressed brain doesn’t learn thing as same way as a non-stressed brain. A stressed brain eventually stops learning . It happens because our brain can’t handle any stress about longer than 30 seconds .Our brain is not designed for any long term stress . And when we don’t have any control over situations it causes number of great harms to our body and brain . Stress can give you sleep deprivation. Long term stress can damage virtually every kind of cognition that exists. It damages memory ,executive functions, motor skills ,immune response etc . And the worst kind of fear is the fear of stay stuck in pit and never be able to climbing back up!
Sleep, Itās something every human in the world pretty much needās in order to function through out the day and without it most would pretty much be cranky and not function right (Even with the power of coffee being in your system every morning). In John Medinaās āBrain Rulesā in the chapter called āSleepā he speaks about how sleep is essential to the body and brain, However the brain does not actually shut off while you are sleep but in fact still active as ever. Without sleep though the brain tends to not to work correctly and will not function like it usually should when you get more sleep. For example, You wonāt pay attention as much in class or pretty much anywhere, Your memory wonāt be much so in tact or even your mood will drastically change without getting enough sleep. Ironically we never really know how much sleep a person needs specifically. Itās something that can change as the days go on by within your life. But if you take a nap along the day the body tends to get more of a boost and improves the body and pretty much catches up on those hours of sleep that you happened to miss out on. Overall sleep is something that is vital to the brain and without it the brain wonāt be able to function like it should be able to.
In John Medinaās āBrain Rulesā there is a chapter that speaks specifically on something everybody goes through in the world and that one thing would be āStressā. The brain usually cannot deal with stress in the long run amount of stress. In fact enough stress in your lap can eventually kill you. How? well if you deal with more stress than your body and mind can take eventually itāll be out of your control and your brain wonāt be able to take it all. Itās like the brain is going to eventually shrink. In example to that, If you are in a bad relationship or more so a marriage that isnāt going well. Stress can pretty much kill everything in your brain and tend to do bad things to your memory. You can get more so depressed you can also even lose your train of thought more often than usual. It can even effect your ability to sleep which in my opinion is one of the worst things about stress. One thing that he mentions that is the worst way to be stressed is to be in a stress level that makes you feel like you cannot control it and you are trapped overall. Like being in a deep hole that you cannot climb out of. But the best way to deal with stress is to take walks, Listen to music, Be isolated, Donāt let it takeover your life, Donāt over exaggerate, spend time with family and loved ones. But stress however is something that will get to EVERYONE living on this earth. Nobody will be able to escape it. However the good thing is that you can deal with it in any specific way that stands out in your favor.
In the chapter āStressā John Medina explained about how our brain works when we get stressed. He explained about an experiment, which was performed to see how brain reacts when you receive a long-term stress. For that they put a dog in the box and gave him electric shocks. First the dog howled in pain for few hours but he learned that there is no way out so he stayed there and suffer. Even there was a escape route but he didnāt see it because his brain stopped learning. This shows that our brain is only designed for shot term stress not for long-term stress. The stress damages your memories and also make harder for you to sleep. It also affects your immune system that can make you sick. Chronic stress can cause heart attack and stroke. If you have stress at home it also affects your professional life. In my own personal life I experience long term stress and it affected my both personal and school life. I had an exam for math and failed it with 60 even I was really good at math. Your brain canāt perform correctly if you are going through stress and you lose focus in your work. Medina also stated that every stress is not same some boost your learning and some can stop your brain learning. He also said that you cant determine that a person is going through stress or not by their psychological responses. This conclude that stress have negative effect on our brains so we need to avoid stresses and keep them healthy.
Some of the things that stresses me out are waking up to take an hour and a half train ride to school. One way I deal with that stressor is listening to music or sometimes read a book that I have to read for class to make the time go faster. Another thing that stresses me out is the sitting at those really small desk that only fits about half of your paper on it and you cant adjust the table to your comfort zone because the table is attached to the chair. I get out of class and go for a walk for about five minutes in order to get relaxed and in a comfort mood.
the “stress” chapter from john medina brain rules explains what stress does to the body and brain. He talks about an experiment which was performed to see how brain reacts when you receive long-term stress. our brain is only designed for shot term stress not for long-term stress. The stress damages your memories. I deal with stress on the daily basis. it all surrounded by lack of sleep and financial struggles. john medina talkins about what stress do to the body and I made me realize why I have suck bad headaches.
In chapter āStressā John Medina emphasized on how stress can affect our brain, and cardiovascular system. When people are stressed their brain stops thinking as well as it would when not stressed. There are different kinds of stress but according to Medina the most dangerous stress is the āFeeling of helplessnessā because it can lead a person to heart attack, or brain stroke. According to Medina ācertain type of stress can really hurt our learning, but some type of stress can boost learningā. This caught my attention because it shows that stress can have good effects too which I didnāt have expected. There are certain ways people deal with stress such as working, talking to friends, or family, playing sports, and playing games. I feel stressed when Iām presenting a project to the audience. It always feels like the audience would either judge me, or my work, or they might give me unpleasant comments. I used to make excuses every time I had a presentation in school, but I realized that I must get used to presenting because in future there might be times when I canāt make any excuse and have to present. I started to do all the presentations I had to for my classes, there were times when I was so nervous my voice was shaking and I was sweating, but I still decided to present. Gradually I was getting used to presentations and the more I present in front of an audience the less stress I get the next time. Now when Iām presenting Iām still little bit stressed out but not as much as I used to be.
What causes me stress? I think the things that causes me the most stress is knowing i’m stressed out and knowing there’s many ways i could be possibly fixing it but yet to know how. Other than that the causes of most of my daily stress comes from meeting expectations such as school or work. According to the stress chapter, certain types of stress really hurts learning but some types of stress boost learning. I would agree from my past experiences such as stress that hurts my learning. Because math would be my most difficult subject, it causes me a lot of stress learning it when i don’t fully understand. Therefore, it makes it more difficult for me to actually learn past and new informations and contain it. There must be an aroused physiological response to the stress, and it must be measurable by an outside party which is called measurable physiological response. A loss of control is when the person must not feel in control of the stressor. And, a desire to avoid the situations is when the stressor must be perceived as aversive something that, given the choice, youād rather not experience. Which are all three aroused physiological state. However, little bit of stress can be good for you. Acute stress can boost cardiovascular performance. But, too much adrenaline produces scarring on the inside of your blood vessels, creating lumps called plaques. They can get large enough to block the blood vessels, which can lead to a heart attack. Stress also affects memory, which can probably explain why i don’t remember most information i learned while under stress. People who are stressed have poorer memories, both short and long, and they can’t concentrate. This is some but not all of the reasons how stress can be a negative and positive to your body.
Stress, is one of the scariest and hardest things to go through, it can be so chronic, it feels as if you’re never going to get out of it. I hate being stressed like this, it can put you down all the time, eventually depression you. Many people are stressed and they try really hard to make it seem like they are okay and happy but in reality this is stressing them out more and more. Stress in any situation can have a huge toll on your body, it can make you feel very weak and you can become emotionally, mentally, and physically sick all the time In John Medina’s book Brain Rules, he explains that stressed brains do not learn the same way, this is true, in fact a dog was shocked with electrical wire in a closed, locked cage, at first he reacted and tried to get out of it but as time went by he realized the pain was never going to stop. When they put him a an open cage, and kept shocking him, he still didnāt know how he was going to get out of the situation. His learning brain had been shut down. Cortisol is a horrible hormone which stress releases, it will take over your brain and be so chronic that’ll make you feel like the stress will never go away. This is called depression, it hurts your ability to learn and people. There’s a tipping point, when it becomes deadly it can turn off BDNF (which is a peacekeeping force) in the hippocampus causing long lasting damage. Good thing there’s motivational speakers, Yoga, books to help keep your life in control, and excising which will influence the boost, BDNF needs to balance your mind. This can have positive effects on your mind, body and soul.
According to brian rule #4 āstressed brains donāt learn the same way ā which is really true in my opinion. You have to much things on your mind and at the same time you are trying to learn something new. There was one story that john medina included on page 64.His experience with stress during his childhood.While he was a senior in Highschool he found out his mother was diagnosed with a deadly disease. His father knew his mother was slowly dieing soon and on top of that he was asking for a divorce. Being with his mother dieing and his family going through a awful divorce his grades were decreasing within time. While in classes it was hard for John to concentrate. Shortly he started not caring about his grades in schools. People like John medina has overcome that stress and ended up being successful in the future. My personal experience, Lately in my classes I have been stressed due to the fact I can’t handle the work and I can’t organize my time more better. I control my stress by going to the gym and trying to make time when I get home to get it over with.
In John Medinaās āStressā chapter he speaks about stress and its effects on the brain. According to John Medina, stress is a response to too many things going on in the brain. It does not allow the brain to work the right way. Our bodyās way of defending itself against stress is the release of adrenaline and cortisol. Chronic stress dangerously deregulates the system. The adrenaline creates scars in your blood vessels that can cause a heart attack or stroke and cortisol cripples your ability to learn and remember simple things. The worst kind of stress is the feeling that you have no control over the situation. That you feel helpless and cannot do a single thing about the problem. Emotional stress has a huge impact on society whether it is on children learning or the adults working.
When it comes to me dealing with stress I deal with it in many different ways. One of the very few ways that help me is drawing. Drawing releases all the stress I have within me. I draw whatever I am feeling. When I draw whenever I am stress it I feel as if it helps me draw better, which probably does not make sense. Another way I help get rid or ease my stress is listening to music. I allow myself to just become buried in the music. It gets me away from everything else. Believe it or not itās like getting into another world. It makes me feel like I have control of what I want to happen even though it is just music.
Rahat Ahmed
Prof. J
10/4/15
English
Stress
Iām always stressed about something, be it good or bad. Iām never stress free simply because I always over think about everything that goes around in my life. The stress that I enjoy having the most is when my mom cooks a lot of food and I donāt know which to eat. Most of the time I have really bad stress because honestly my life is very tough at times. 2015 has been a very emotional year for as I lost some very close family members, I lost my aunt and uncle both to cancer, Iām still recovering from this trauma because their death has left a big dent in my life.
The one thing that I enjoy the most is driving. Driving is the only thing that makes me not stress because while Iām driving Iām really focused so everything else just becomes a blur. Every time that I feel like Iām not stressed, I get some bad news that just ruins my whole week. For example last week I was having a really good stress free week and then āBoomā I get some really bad news. I get a ticket through the mail for parking from like a previous week.
Since Iām always stressed about something , I found a way to reduce it by ignoring it all. At times I just cant do nothing about it so I try to sleep it off. I really donāt like to stress but sometime the situation gets so bad that it leaves me with no option what so ever. I have been trying not stress but I feel like its something that I cant never stop doing
Stress is a very common yet annoying part of our lives that could affect us in a very negative way. One way or another, we constantly go through stress while it be from school, work, or issues with family and friends. Its kind of like of a form of anger but it takes of a toll on our bodies and our mind. For instance, John Medina stated ” Under chronic stress, adrenaline creates scars in your blood vessels that can cause a heart attack or stroke, cortisol damages the cells of the hippocampus, crippling your ability to learn and remember”. But as always, all hope is not lost, there are many ways to calm yourself from the hold of stress. The best way to relieve yourself of stress is just to do things such as playing sports or just listening to your favorite song to make you feel better.
John Medina, a well known molecular biologist who studies the brain in extensive detail is here to enlighten us on our craniums. Medina’s need to study and better understand the brain is very exciting and helps us to determine how fascinated he really is with the brain. In one of his well-known and well received books, “Brain Rules”, he touches upon a subject that affects us humans often each and everyday of our lives; stress. The most notable things I was able to ascertain from this chapter is how stress can seriously cause major health problems like cardiovascular problems. It can also affect how we perceive notions in reality as well as how we remember things. Yes, stress can affect our memories to a great extent which in turn leads to short term memory less, slow response times, inability to think properly, etc. Medina is asking us to do things that keep us stress free because in the long run it will pay off in the end because we won’t be in severe pain from the problems that stress can truly cause.
The stress chapter on Brain Rules by John Medina can be related to personally. When it comes to stress, a lot of things may be factors of cause and body functions can be effected. If the brain experiences stress, you will be unable to process information regularly and most of your decisions and things you memorized may not be functioning at 100%. John Medina connected stress to pain with experiments with a sheep and a dog. They were isolated and put in pain by electricity until a reaction occurred. Positive Stress: May lead you to finish a task with the boost of adrenaline, and Negative: May lead you to be incapable of various bodily functions. Researchers Jeansok Kim and David Diamond came up with the three bases of stress. A measurable physiological response , A desire to avoid the situation, and a loss of control.
In John Medina’s “Brain Rules”, he details the effects stress has on the human brain. In his research, he finds that stress hinders the ability to process information and remember things, but this is only short term stress. In the longer term, stress can impair your motor skills and even immune system, leading to frequent sickness and depression. In some cases, the brain will literally shrink. The strongest factor in stress is emotional stability in the home. People who experience less stress at home tend to be less stressed throughout the day, because home is a release of sorts for them. The brain is only built for stress that lasts about half a minute, and for these reasons stress should be avoided if possible.
In the Stress chapter, Medina uses an experiment with a dog who constantly feels a shock, but doesn’t do anything about it. The scientist believe that instead of the dog doing anything, he gives up because the shock caused the dog to forget how to function. Due to stress, our body delivers adrenaline and cortisol. This is lead by an instant reply. Chronic stress causes forgetfulness for the brain and can cause someone to not learn from their behavior. The worse kind of stress Medina shows is the kind that we arenāt able to control. When freshmen in college from personal experience, enter their new school given a bunch of responsibilities. This can cause stress since we arenāt use to this much work financially or mentally.
Good news is I finally order the book but the news is I still do not have it. I will like to say that i’m not a stresfull person and I think he reason is I rethink a situation before I even approach . T I think that what causes me to be stress free 95% percent of the time but over all I think I have less stress than the average person. THere are excercise and way you can avoid being stress and I think that was what Madina talked mainly about it in this chapter.
Stress something that varies in every individual, some may have lots of stress others may have little stress. I can say I have some stress to deal with, from stressing assignment due days to payments to be done. The chapter Stress reviews how different stress affect people in different ways. Medina states, ā stress affects both our bodies and our brains, in both good and bad ways.ā He goes on to say how stress can actually boost cardiovascular performance however during a long period it can be negative affect to your blood vessels. Medina believes the worst kind of stress ā is the feeling that you have no control over the problem – you are helplessā.