Chapter 11
Reorganize: Becoming More
Stress-Resistant by
Improving Your Health
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Overview
 This chapter
Introduces the fifth and final of the Five
Rs of Coping—Reorganize—and
explains how a lifestyle-based approach
to coping with stress combines the use
of all five lines of defense against stress
and also both problem-focused and
emotion-focused approaches across six
dimensions of health and wellness
Discusses how using the hardy health
habits and the five strategies together
complement each other synergistically
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Outline
The importance of a
lifestyle-based approach to
coping that intentionally
moves us toward optimal
functioning in six health
and wellness dimensions
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Outline (Cont’d)
The six health and wellness
dimensions:
the environmental/occupational
dimension
the social dimension
the spiritual dimension
the intellectual dimension
the emotional dimension
the physical dimension
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Outline (Cont’d)
Using a strategy-based two-pronged
approach to reorganizing each
dimension of health and wellness:
Problem-focused
Emotion-focused
Move toward optimal functioning by
linking hardy health practices and the
Five Rs of Coping strategies together
and practicing them on a daily basis
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Outline (Cont’d)
This creates a synergistic effect
against stress (and toward
wellness and coping)
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A Lifestyle-Based Approach to
Coping
Stress does not occur in a vacuum
Stress has as much to do with our
general level of functioning as it
does with the stressor itself
When we are functioning
inefficiently, we have fewer
resources to help us manage stress
Move toward optimal functioning
Move toward high-level health
and stress management
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Reorganizing
 To reorganize is to take a lifestyle-based
approach to coping with stress
It is stressor preventive in nature
It is aimed at improving your overall
health level to be more stress-resistant
Kobassa et al. found that hardy people use
hardy health practices such as
regular exercise
good nutrition
relaxation
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Moving Toward Optimal
Functioning
 The journey (process) of moving toward
optimal functioning is as important as
the results you achieve
 During any given stress transaction, your
ability to appraise a potential stressor is
influenced by your general level of
wellness across all six dimensions of
health
 Be patient and self-forgiving in this
journey
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A Two-Pronged Model for
Reorganizing Our Health
 Reorganizing is done in response to some
perceived lifestyle shortcoming
 Sometimes it’s best to approach the
deficiency head on (be problem-focused)
 Other times, when we can’t change the
situation (at least right now), an emotionfocused approach helps us reorganize our
thoughts
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Reorganizing the Environmental
Dimension of Health
Strengthen the micro environment (our
immediate environment: home, work place,
community, campus)
Strengthen the macro environment (the
world at large, the global community)
 Being proactive and taking concrete steps to
reorganize aspects of your environment helps
you assume some degree of control over your
life
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Micro Environment
Many problem-focused approaches
to coping involve altering one’s
environment
Employ both short- and long-term
reorganizing strategies to change
environmentally-based stressors
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Coping With the Macro
Environment
 A common macro environmental stressor:
terrorism
If the threat of terrorism becomes chronic,
defuse it by changing your illogical
thoughts and co-existing with the emotions
associated with them
Use Ellis & Harper’s ABCDE technique
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Coping With the Macro
Environment (Cont’d)
Use Morita Therapy to re-direct
your attention to productive work
Co-exist with strong feelings by
reminding yourself that they will
dissipate with time
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Reorganizing the Occupational
Dimension of Health
 Most Americans who work full-time spend
close to 50 hours a week at their worksites
 Reorganizing the occupational dimension
has two aspects
Improving the physical work environment
Improving your communications with
bosses, coworkers, and associates
 The first step: assessing areas that can be
strengthened
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Occupational
Environment
 To improve the physical work environment:
Be proactive in monitoring compliance with
NIOSH health and safety standards
Consider working through an employee union if there
is one
Contact NIOSH directly to report suspected violations
Use protective devices (e.g., noise/glare
reducers)
Suggest products that conform to ergonomic
guidelines
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Occupational
Environment (Cont’d)
 To improve your communications with
bosses, coworkers, and associates:
Take responsibility for expressing your
concerns or clearing up
misunderstandings before they escalate
into stressors
Use “I” language and verbal assertiveness
techniques consisitently.
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Occupational
Environment
 When you are not able to change work place
situations or relationships now or in the
immediate future, understand and co-exist with
the emotions associated with them by assessing
how important they are in relation to the
bigger picture of your life
how they mesh with what you value, your life
purposes, and your daily life criteria for
happiness
whether they are even worth reorganizing
 Use Ellis & Harper’s ABCDE Model to
reorganize
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Reorganizing the Social Dimension
of Health
 Social relationships provide connections
to other people that add richness and
depth to our lives
 It is in relationships with others that we
most fully develop our potential as
people
 Social support networks help us cope
with unanticipated problems and
prevent potential stressors from
becoming actual stressors
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Social Dimension
Evaluate your social networks and
support
Take steps to shore up any
weaknesses
Build on the strengths that already
exist
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Social Dimension
 Our social support network can also be a
source of stress
 Social embeddedness and support require
an investment of time and energy
 The same people and groups who support
us often stir up strong emotions within us
 Once again, assess what is really important
in your life
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Strengthening the Spiritual
Dimension of Health
Spirituality: a sense of
interconnectedness with something
beyond the self
It is not unusual for people to feel both
a belief in a divine power and a sense
of interconnectedness with other
living things, nature, etc.
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Spiritual
Dimension
 If you have lost faith in life and your
fellow humans, one way to cope with
this and at the same time strengthen
your spiritual well-being is to take
action
 Use your faith community’s outreach
programs to serve others (a way to coexist with troubling doubts and
emotions while engaging in productive
work)
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Reorganizing the Spiritual
Dimension
 Naikan self-reflection (though not a
spiritual activity per se) is an excellent
way to help you become aware of your
interconnectedness to others in your life
 It can help you become more grateful
for the role they’ve played in your life
 Naikan’s three questions can shed light
on troubling thoughts and emotions
about people in your life to help defuse
them as stressors
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Reorganizing the Intellectual
Dimension of Health
The ability to separate fact from
fiction depends on our knowledge
Develop a commitment to thinking
clearly and using reason and logic
to guide you
Become a life-long learner
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Strengthening the Intellectual
Dimension
 Keep up with the literature in your area of
interest
 Join and take an active role in professional
organizations related to your discipline or
area of interest
 Joining committees and holding
organizational positions provides another
form of hands-on learning and networking
 Apply what you’ve learned in the classroom
to real-world situations
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Strengthening the Intellectual
Dimension
 Make the transition from being a
passive recipient of knowledge to an
active seeker of it on a lifelong basis
 Use continuing education programs to
learn more about things that appeal to
you
 Retain your intellectual curiosity—it can
help you maintain a vibrancy that can
stay with you throughout your adult and
older adult years
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Reorganizing the Emotional
Dimension of Health
 Involves becoming more emotionally hardy
(developing emotional toughness)
 Mental toughness: learning how to co-exist
with troubling emotions while being
productive
 Moritists argue that understanding the origin
of our emotions isn’t necessary for learning
how to co-exist with them
 Twin goals:
Become more mindful of your emotions
Learn how to co-exist with them
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Strengthening the Emotional
Dimension
 Become more mindful of anxious feelings
when they arise
 Accept these feelings
 Tell yourself that you can co-exist with them
and still be productive
 Be completely prepared for a task that makes
you feel anxious
 Use simple relaxation techniques before
beginning the task
 Remind yourself that you can do the task
despite being anxious
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Strengthening the Emotional
Dimension
 Trying to eliminate or reduce troubling emotions
 Base this on the premise that you can modify or
eliminate troubling emotions by dealing with the
thoughts that they revolve around
 By learning to think more logically about a
stressor, you reduce the likelihood that troubling
emotions associated with it will arise in the first
place
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Strengthening the Emotional
Dimension (Cont’d)
 Use Ellis & Harper’s ABCDE Model
 Key to emotion-focused approaches to improving
emotional well-being are
using them consistently
keeping reminding yourself that it is normal to
experience troubling emotions
becoming more mindful of them
accepting them as setting the stage for being able
to co-exist with the troubling emotions and
doing what needs to be done
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Reorganizing the Physical
Dimension of Health
 Realize that many of the benefits of physical
activity, exercise, and fitness take a couple
of months to take effect
 Make physical activity, exercise, and healthy
eating part of your daily lifestyle
 Understand that making physical activity,
exercise, and healthy eating part of one’s
daily lifestyle is easier for some than for
others
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A Problem-Focused Approach to
Strengthening the Physical
Dimension
Have a plan for at least one indoor
and one outdoor physical activity
for each season
Identify activities that are fun (or
potentially fun)
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An Emotion-Focused Approach to
Strengthening the Physical
Dimension
 Negative emotions about physical activity,
exercise, and healthy eating often contribute to
their discontinuance
 Activity and eating patterns are among the
hardest habits to change
 Often attempts to change are accompanied by a
pessimistic or cynical attitude
 Use Seligman’s ABCDE Model when you find
yourself lapsing
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Wellness and Coping
To start controlling your stress, use the
Five Rs of Coping to improve your
level of functioning across all six
dimensions of health and wellness
 A commitment to wellness and stress
management means a commitment of
time and energy to a chosen lifestyle
 Make wellness and stress management
core values
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Chapter 11: Reorganize:
Becoming More Stress-Resistant
by Improving Your Health
Summary
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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