Additional Lab Activities

1. List the top five stressors in your life and give coping methods for each.
2. Identify the top five hassles and five uplifts in your life. Have two family members or friends do the same. Compare the lists and discuss the differences.
3. Anticipate the common stressors for an individual in the following age groups: the 20s, the 30s, the 40s, and over; or college: freshman and sophomore, junior and senior years, first five years after college. How have stressors changed since high school?
4. Take the Type A Quiz (and Hot Reactor Quiz) in the text. Discuss Type A modifications and describe which ones you believe will work for you.
5. Create a memory bank log (special remembrance from each day) for a one-week period.
6. Elicit the relaxation response with the following two experiments. Discuss your findings

Let two hours pass since you last ate, exercised, or drank alcohol. Enlist a friend and a reliable clock with a second hand, and go to a quiet room. Sit erect, with your hands resting on your thighs. Ask your companion to apply just enough fingertip pressure on the artery of your left wrist to feel your pulse. Close your eyes and calm your mind by counting your breaths from one to ten, then start again at one. When thoughts intrude, refocus on counting your breaths.

Have your friend take your pulse during the first and eleventh minutes of the exercise. During the second and twelfth minutes, your assistant should count the number of your breaths by watching your chest rise and fall. After 12 minutes, open your eyes, and repeat the experiment by switching roles with your friend.

You'll probably find that your heart rate and respiration slowed by 10 to 20 percent while performing this exercise because of what Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School calls the "relaxation response." Studies suggest this occurs when the nervous system, under the influence of calming meditation, releases neurotransmitters, including nitric oxide and other substances that improve blood flow to the organs and reduce levels of epinephrine and cortisol. These changes also take place during normal rest, but the effects from meditation appear to be more profound.

Experiment 2

Let the relaxation effect wear off for a couple of hours, then invite a friendly dog or cat or rabbit or hamster to join you. Now stroke your pet for 12 minutes while your two-legged assistant measures your heart rate and respiration at the same intervals as before. Since clinical research shows that cuddling pets produces cardiovascular benefits similar to those of meditation, you should experience a decrease in your pulse and breathing rate just as in Experiment 1.