A calming course
Class teaches students how to keep stress in check
By Alexandra Cash
Staff Writer
Many college students have many things on their minds. Classes, homework, friends and the future are just a few things that create a constant balancing act. With so many stressors present in the world today, it takes work to keep everything straight.
Taking a course in stress management at Jackson Community College may offer students new techniques for dealing with the stress that life deals out. Dr. Jim Scott, a JCC instructor, said that initiated the idea for the course about 20 years ago. He said he had been having blood pressure issues since he was 26 and thought that by helping others he could help himself.
Scott said his goal in teaching the course is to give students ways to "live more joyfully." He said he hopes that at the very least students "walk away saying that they've examined their lives and have a good understanding on how to be happy."
Scott said his students range in age from 17 to 80. He said he believes a student can have a more powerful experience if he or she has lived more life.
Jim and Kelley Emerson, husband and wife, are former students of Scott's. They both said they had many stressors in their lives such as work, three children, school and bills.
They said they entered the course hoping to learn how to organize and structure their lives so that they would have a better flow.
Kelley Emerson said class began with a few minutes of silent meditation to relax and focus. The class offered many exercises in problem solving.
"This was geared at helping us come up with creative ways to solve problems, and to remind us that there is more than one way to go about getting things done," she said.
Jim Emerson said out-of-class work consisted mostly of practicing stress management techniques and keeping results in a journal.
The Emersons said they agreed the course was the least stressful course they had ever taken. But Kelley Emerson said students have to be willing to be thorough with self-exploration and to discuss personal issues in class.
But, she said, Scott was understanding of private issues and encouraged use of hypothetical explanations.
The Emersons said they believe the course helped them, and they use some of the techniques they learned, such as mediation.
"If you have the discipline to keep applying the techniques you learn, then it is unbelievable how much this class can benefit all aspects of your life," Jim Emerson said.