The Wholeness meeting was held on January 14, 2015, to deal with stress in school. The Doctor of Medicine, director of the adult service at Loma Linda behavioral medicine center, was the guest speaker. The major objectives of the meeting were to know stress reactions and the accumulation of stress on students. The information the MD delivered was quite approving and very helpful for students to help them in their studies. The speaker informed the audience about the effects of stress. They include: causing blood platelets to clot due to change in shape from circular to spikey, compromises mild stress and person’s body’s defense mechanism, as a result of an increase in sugar and carbohydrates levels, one’s collagen and cartilage gets firmer. Serious stress affects one’s hippocampus as well as decreases a person’s short memory. Traumatic stress may lead to memory loss and lessen memory retention. Panic stress, which is commonly observed in students, kills brain cells at a low pace. Stress leads to cancer, abnormal pain, an increase in the rate of the breathing system, and a reduction of desire for sex.
The audience was advised to understand their personality. Various personalities respond to stress differently. Introverts, when depressed, isolate themselves and even have suicidal thoughts. Extraverts’ personalities relieve stress themselves by interacting with other people. Judgers’ personalities are generally activity-oriented, fast decision-makers, produce to perform lists, get their function done before taking part in, and are not really procrastinators. Perceiver’s personality mix work and entertainment together, tend to be encouraged by deadlines, appreciates liberty, tends to be explorers, and therefore is unstable. They may be more vulnerable to chronic diseases. Sleeping approximately 8 hours per night, doing exercises and some sport once a week, proper nutrition, doing what makes one happy and laughing to increase oxygen and rapid blood flow, meditating for several minutes, taking a variety of healthy diet such as a lot of fruits, taking regular breaks and sleeping, trying to see positive side can help reduce stress.