Stress Management Reflection

After learning about stress in this class my understanding is that, stress symptoms may be affecting your health, even though you might not realize it. You may think illness is to blame for that nagging headache, your frequent forgetfulness or your decreased productivity at work. But sometimes stress is to blame. Indeed, stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. There is a long list of serious health problems that may develop due to stress.Some include depression, diabetes, hair loss, heart disease, high blood pressure, stomach upset, sleep problems, chest pain, back pain, obesity, obsessive-compulsive or anxiety disorder, sexual dysfunction, tooth and gum disease, ulcers, cancer. Some examples on how stress can affect your behavior are overeating, under eating, angry outbursts, drug or alcohol abuse, increased smoking, social withdrawal, crying spells, relationship conflicts. When you recognize common stress symptoms, you can take steps to manage them.Like we learned in this class stress management could include physical activity, relaxation techniques, mediation, yoga, tai chi, get a massage, and even things like keeping a journal recognizing your stressors and working on them. Everyone is different so finding your own relaxation techniques will help tremendously. Throughout this course I have learned about myself that I am not the only one in the world that has stress, it is more common than I thought. I have learned that if I take the time to do breathing exercises or right a journal about my thoughts I feel a huge relief and a lot less stressed.When I have a lot do I found that if I make a list and plan ahead it helps minimize my stress. I learned that when I am in a very stressful situation or the week has added up to breaking point for me, doing breathing exercises helps me feel way more relaxed and calm. Another thing I learned about myself regarding my relationship with my boyfriend is I have become a negative thinker, due to some issues we had in the past. This causes so much stress in my life that I cannot even begin to explain. However, after taking this class I have learned many ways to cope with this and it has been a tremendous help to me and my relationship.I believe my strengths are keeping organized and motivated. If I am not organized it is a huge stressor for me. When I stay motivated I accomplish a lot more things in one day, which in return is a huge stress relief. Some areas that I show room for improvement are I need to set more weekly or monthly goals for myself instead of just long term goals, by doing this I believe I would feel more accomplished. Another area of improvement for me is I need to have more trust for my boyfriend. Forgive, forget and move on. One last improvement would be to improve my level of self discipline.The topics I related to the most or the ones that I was most interested in were body awareness, breathing exercises, the worry and anxiety chapter, goal setting, and time management. I really enjoyed the body awareness exercises because it recognizes that when stressed the body automatically tenses. Our muscles become hard, tight and tense. Holding this tension is very tiring, and hence, a feeling of fatigue can occur. If the muscular tension has no release, because of the constant stress levels and not knowing how to relax your muscles can cause strain on your body.After doing this exercise in the book I was able to recognize what tense muscles felt and looked like and what relaxed muscles felt and looked like. So now when I have tension I feel that I am better at being able to let it go through body awareness and muscle relaxation. The breathing exercises we did in class I really enjoyed doing, I was able to take this from class and apply to my daily life when I was feeling stressed. I was really able to relate to the worry and anxiety chapter because I used to have huge anxiety problems which I have had counseling to work th rough.Another chapter that interested me was the goal setting chapter because it is something that I have wanted to work on improving myself, so I loved the fact that I had the opportunity to learn more about goal setting and that it had activities in the book. Time management was another big one for me. I feel like learning more about time management helped improve my organization skills. If I was to take this class again I would like to learn more about the different stress relieving techniques. I guess not so much learn about them because we did learn about different ones, but I would have liked to practice more of them.For example, I would have liked a yoga day. I would have liked to learn about more ways to prevent stress, I felt like we learned a lot about what to do when we are stressed but not enough about what to do prevent it. Our true sources of stress aren’t always obvious, and it is way too easy to overlook our own stress-inducing thoughts, feelings, and behavior s. I don’t believe there is anything that is unclear about what we learned in class, our book did a very good job at covering stress management.I felt the books activities were very helpful and for once I bought I book for school that I will go back and refer to for future help. Now that the course has ended and I am more aware of my stressors, my plan is to continue my stress journal where I write about what causes my stress, how it made me feel both physically and mentally, how I acted in response, and what I do to make myself feel better. Also, continue to learn new healthier ways to manage my stress. Change the situation, or change your reaction. Remember the four A’s, avoid, alter, adapt, or accept.Remember my healthy ways to relax and recharge when I am overwhelmed and feeling stressed. Some of the things that work for me are, going and getting a massage, doing something with my mom or sister, playing with my daughter, taking a long bath with lots of lavender sce nt and candles, driving around and listening to my favorite music, and doing one of my many hobbies. If I am noticing that I continue to have a lot of stress I will either find a way to enjoy the situation (except the things I cannot change) or find a way to leave/change the situation.The concepts discussed in this class apply to my future career goals by being constantly stressed out and not knowing how to deal with it can cause lack of motivation. I think that my future career goals call for a lot of motivation, so it would help if the stress in my life was minimal so I could stay focused. Another topic discussed in class that could be applied to future career goals is goal setting and time management. My future career goal is to become an OB nurse, with this job there could be extra stress due to the weird hours worked and just the job it’s self.So I believe the concepts discussed in class I will be able to apply to my future career and my personal everyday life. In conclu sion, after taking this stress management class I have learned that stress has many negative impacts on the body. I learned more about myself in regards to my stressors and I learned about some things that I didn’t even realize were stressing me out. There were topics I could relate to and some I really was interested in. I will continue to write in my stress journal and find ways to help and avoid stress.

Policy development Essay

In layman’s terms, policy may be defined as a deliberate plan of action that is used to guide decisions and thereby achieve rational outcomes. There is a fallacy that policies only apply to governments. Policies may also apply to private sector organizations, groups and individuals. Difference between policy and law To a great extent, laws are used for compelling or prohibiting behaviors. Conversely, policies are used to guide actions so that the desired action may be achieved. There various types of policies. These include public, fiscal and urban policies. Consequently, policies may then be understood as the political, management and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach certain explicit goals. Involvement Various individuals and groups in society try to shape up policy by way of advocacy, education and the mobilization of interest groups. The aim of doing so is to sway the policy makers to make decisions that will be in their favor. It is all about interest at the end of the day. If particular groups in society feel it is in their interest that certain policies be made in their favor, they try as much to advocate for them by way of lobbying. According to Cohen, De la Vega & Watson, in advocacy, certain groups or individuals in society take it upon themselves to educate the public and also the policy makers about the nature of the problems, the kind of legislation required to deal with the said problems including the funding required to provide the necessary services and/or conduct research (2001). In my community located in a small town in Pennsylvania, the major issue of concern is access to clean water. Water is life so the saying goes. However, in my small community, more and more people are finding it considerably hard to access reliable and safe water. Most of the local streams where the majority of the people obtain their water from are becoming openly polluted (Clean Water Action, N. d. ). This makes the water an issue of serious concern. As an individual member of our local community organization, known as, Water is Life, involvement is usually in the following policy areas. The reason I am involved in the policy is, unless the issue is addressed sooner rather than later, it may turn disastrous. There is no life without water. Lobbying The aim is to influence our representatives to institute meaningful change (Richan, 2006). The local town council which is an arm of the government needs to make sure that clean water is availed. The mayor’s election pledge was that clean water will be provided to the residents of the community as soon as he got into office. It has been six months and the taps are still dry. Consequently, I have established that the most effective lobby methods to use so as to reach the locals are letter writing, phone calls and meetings. This way the residents stay informed on the activities that the organization is involved in. However, the use of e-mails has proved to be much faster and convenient. With the growth of information and communication technology, members of the community have access to the internet (Grassroots lobbying techniques, N. d). However, it is not only the resident of the community who have been receiving the letters, emails and phone calls but also the mayor and Governor Rendell. Advocacy Cohen, De la Vega & Watson, define advocacy as the quest of influencing outcomes that in one way or another have an effect on people’s lives (2001). Advocacy is an integral part in policy and resource allocation decision. Advocacy is necessary if the adoption of the Buffer 100 policy is to become a reality and also if the protection of the streams and provision of clean water is to be realized. Through advocacy, the community organization Water is Life, has been able to give a voice to the residents of the community. More over, it has helped to mobilize them towards a common goal. Community mobilization The single most important resource that a community may use to influence policy is the people. When the people get together, they are better able to provide solutions to their most immediate problems. As part of the mobilization efforts, I am involved in handling out of pamphlets and organizing village meetings (Handbook, N. d). However, it is important to note that all these endeavors may not be successful without some kind of education. The locals have to be clearly informed on why their participation is important. Accordingly, the community organization (Water is Life), which may be regarded to an interest group pushing for the needs of the community and the policy implementers (the town council, the Office of the Mayor and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) may be referred to as the main actors. They are the main players in this policy issue. The individuals who have mostly been affected by the policy are the residents of the community. These actors are involved in different parts of the policy development process, right from the identification of the problem all through to the evaluations stage. Issue of concern There are many people in the community who are facing the possibility of not being able to access safe water. The residents should unite and support the implementation of the Buffer 100 policy which will protect the Pennsylvania streams from pollution (Clean water Action (N. d. ). Clean water has many uses. For drinking, cooking, washing and cleaning. There is as strain on the availability of safe water because the population has increased while water sources have remained constant while some have been destroyed. It is hard to imagine what the situation will be like in a few years time with population growth. There will be more demand for clean drinking water though the supply will be next to none. While the community was able to support a smaller population in the early 1980’s comfortable with the water resource given by Mother Nature, it has become considerably hard to continue with the trend. Human activity (pollution), the clearing of forests and other water catchments areas plus the effects of global warming are all to blame (Real Estate Futurist, 2009). The Clean Water Act is the chief federal law in the United States used to govern water pollution (Ryan, 2004). The clean water issue is contained within the broader realm of environmental policies. To a great extent, the formulation of water policy heavily relies on input from numerous parties/actors; from individuals, groups, communities and policy implementers. Their main duty is to avail critical information and expertise necessary for the understanding and addressing of water provision concerns. Extent to which the issue affects a larger number of people It has already been established that clean water is an absolute necessity. Without clean water, the existence of life becomes precarious. According to United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on climate change, a massive 2 billion people will not have access to clean drinking water by the year 2050. What is even more shocking is that the number may rise to 3. 2 billion people by the year 2080 (Associated Press, 2008). For evidence and proof that indeed water has become a scarce resource one only needs to open the newspapers and /or watch news for pictures of dry barren lands and animal carcasses under the scorching sun in such parts of the world as Africa. In the US, some regions are at the limit of their fresh water supplies. One major region that is experiencing water shortage is California. It is expected that between the year 2000 and 2015, the population will have doubled up. Think of the resulting stress on the provision of clean water. The lack of water has far reaching consequences. There will be less food production. Think of the West part of America which relies on irrigation to sustain agriculture (Real Estate Futurist, 2009)? Less food production will then mean that food will become more expensive. In the US, the people who may be most affected by the lack of safe water are the very young and the old. Thus, these include children of school going age and the old people most of who live in retirement homes. More over, people from marginalized communities for instance, the Latin Americans and immigrants from other countries may be affected. In terms of gender, women may be most affected as they are the ones who are mostly charged with the duties of looking for water. More over, they perform most of the activities where water is primal such as cooking and cleaning. Nevertheless, people who are in the lower end of the income bracket will also be more affected. Think of the people in manual/temporary labor who earn less than one dollar a day. In the event of water shortage, they will not have any money to spare for the purchase of water. They may then result to using contaminated water which is a health hazard. There is need for the adoption of better policies that will guarantee better access to safe water regardless of race or social class. Conclusion Policies are deliberate plan of actions used to not only guide decision but also to achieve a logical and rational outcome in particular issues and activities. Some of today’s policy issues are to be found in the environmental, health and education sectors. The availability and provision of safe water is a serious local and global issue in the environmental realm. Individuals and groups alike are involved in advocacy and lobbying as a way of influencing actors involved in policy development and implementation such as government representatives to act accordingly. The aim is to voice the concern of the people most affected by the issues; local communities. Unless, the water issue is addressed now there will be worse things to worry about in future. References. Clean water Action (N. d. ). Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://www.cleanwateraction. org/ Clean Water. (2009). Real Estate Futurist. Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://www. realestatefuturist. com/re-environmentwater. asp Cohen, D. , De la Vega, R. & Watson, G. (2001). Advocacy for social justice. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press Inc. Experts warn of severe water shortages by 2080. (2008). Associated Press. Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://www. msnbc. msn. com/id/27781117/l Gerston, L. (1997). Public policy making: Process and principle. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Grass root lobbying techniques. (N. d. ). Retrieved March 20 2009 from http://fsalc. com/root. html Handbook: Non-formal adult education facilitators. (N. d. ). Retrieved March 20, 2009 http://www2. unescobkk. org/elib/publications/nonformal/M1. pdf Richan, W. (2006). Lobbying for social change. New York: Routledge. Ryan, M. (2004). The Clean Water Act handbook. Chicago: American Bar Association. Smith, B. (2003). Public policy and public participation: Engaging citizens and community in the development of public policy. Health Canada. Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://www. phac-aspc. gc. ca/canada/regions/atlantic/pdf/pub_policy_partic_e. pdf

Chateau de Vallois

Jennifer Xing 1. The disadvantages of Chateau de Vallois going into the cheap wine market 1) Launching a new product, and entering a new market will require large investment upfront, for doing research, hiring new staff, acquiring new land. 2) It is a risky investment since the new product market is very unfamiliar to the company. The market, competitors, consumer preference, even the climate is unfamiliar for the company. ) The launch of cheap wine may hurt the brand image of the luxury line. Consumers may feel less prestigious if they suspect that the grapes are not attended to as well as before, because the new winery took time away from taking care of the traditional land.Consumers may also suspect that the wine is made out of grapes that are used to make cheap wine, thus less willing to buy the expensive wine from the company. The advantages ) Chateau de Vallois can diversify away the financial risk of a bad year for grapes or economics depression, by having a operation in Calif ornia that is not as elastic as the luxury brand 2) With the new cheap brand, Chateau de Vallois will be able to capture a broader base of consumers. The family brand name will occupy a larger share of the wine industry. 3) The new cheap brand, if captures the young consumers, when the young look for good wines, they will be more likely to look into Chateau de Vallois’ high price wine. 2.Claire is forward looking, profit-driven, and expansionary, while Francois is traditional, reserved, and risk-averse. Gaspard can keep everybody happy by allowing Claire to set up a different brand in California, and leave the France winery to Francois. The different brand is essential not a part of Chateau de Vallois, thus Francois wouldn’t worry while Claire can still try out her business venture. 3. Three specific suggestions 1) Claire can start from scratch in California, acquire existing winery or start with a joint venture.I suggest an acquisition of existing winery, so Claire wi ll have the expertise of the existing staff members who are familiar with the estate 2) Claire must design a new brand and logo separate from Chateau de Vallois, and be listed as a subsidiary, so the new brand enjoys the benefit of the prestigious brand name, but do not necessarily hurt the brand by entering the cheap market 3) Claire should bring in staff and experts from France to train the California staff of quality control, procedures and company culture.It is after all a Chateau de Vallois brand, and what can distinguish this new brand from other wines is its Chateau de Vallois family name. 4. I agree with de Rothschild that the winery could and should expand. I do not see the new expansion as a threat to the image of the older brand, especially if the new brand is well managed with ensured high quality that can even add to the brand prestige.Johnny Walker didn’t even bother to change the name of the brand, but its colored labels are very successful, catering to a spect rum of consumers. There are many upsides of the expansion. The new brand can capture new consumer segment, the new consumers can transfer to higher end wines, and the higher end buyers might even want to drink the cheaper kind on a more daily basis instead of putting the most expensive into wine cellar.

Amazons Marketing Strategies

It also uses existing communication systems. Lastly it utilizes behaviors and mentalities. Combined, all of these aspects ensure that Amazon can grow a very successful company it also keeps it as strong as possible. Without some of these marketing strategies Amazon would not be what it is today. Throughout Amazons entire time, these have been some of the things that they have always looked for, in terms of trying to provide a great experience and market their company.Analysis: Starting off with freely proffers products and services. I think this is very important for Amazon to always have since there company relies on other companies selling on there site. Without the products and services that are sold on there site, think they would not be as successful as they are today. Amazons friendly interface provides the customers to feel like they are buying from a reliable source as well as feeling at ease while searching through the site.This is very important for Amazon, because many peo ple use it because It is so easy to buy produces from the site. Amazon as a whole scales extremely easily from large to small. This can make the company better in many different aspect. Not very many companies have this ability. Amazon exploits many products and recourses and it helps everyone. It helps the customers find what they need, it helps the companies gain popularity and helps Amazon to create a much better site as a whole.

Marketing Portfolio Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing Portfolio Project - Essay Example The company has been first in terms of innovation, quality as well as customer satisfaction in around 50 countries. The key to success for the company is its commitment towards the company-wide values (International EZUP, 2012). Mission Statement and Goals The main objective of the company is to focus towards honesty, people, customers as well as innovation. It also places greater emphasis at offering the customers with quality products and services with the objective to satisfy them and thus maintaining long-term relationship with them. Focus The main focus of the company has been upon the domestic market. However, in order to attain growth and to beat the competition it is quite imperative for International E-Z UP to shift its focus to international markets as well with advanced products thereby meeting the needs and the demands of the global marketplace. It will also focus upon providing the customers with quality products in order to ensure sustainability in the long run. In orde r to attain this objective the company can implement Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques such as Kaizen. Marketing Objective Short-Term Objectives of the Company The marketing objective of International E-Z UP for the upcoming year shall focus upon enhancement of the market share and increase of the desired levels of sales of the product. The company shall also try to enhance the customer loyalty. In order to attain this objective, it shall generate 20% of repeat business in the first year. The other marketing objective of the company shall be to escalate the brand awareness among various market segments from 10% to 30% in year one. The company shall also aim to gain at least 20 new customers by the end of the year one. It shall aim at increasing the market share in the United States market by 10% at the end of year one. Furthermore, one of the most significant marketing objectives of most of the companies is to minimize the marketing cost by substantial amount. In lieu of thi s fact, it can be mentioned that International E-Z UP shall intend to reduce the marketing cost by nearly 5% during the initial six months period. Long-Term Objectives of the Company The long-term objective of the company shall be to maintain their position as the leading name in selling instant shelters throughout the world in next five years. It shall also aim at acquiring nearly 20% of the customers of the competitors over next five years period. It shall also intend to increase the profit margin by 10% in the coming five years of operations. Attaining partnership and building collaborative relationship with numerous suppliers for smooth flow of the raw materials shall also be one of the objectives of the company. It can be stated that for the purpose of attaining the above mentioned short-term and long- term objectives, it is quite imperative for the company to prepare an adequate marketing plan. The sections below comprise pertinent analyses of the customers, the competitors, t he external environment, the marketing mix and the human resources of the company. Based upon the analyses, the paper shall intend to devise a creative marketing plan for the purpose of promoting and creating awareness about the products and the services of International

Autobiography of Rugby Player Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Autobiography of Rugby Player - Essay Example I was so afraid that I did not want to be at fault and be blamed by my teammates if the play fails. I feared to take the responsibility of helping the team because I feared to make a mistake and these were just practices. This aspect of my behavior defined all my first-year life at high school life. I stayed away from asking any question in class for I thought other students and the teacher could consider them too stupid and laugh at me. Nevertheless, I practiced daily and by the time I was home I was so exhausted. My fearful anticipation continued as I continued to be afraid to be given some playing minutes even in a situation that a player is injured even if there was daylight between the opponents and us on the scoreboard. The creams from the coaches and my colleagues made me scared how they could scream at me in the event I make a mistake. Sometimes I was the only option left for the coach at the bench and these fears came true as the scream that was coming from all sides of the pitch were so loud and many that I lost my concentration and these led me to make many more silly mistakes. But thanks to God, most of the time my mistakes did not have big impacts to the game outcome for I doubted I could ever go back to playing if another team beat us because of my mistake. Yet I often got a lot of blames and verbal lashing whenever we practiced for the mistakes I made. These situations did not help much as the only compounded my fears of playing. Luckily, I was not at fault all the times for on s ome occasions I made great plays that I was congratulated for. As I dawned on senior year of rugby, I was faced with starting positions and that made me felt like a whole changed person and helped in raising my confidence a lot. Rugby has taught me a lot over the years and the most important thing is that it taught me what it takes to succeed.     

Personal Statement for the admission of University of California

For the admission of University of California - Personal Statement Example My main motivation behind this application for admission in your University is my keen interest and experience in the field of Economics /Business major. I have completed third year in the Community College. I feel confident to seek admission in your University as the next step of the ladder of education and as the natural progression of my present academic qualifications. I hail from a business family from China. My father owned a factory and he was a watch manufacturer. He handled his business well and possessed good experience in production and marketing but the economic crisis of the 2007 was beyond the control of any prudent businessman. With such a severe jolt to the economy of the country he also suffered heavy losses and had to shut down the factory and our family budget was in shambles. Until then father used to manage everything, I did not have an idea as to what the family budget was, and suddenly we were in dire straits. At that juncture, I realized the value of money. As an inquisitive young man I began to do my own research as to why the country’s economy went haywire affecting thousands of families like us and what preventive or remedial measures would be necessary to challenge such a precarious situation. Each dollar was important, and we learnt how to prune the family budget and how to segregate the luxuries from the necessities. I was still in the high school, and the idea sprouted in my mind that the intricacies of business, the causes for rise and fall in prices and the events that led to the economic crises must be studied with a scientific approach. I broached the subject of economic theories with lots of application and got solution to some of the questions that bothered me. That was the beginning of my interest in the subject of Economics/Business. My next task was to cement my theory knowledge with real life applications. To gain practicalities of market functioning, I did my internship with an insurance company during the summer holidays in Hong Kong. Besides the experience in dealing with insurance related issues I got an opportunity to study the computer applications, as the working of the insurance company was totally computerized. Insurance companies have developed many types of packages depending on the need of various types of customers. Mostly, customers are not aware of the differentiation in different policies. Soon I developed expertise in handing insurance customers and completed the documents as per guidelines provided by my Supervisor. Though insurance business involves lots of discussions and convincing with the customers, I conclude that ultimately the issue is that of faith and mutual trust. Once the customers are convinced about the services and the end results of the products offered, they are willing to buy the policies. This internship completely changed my outlook about the application of technology in office procedures and the enormous advantages the clientele derived out of the same. Business tools and strategies have changed and are continuously on the change with rapid progress that is taking place without intermission in technology. If given an opportunity I will make it a point to make a detailed study of computer and technology applications in the insurance sector and prepare a research paper on the subject. My father was not much educated in the academic sense of the term, but he was a man of practical wisdom. He often used to say, ‘I study in the college of self-education, where my mind