Rough+Draft+2

__Symptoms:__ Sore, tense, and aching muscles Stomach in horrible knots Depression and anxiety Weakened immune system Lack of motivation and alertness High blood pressure Infertility Panic attacks Vomiting Heart attack (Suffer from stress, Check-up, Relaxation) __Diagnosis:__ Stress Stress is a buzz word in modern-day America. Whatever the source, stress can have serious, and often unexpected, side effects on mental, emotional, and physical health. Medical Scientist and Stress Expert, Dr. Paul Rosch remarks "Stress is taking a terrible toll on the nation’s health and economy. It is a heavy contributor to heart disease, cancer, respiratory distress, lupus and many other life threatening illnesses. (Suffer from stress)” Physically, stress weakens the body's defenses against serious diseases (suffer stress), and is found by the American Medical Association to be a factor in over 75% of illnesses (suffer). Emotionally, stress hormones are proven to trigger depression (suffer), and lead to anxiety (Carey). Mentally, stress can impair focus and concentration (suffer, carey).  I will give one small anecdote from my own life. My friend Abby has had problems with acne for most of high-school, and has tried all the creams and medications under the sun. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to cure her acne, and she has been working on accepting her ski, pimples and all. Abby has also been under an inordinate amount of stress related to college plans. All throughout the weeks before she was scheduled to hear back from her top schools, she had the same nightmare, night after night, about being rejected. She described waking up in the wee hours of the morning in a cold sweat, heart pounding out of her chest, face burning hot, and being unable to get back to sleep. Last week Abby heard back from her top schools and made the final decision on where to enroll. If you look at her face now, you would not see a spot of acne. On a smaller scale, in the town of Newton, Massachusetts where I live – a wealthy suburb of Boston – there is a particularly worrisome stress problem among high-school students. The most recent Newton Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 2008-2009 (which is given out every two years), illuminates this alarming problem. 72.3% of high-school students - close to 3 out of 4 students - rated their life as somewhat or very stressful (Risk Survey). 67.6% of students reported that they worry about school issues often or almost every day, 41.4 students worry about social issues often or almost every day, 36.4% worry about family issues often or almost every day, and 39.0% worry about appearance issues often or almost every day (Risk Survey). Percentages of depression and suicide related issues are alarmingly, but not surprisingly high, when view in light of the fact that stress makes people more susceptible to depression and anxiety. 18.4% of students reported being depressed in the past 12 months, with 8% seeking medical help or prescription medication of depression in that time., and 11.6% hurt themselves on purpose in the past 12 months. Even more frightening are the statistics concerning suicide. 9.3% of students seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months, with 7% making a plan to commit suicide, and 2.6% attempting to commit suicide in the past 12 months. Statistics like these can be daunting, and seemingly insurmountable. However, the only hope for change is in a concrete plan of action to combat such widespread stress in this population, and all of the mental, emotional, and physical ailments that come in tandem. My plan of action is focused on Newton North High School, a wealthy high-school in Newton, Massachusetts, in the hopes that it can serve as a model for other high-schools in Newton, and even for high-schools in America. As a student at Newton North for four years, I have experienced first-hand and witnesses in my peers the immense and consuming stress that comes from a variety of sources such as schoolwork, college pressure, family, friends, relationships and body image; the type of stress than can slowly but surely widdle away one's physically, mental, and emotional stability. My plan of action to help students at Newton North derives from a new discipline called Positive Psychology. This advent of psychology is based on identifying and fostering strengths, as opposed to identifying and dealing with individual weakness. It focuses on fostering well-being on an individual and community level. A major component of Positive Psychology is called Flow. Flow is best described by the leading pioneer of flow research, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, as "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it (Go w/ flow article)." . My action plan entails Newton North students increasing the amount of Flow in their daily lives. This will help students decrease stress related to the primary stressors in the lives, which are school, relationships, and college. Before delving deeper into the intriguing topic of flow, and how it can help high school students with stress, it is important to understand the context in which flow is most often applied. The context is that of Positive Psychology. **Positive Psychology** In the mid-1980s, a man named Martin Seligman was weeding the garden of his spacious Philadelphia home, accompanied by his five-year-old daughter Nikki. Martin, being a very practical and goal-oriented man, became quickly annoyed to find his young daughter gleefully throwing weeds up into the air and twirling around. Martin proceeded to yell at her and the girl quickly walked away, only to come back moments later. The subsequent conversation proceeded as followed: “Daddy, I want to talk to you.” “Yes, Nikki?” “Daddy, do you remember before my fifth birthday? From the time I was three to the time I was five, I was a whiner. I whined every day. When I turned five, I decided not to whine any- more. That was the hardest thing I've ever done. And if I can stop whining, you can stop being such a grouch. (Oxford handbook 2002, 4)" This conversation ignited a spark in the mind of Martin Seligman, a spark that recalibrated the path of psychology in the decades to come.  From the end of World War II up until the late 1980s, the primary concern of psychology was pathology, disease, mental illness (ox 2002). This was a mammoth up-taking, an admirable task. And in this time, massive strides were made. 14 identified mental disorders became treatable, and two curable (TED, seligman). However, in the first years of Martin Seligman's presidency at the American Psychological Association, the aforementioned exchange with his daughter convinced him that this was not nearly enough. Psychology had lost sight of two of its most fundamental goals: increasing fulfillment and productivity in the average person's life, and fostering genius and high talent (ox 2002). Seligman believed that psychology should be as concerned with human strength as with human weakness, as concerned with human flourishing as with human suffering, and as concerned with positivity and optimism as with negativity and pessimism (Happiness article). In __1988__, Martin Seligman put this beliefs into action by founding the discipline which he called positive psychology (find reference). He sought to add a new chapter of positivity, optimism, strength, and flourishing to the study of psychology. In Seligman's own words, "the main purpose of positive psychology is to measure, understand, and then build the human strengths and the civic virtues. (psych packet)" A formal definition of positive psychology is "the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. (psych packet)." The fundamental difference between conventional psychology (from the mid 1940s to the 1980s) and positive psychology is often portrayed through the number-scale analogy (TED Seligman). From the mid-1940s to the late 1980s, conventional psychology's major aim was helping people move from the negative numbers (representative mental disease, pathology, trauma, etc and) to zero (representative of freedom from mental disease, pathology, trauma, etc.). However, Seligman himself noted that even once the venerable and arduous task of freeing someone from mental illness is accomplished, the patient clearly leads a contented and fulfilled life afterwards, but is rather fairly empty. In contrast, positive psychology's major aim is helping people progress from zero to the positive (no pun intended) numbers. Its aim is to liberate people from relatively empty lives, by focusing on and fostering their strengths to add increased fulfillment, purpose, and productivity to people's lives. More specifically, the aim of positive psychology is often describe through the analogy of the "three lives" (TED seligman). The first life is the Pleasant Life which entails an abundance of positive emotions, of ebullience and enthusiasm about life (TED seligman); It is about filling one's life with as many pleasures as possible and savoring those pleasures (Ibid).The second is the Engaged Life, which entails using ones strengths in daily life and being fully involved, captivated by, and engaged in daily pursuits, such as work, relationships, and hobbies (Heart of coaching, 235). The third and final life is the Meaningful Life, which entails using ones strengths and abilities in the name of something larger than oneself, such as religion, education, technology, or social justice (TED seligman). Intensive, scientific studies have shown that obtaining the latter two lives of engagement and meaning come in tandem with increased ratings of overall life satisfaction (ibid). The Pleasant Life can increase overall life satisfaction, but only when an individual already has the other two lives (TED sel). In Seligman's own words, "where pleasure matters, is if you have both engagement and you have meaning, then pleasure's the whipped cream and a cherry." Thus, the ambitious goal of positive psychology is to find scientific ways to help individuals and communities increase overall happiness and well-being through the attainment of the Pleasant Life, the Engaged Life, and the Meaningful Life. **Flow** The cornerstone of the Engaged Life is flow. As previously mentioned, a man named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has been the pioneer of flow research and authority on the state of flow for over 35 years, conducting admirable research on thousands of subjects world-wide (heart of coaching). Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it (Go w/ flow article)." There are three major conditions that precipitate entering in the flow state. First and foremost, the individual must be obediently challenged: not over-challenged and anxious, or under-challenged and bored. The level of one's capabilities should match her challenges, and in order to experience the greatest amount of flow, one's skills and challenges should be above the individuals normal level concerning the task at hand (ox, 195). The next condition, is that there must be clear proximal goals (Ibid). It should be clear to the individual, from moment to moment, what goals they are aiming to achieve; the individual should know in each moment what they want to accomplish next. The final condition is bad the actor receives instant feedback - from any source, internal and external - concerning how they are progressing in relation to their goals. When all three of these characteristics are present in a given moment, one embarks upon the wonderful and intriguing path of flow (Ibid). In the words of Csikszentmihalyi, "...in flow there is no need to reflect, because the action carries us forward as if by magic. (flow, 54)" When one enters flow, there are six main characteristics of this subjective experience. To begin, the individual feels fully involved in the moment, completely engaged, concentrated, and not distracted. Second, is the "merging of the action and awareness (ox, 195)." In flow, one is using all of his energy, all his attention, all his skill, all his brain power for the task at hand. There is no room left over for the unrelated thoughts and doubts that typically assault our consciousness throughout the day (flow, 54). And because of this, the actor essentially becomes one with the action. The description of a rock climbing poet about how he feels while climbing and writing poetry, beautifully conveys the merging of action and awareness: "the justification of climbing is climbing, like the justification of poetry is writing...The purpose of flow is to keep on flowing, not looking for a peak or utopia but staying in the flow. It is not a moving up but a continuous flowing; you move to keep the flow going. There's no possible reason for climbing except climbing itself (flow, 54)." The next condition is the loss of self-consciousness (ox, 195). This characteristic is based off of the same principle as that of the previous characteristic, which is that attention is so acutely concentrated on the task at hand that there is no room left over for relevant thoughts. Thus, the loss of self-consciousness entails that there is no room left over to think about oneself beyond the actions of the present moment. To quote the rock climbing poet again, "it's like any egoless thing, in a way. (flow, 63)" The next characteristic in the feeling of complete control over one's actions. This arises from the feeling that one "knows how to respond to it ever happens next (ox, 196)." The fifth condition is a distorted sense of time, meaning that time seems to move either much quicker or much lower than normal (ox, 196). In the majority of cases however, people feel that time moves much faster, rather that much slower, than they typically experience it moving (ibid). For example, often times when I am creating enlargements (pictures) of my negatives in the darkroom, I become so wrapped up in the process that when I happen to glance up at the clock after what I believe is about 15 minutes, an hour or two has passed. Last, but certainly not least, is that the activity is intrinsically rewarding (ibid). This means that the individual enjoys the task at hand purely for the sake of doing said activity. She is not doing it for any external reward, such as money, good grades, praise, or popularity, but simply because she wants to. **Student's Stress** The big question here is how can increasing the amount of flow in daily life help Newton North High School students with stress. From the aforementioned statistics, is it clear that there is an alarming stress problem, as well as connected depression and suicide problem, among Newton's high school population. However, one is not able to conclude that these statistics are applicable to the students specifically at Newton North, as there are multiple high-schools, public and private, in many different locations, of Newton. My first task was to measure the average level of stress of Newton North student specifically. The tool I used was a survey. The purpose of my survey was to measure the average of and frequency of stress in this population, as well as the average amount of flow in student's lives. I designed a 14 question survey, with 12 multiple-choice questions and to open response. The survey was thoroughly reviewed and revised by five intelligent staff members at Newton North, including one who has had much direct experience creating scientific surveys. In addition, I had around 15 students the survey, specifically for clarity and conciseness. I transferred my final survey online at www.surveymonkey.com, and linked it to the school's library website. As an incentive for students to take the survey, I bought candy, and put up signs throughout the library advertising that students could take a piece of candy from the library desk after they have completed the survey. I collected surveys for approximately two weeks (the first two weeks in April, 2011), until I had accumulated a total of 100 surveys. As with any scientific endeavor, there is an abundance of strengths in addition to weaknesses. Some of the major strengths of the survey are the clarity and conciseness of the survey do to its review by a variety of people in Newton North community, and with a large number of surveys that were completed. One major weakness of the survey is the setting in which it was taken. Although the library attracts a wide variety of students from the school community, there's no way to be sure that there are certain types of students who oh do not use the library for one reason or another. Another possible weakness is the time of the year when the data was being collected, which was the first two weeks in April. For any number of reasons, the average reports of stress and flow may vary in students depending on time of year. However, overall due to the care with which the survey was created and registered, the results can be viewed as a fairly representative glance at the average levels of stress and flow in the lives of Newton North students. The results regarding stress in students' lives were, although distressing, not surprising in the context of the stress statistics of the town of Newton. One third of the students reported feeling stress seven days of the week, two thirds of the students feeling stress 5 to 7 days per week, and not one students reported feeling stress zero days per week. In response to the question "what is your average stress level per day?" on a scale of 1 to 5, one being not stressed, three being somewhat stressed, and five being fully consumed by stress, 48% reported being somewhat stressed, and 81% reported being between somewhat stressed and fully consumed by stress inclusive. In addition, 78% of students reported that it would be between somewhat and extremely important inclusive, to decrease the amount of stress in their lives. These results paint the picture of a significantly and frequently stressed population who would welcome assistance. The two open response questions on the survey inquired upon the source of stress and the ways that students cope with stress. The first open response question reads: "If you feel stressed, what is the most common source of your stress? List one source only." The responses were analyzed, and put into four different groups. If less than 3% of students gave a certain response, it was put into the "other" category. The "school" category includes responses related to topics at school, as well as homework from school. Example of such responses are "schoolwork", "homework", "tests", "grades", and "final exams". The next category is "college", and includes responses such as "college decisions", and "college." The final category is "relationships", and includes responses such as "parental expectations", "my dad", and "relationship issues." There were 5% of students in the college category, 12% in the relationships category, 15% in the other category, and 68% in the school category. It is clear that the vast majority of students, over two thirds of students, find school related issues to be the primary stressor in their lives. The next open response question reads: "What is the way most often cope with stress? List only one way." On this open response question there was much more variation in responses. There are 11 total categories of responses that at least 3% of the students made. At least 8% of the students were classified in each of the top six categories. The "other" and "exercise" categories are tied for most frequent response with 19%. Next is the "music" category with 16%, then the "sleep" category with 11%, the "finish my work" category with 10%, and the "being with other people" category with 8%. The next question reads: "Rate how much you agree with the statement below: once I have used my coping strategy, my stress is fully relieved." On a scale of 1 to 5, one being "strongly disagree", three being "neutral", and five being "strongly agree", only 38% of students responded with a four or five, and the remaining 62% responded between strongly disagree and neutral, inclusive. Although students report a wide variety of ways in which they deal with stress, and 38% report their coping strategies successful, is clear from the aforementioned statistics that these individual coping strategies are far from enough. If the students' strategies were truly effective, the survey would not show 66% of students feeling stress 5 to 7 days of the week, and over 80% of students reporting an average stress level between somewhat stressed and fully consumed by stress, inclusive. The big question here is how can increasing flow in daily life, help these students with stress. As 75% of students report their major sources of stress as either school, relationships, or college, I will focus on how increasing flow can help decrease stress related to each of these areas, and end with how flow can help decrease stress in general. And as the major stressor, reported by a whopping 68% of students, is school related issues, that is the first area I will tackle. School and tests and grades, oh my! School and tests and grades! Over two thirds of Newton North students reported that school related issues were the primary source of their stress. In many ways this is very unfortunate. At Newton North High School there are an infinite amount of opportunities compared most high-schools in the nation. Due to high taxes, Newton North got an almost $200 million spanking new building with all the material resources a high-schooler could dream of, such as numerous computer labs, incredible science equipment, gorgeous art studios, and state of the art athletic facilities. The staff is highly capable and the administration is extremely accepting promotes love of learning and diversity, and is non-tolerant of bullying and other dangerous behavior. In this wonderful, optimistic, and supportive environment, with an abundance of resources, it is unfortunate that the primary stressor of the majority of students at Newton North rate school as their principal stressor. The hope for decreasing stress related to school is to transform students' relationship to school and schoolwork. These students are at school for close to seven hours each day, and spend an average of x hours each day on school work (Get HW survey from Mr.Klem). During school weeks kids spend close to X hours each week at school and doing homework, which that is way too much time to spend on an area that is your primary stressor. Short of education reform, which is a very complicated and often slow-moving process over which most students have minimal control, the main way to decrease school stress lies in transforming the relationship student's have to school and homework. And flow can do just that. If students increase the amount of flow they have while at school and while doing homework, they will be significantly more likely to experience the plethora of benefits of flow find school and schoolwork engaging and intrinsically rewarding, and feel self-assured, in control, and that time flies, while at school and doing schoolwork. Students can increase the likelihood of experiencing flow by gaining a knowledge of the three major conditions for flow, and reorienting their time at school and time doing schoolwork in order to maximize those conditions. If the conditions of activities that appropriately challenge existing skills, clear proximal goals and feedback, are maximized, the opportunity for experiencing flow is significantly increased. Here is one example of how students can increase the conditions of flow while at school. My friend Anna has never been interested in Math. As she finds the material very boring and completely useless in the context of her own life, she has immense difficulty paying attention during class. And because she can't pay attention, she always has trouble doing her homework. And because of the trouble doing her homework, she never does well on tests. And because she never does well on tests, she feels even less motivated to pay attention in class. However, Anna could increase the conditions of flow in her math class to help break this vicious cycle. First, she can establish clear proximal goals in class. For each class period she can decide what she would like to get done, and break up her larger goal into smaller segments throughout the class. For example, if her larger goal is to figure out a challenging problem, she could select problems of graded difficulty to work on throughout class in hopes of ultimately making it to the challenging problem. Next, she could establish forms of consistent feedback in class. If possible, she could meet with the teacher and request that he gives her personal feedback throughout class on her progress. In addition, as she is working on problems throughout class, she could check her answers to problems with the answer key in the back of the math textbook. Finally, she can try to make sure that in class her existing abilities for math are stretched, but not over challenged by the material. If she finds consistently that regardless of the effort she puts in each day, she simply cannot perform well in class, she should consider switching to a different level of math that more appropriately challenges her existing abilities. Once students have incorporated these conditions in their day, they are much more likely to experience flow during these activities. And if students increase the amount of flow they have while at school and while doing homework, they will be significantly more likely to experience the plethora of benefits of flow. They will find school and schoolwork engaging and intrinsically rewarding, feel self-assured and in control, and feel that time flies while at school and while completing schoolwork. All of these benefits of flow will counter-act the harmful effects of stress. The next prevalent stressor among this population is college. There are two major ways that increased flow can help students with related stress. The first way is increasing contentment in the present moment, and the second is by helping students think about what would truly make them happy in the future. Although just 5% of students report college as their primary stressor, it is certainly a concern for the majority of high school students as well, since the vast majority of Newton North students move onto college after high-school. In addition, it is connected to school related stress, as many people feel stress and pressure to do well in school as they must meet certain guidelines in order to get into the colleges of their choice. As students go to high school before college, when high school students worry about college, they are clearly worrying about something in the future. The first way that increased flow can help with this future oriented stress is by helping students to find more contentment in the present moment. Flow is often referred to as "the psychology of optimal experience," which essentially means that it is the scientific study of the best possible moment, of the ideal experience. When students are ruminating about college decisions and plans, or any other college related issues, and making themselves sick by filling their body with unhealthy, anxious energy, they become completely out of touch with the present moment. The worry, anxiety, and even depression that they feel pervades their mind and being, so that they are distracted from what is actually happening in the present. The first way that flow can help with this type of stress is to help them reclaim a positive relationship with the present moment, therefore breaking chains of the of the relationship they are currently experiencing to the future. If in moment such as these, when students find themselves overwhelmed with useless worry about college plans, they turned their attention to an activity which they know can cause them to experience flow, they will be at once liberated from worry about the future and able to reclaim a happy, healthy, and grateful relationship to the present moment. Much of college anxiety derives from the fact that many people do not know exactly what they would like to do in the future. It can be hard to reconcile between the activities that one truly enjoys an integral work in activities that they feel pressured by any number of sources, such as society or family or friends, to partake in. A very common example is that many people feel the obligation to embark upon a path that in college that will lead them to have a job with a certain, steady income, regardless of whether they will enjoy that job in the future. This is where flow can have a tremendously important and positive impact in the lives of students. If students can identify areas and activities in which they regularly feel they strong sense of flow, whether that is music, science, being with other people, or being in nature, they can use that as a template from which to think about what types of jobs would make them lastingly happy, and from there, what type of college would best meet not only their needs to obtain their ideal job, but would help them obtain a strong sense of flow throughout college. As funny as it may seem, the way that flow can help decrease stress related to the next primary stressor, relationships, is the same for that of school. Students can decrease stress related to relationships by incorporating the three primary conditions for flow into their relationships with family and with friends. The first condition is clear goals within the family or between friends. There should be long-term goals as well as short-term goals (Csikszentmihalyi, p. 2008, 180). Within a family, that could be the long-term goal of maintaining strong religious values, a strong sense of acceptance within the family, or high-level education for the children. Short-term goals within a family could be eating dinner together on Saturday night, or going to the park on Sunday. Long-term goals in a friendship could be remaining honest with one another or helping each other with problems. Short-term goals could be going to one friend's dance recital or helping a friend a plan her Halloween party. Goals such as these are necessary to remind people in the relationship of the importance and purpose of the union. The next is clear feedback between members of the relationship. It is necessary that members of the relationship feel comfortable providing feedback related to the goals of the relationship (Csikszentmihalyi, p. 2008, 181), so that others in the relationship understand how their friend or family member is feeling and can adjust their own behavior accordingly. For example, if a long-term goal of the families to be honest with one another, it is necessary that a teenager feels comfortable telling their parents or siblings when they have a problem that they need help with, even if they know their parents or siblings may not approve. Without this communication, the family risks falling apart, and becoming disjointed as the members are not comfortable sharing how they feel. This works similarly in friendships. If a long-term goal of Mary and Michele's relationship is to be accepting of one another, it is necessary that Michelle feels comfortable telling her friend when she feels that Mary is being judgmental, and not accepting her in some way. Lastly, it is important that the relationship possess consistent challenges that enable the relationship to grow (Csikszentmihalyi, p. 2008, 182). If the relationship does not possess challenges, the members will become bored and likely view the relationship as an unexciting chore. For example, Mary and Michele could consistently challenge each other to share problems they're facing in any arena of life, no matter how much embarrassment or discomfort they feel related to the issue. In a family, members could continually challenge each other to try new activities together that no member of the family has tried before. In conclusion, increased flow can help Newton North students decrease stress related to the three primary stressors of school, relationships, and college. Both school and relationship related stress can be decreased through increasing the three major conditions of flow in these aspects of life. Flow can decrease stress related to college through helping students increase contentment the present moment and helping them think about what would truly make them happy in the future.
 * Introduction**