Stress management was a talk delivered by speaker Rimika Chawla who is a therapist and life coach at the Institute of Clinical Hypnosis and Related Sciences. The talk was delivered on 19th of April 2019 at our ICHARS centre. 

Objectives : In this hustle and bustle of life stress is often used as a layman’s term, many have it, many talk about it, but recognising and dealing with it becomes a task everyone runs from. This 2-hour talk had strategies to help you manage your stress.

1. To tell the participants what exactly is stress. 
2. Emphasis on daily stress, which often take a toll on well being. 
3. How to look at stressors with a different perspective. 
4. Recognising what stress actually is.
5. Dealing with stress.
6. How to look at stress differently. 

Target audience : Participants consisted of adults and young adults with a non-psychology background.

Outcome : The outcomes that participants gained from the talk were as follows:

1. Understanding what is meant by stress and not confusing it for something else.
2. Knowing how to identify those stress points known as stressors in our daily lives.
3. Learned a different way to look at stressors.
4. Understanding if we really have stress.
5. Knowing the ways of how to look at stress differently and managing it.

Description : The participants and the speaker introduced themselves and then the talk began by explaining what is stress with different examples. Participants were also explained the different types of stress like eustress and distress and the difference between eustress and distress.
Participants were explained what is internal stress and environmental stress and how internal and environmental stress develop and how they affect us.
Participants were also told about stressors and daily stressors, what are they and how do these stressors occur in our daily life.
Participants were explained about the different ill effects that stress has on our brain, lungs, heart, stomach etc and how knowing about these effects on our body will help us deal with them in a better way.
Participants were also explained the connection between stress and socialising, and how when you meet your friends you share with them about your stress it helps u vent out and also diverts your mind from those stressful thoughts or situations.
Participants were thought of different ways of managing stress like focusing on your breath to divert your attention. Setting your priority list so that you know what needs to be done on a priority basis.
Participants were also told to think of a goal that they want to achieve and write it down. Then write 3 steps that they need to take towards achieving those goals. This makes them think about what they need to do to achieve their goals and then it becomes easier to work towards achieving that goal. Participants were also told about this technique where if you are too stressed about a particular thing and it is difficult to find a proper solution, then they can do a cost benefit analysis where they would be able to come to a conclusion on the basis of the pros and cons that they come up with.

Closure : The talk ended with a question answer session where in the questions that the participants had regarding the topics in the talk were answered. Feedback was taken from the participants regarding the talk.