Dr. Mort Orman here, and today I want to continue explaining why I HATE online stress management courses.
In my first post this week, titled 3 Reasons Why I Hate Online Stress Management Courses, I explained how while I was searching on Google for a juicy topic to discuss this week, I stumbled upon a free stress management course that could be downloaded, edited and then deployed to help people.
After looking at the detailed Table of Contents for this 12 Module online course, I was immediately reminded of why typical stress management courses, such as this one, leave people disappointed and why they are totally inadequate to help us deal with our modern day stress.
The first three reasons I gave for HATING such courses were these:
- They provide little that is new or terribly helpful;
- They continue to perpetuate myths and misconceptions about stress which actually keep people from learning how to deal with their stress more effectively; and
- They just continue to recirculate old, worn out advice, sometimes by repackaging it under clever, alluring new names.
Today, I want to give you four more reasons why I HATE these types of unhelpful, overrated, online stress management courses.
Reason #4: Too Much Focus On Relaxation Techniques
Another full Module of the free online stress management course which I stumbled upon on the web is devoted to singing the praises of using daily relaxation techniques.
The authors encourage us to find a “relaxation sanctuary” where we can go to practice our relaxation strategies daily.
They also encourage us to listen to relaxing music, and they even throw in an extra tip of “seeing the humor” in most things that happen in life.
I actually did find this last tip pretty humorous, but not in the way the authors intended.
The problem with relaxation techniques is that they’ve been “sold” to stressed out Americans for decades now, and our stress levels just keep rising.
Either people don’t have the time or dedication to practice these techniques on a regular basis, or even when they do, relaxation techniques are incapable of relieving the lion’s share of their stress.
Perhaps they are good for temporarily settling yourself down, whenever you are experiencing acute bouts of stress, but as far as being powerful solutions for you overall stress problems, they leave much to be desired.
Reason #5: Yoga, Breathing And Meditating Aren’t Cures Either
Another problem I find with most stress management courses is that they talk about yoga, deep breathing, meditating, and “being in the moment” as being the very best things we can do to help us reduce our stress.
I disagree.
While all of these practices, many of which have been used for thousands of years, are good and healthy for us, none of them, either alone or in combination, is the ultimate cure for our modern day stress.
Yes, they can be helpful.
Yes, they can help us temporarily feel more centered, grounded and relaxed.
And yes, many forms of meditation can help us “retrain” our minds and get more focused in the “here and now.”
But they still mainly deal with just the symptoms of our stress, so they don’t help us identify and deal with its underlying causes.
This is my big beef with most stress management courses, and this free one I ran into is no exception.
Reason #6: Coping With Major Adverse Events
There is a Module in this free stress management course that offers you advice on how to cope with major adverse life events, which can obviously be very stressful.
Want to know the type of “wisdom” this Module doles out?
First you are told to make sure you have a good support system.
Then you are advised to “create a plan” for how you will cope, well in advance of something bad really happening.
And finally, you are told that you should know when to ask for help.
There you go! Now don’t you feel much better…and so much more prepared.
The problem with this type of superficial advice is twofold: 1) it’s all easier said than done; and 2) it totally ignores the fact that you need to be a pretty resilient person in the first place, if any of these coping strategies are truly going to help you.
Yes, support systems are great to have, and planning in advance can help reduce many types of stress. Also, asking for help when you need it is a very powerful strategy.
But being resilient in the face of life’s painful adversities is not something you get from a course, especially a very superficial course such as this one.
You develop true resilience by adopting a whole bunch of resilient philosophies about life and then living and acting from these philosophies for months, years and even decades.
Then, when something big and bad happens to you, you already have the resilient frame of mind to deal with it courageously and calmly.
Reason #7: Low Value, Weak Suggestions
Last on my list (for today) of additional reasons why I HATE online stress management courses is all the low value, weak and horribly unhelpful suggestions they just can’t keep themselves from making.
Here’s one of my favorites—“keep a stress log.”
Tip top advice (sarcastically). Just write down all the things that stress you every day and miraculously you’re stress levels will gradually dwindle away to nothing.
Poppycock I say.
Here’s another piece of very weak advice—identify your stressors and then create a plan.
Is this coping strategy really going to keep you from regularly feeling stressed?
Maybe if you get stressed once a month or twice a year, this advice might be helpful.
But if you feel stressed every day, or if you have to deal with major recurring stressful problems in your life, you better do a heck of a lot more than simply write down all your stressors.
You better learn how to think differently about your stressors and gain deeper insights into why they stress you out, when they don’t for other people.
If you want to write things down to help you remember some of the profound philosophical insights you gain from deep and accurate self-reflection, either arrived at on your own or with the help of other people, that’s great.
But please don’t think that simply writing your stressors down, or keeping any type of stress log, minus the deep personal self-examination that is usually required, is going to do you any good at all.
What’s Coming Next
In my first two posts this week, I’ve taken each of the 12 Modules in the free online stress management course I stumbled upon, and have given you seven reasons why I think they are all mostly filled with nonsense.
In my final post for this week, I’m going to stop talking about this one course, and I’ll give you five good reasons why you may want to avoid all online stress management courses for the rest of your life.
Until then…
To your health, happiness and success,
Dr. Mort Orman, M.D., International Speaker, Author And Founder Of The Stress Mastery Academy | http://DocOrman.com
GET THIS FREE REPORT SENT TO YOU VIA EMAIL
You'll also hear Dr. Orman talk to you directly about his excellent stress mastery introductory training program.
