|
Everyone responds differently to
stressful events. That stress response is part instinct and part
to do with how we think. We can train our minds how to best respond
to the stressors in our lives.
Stress does not need to be all bad.
Some stress in our daily lives is
good and challenges us to reach even higher heights.
This is dedicated to helping people,
everywhere, to harness the stress in their lives and channel
it into something that is beneficial and positive.
Identifying Stress in your Life
Many people go through their days
not aware of the stress in their lives. They might think, Well,
how serious can it be if I don't even know it exists?
Regardless of how little or how
much stress you have in your life, being able to identify it
will be a big help to you. Once you are able to identify the
stress in your life for what it is, you can then go about the
business of dealing with it more effectively.
Make no mistake about it, if there
is stress in your life, chances are you are reacting negatively
to at least some of it.
Keep a Stress Diary
When you commit to keeping a Stress
Diary, you gain important insight into how you react to stress.
This allows you to better channel your energy into performing
as you choose to and not as the result of the unidentified stress
that has a foothold in your life.
You will begin by recording, each
day, information about the stresses you are experiencing. Your
goal will be to analyze these stresses and then better manage
them.
Here is an example of a day one
entry:
. Woke up late (alarm did not go
off)
. Got the kids off to school in an awful rush, very cranky
. Arrived to work without any breakfast, feeling like a zombie
. Short-tempered with co-workers all day
. Picked up kids from school and nearly bit their heads off
. Locked myself in my room.
. Stayed in room entire night, sleeping and watching TV, had
a bath
Your Stress Diary will better help
you to understand:
> What causes your stress in
more detail?
> Level of stress that you operate at most efficiently
> How do you react to stress? Are your reactions appropriate
and useful?
When you write your Stress Diary
each day, you will gain valuable insight that will help you to
manage stress more proactively.
So that you can best analyze your
stress, include the following information:
*Date and time of each entry
*How do you feel right now? On a
scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being miserable and 10 being ecstatic
*Record your mood on a scale of
1 - 10 with 1 being low and 10 being very happy
*Record how effective you feel you
are on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being very ineffective and 10
being highly effective
*How stressed out do you feel? On
a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being in a Zen state and 10 feeling
like you are crawling out of your skin
*What stress symptom do you feel?
*How did you handle the stress?
Analyze your Stress Diary
Commit to making daily entries into
your diary over a reasonable period of time. After a period of
about 4 weeks, you should be able to start to see patterns.
Some of your behaviors which are
provoked by stress will be repeated on a regular basis. Make
a list of those behaviors that you see most often. These will
be the stressors in your daily life you will want to learn to
control first.
Next, look at the causes of these
obvious stressors. Also, look at how well you managed them on
a day-by-day basis. When you can identify areas where you can
learn to manage your stress responses better, list those.
List all of the every day events
of your life that cause you stress and list how these events
made you feel.
By now you can see the contrast
in what events cause you the most stress compared to what events
cause you the least. You can now see at what stress level you
can function best.
Your goal now will be to lessen
the stress in your life by managing how you deal with stressful
situations and you can do this by responding to the stress in
your life in a more proactive/positive manner.
There is no better time than to
Get into Stress Management to Reduce Stress Today! Stress Reduction
is the best way to live life, stop feeling that stress and anxiety...come
and live the better life you deserve.
© Copyright 2005 Janice Pagan
Janice Pagan makes it easy to help
anyone Zap Stress out of their life. For more ways to take control
of your stress, visit us now at http://www.Better-Family.com/stress-management
|
