Keeping a Stress Management Journal
Stress can be a very difficult thing to cope with. The first step to dealing with stress is realizing you have a problem. Once you are ready to address your problem, you need to come up with a strategy to relieve your stress. The first step in this strategy should be keeping a stress management journal. In order to start this first go to any office supply store and pick up a black scientific journal. These books are a perfect size and are sturdy enough for you to make daily notes.
Stress Management Journal Entries
Once you have your journal, you are ready to begin. Start off by writing the date at the top right hand corner of the first page and then date every page after that. For the first couple entries just write down everything that is stressing you out. Keep track of this in your stress management journal for the first week. Do not change what you are doing or try to find ways to relieve your stress, this first week is supposed to give you a realistic picture of what is going on in your life that is stressing you out. After recording the first weeks activities, sit down with your stress management journal and read through it. This will give you a chance to get a real look at what is going on in your life that is causing you stress. After you have had a chance to review everything, see if you notice any patterns in activities that are causing you stress. For the second week, start trying to change your behavior to reduce your stress. Record what you are doing and when in your stress management journal. After the second week, sit down and look at your stress management journal and see if the changes you made had a positive effect. If the did, keep doing what you are doing. If not, again make changes and again write them down. The biggest help of a stress management journal is that it lets you look at what as causing you stress in context with everything else in your life while you are not stressed. This will help you to realistically try to find solutions to your stress. Be sure to be diligent in recordings as this is the key. People waste thousands of dollars when all they really need is a couple bucks and some time to record a stress management journal.
Eminence DELTA-15LFA
