the solution to stress

Stress Diary JournalA Self-Help tool to effectively manage your stress

‘How can you deal with it if you do not know what it is!’

Stress demands affect each one of us differently and we respond and react in our own unique way. The skills and strategies we have at our disposal help us make the most of our situation and we try to cope as best as we can.

Sometimes this though, is not enough and we feel excessively overwhelmed, and cope by using what we have learnt along the way, be it good or bad. At times we even refuse to acknowledge we may have reached ‘burnout’.

All the warning signals can be evident, yet we may tend to ignore this and press on, based on our beliefs, our motivations and the demands we have to conform to. It may become bewildering and confusing to determine what it is that is stressing us, and worse still, what to do about it…

www.stressdiaries.com

What is a Stress Diary? How can it help & Why would I need it?

Stress has become synonymous with our normal life and seems such a natural partit. It accompany us every day in different forms and situations. Distinguishing whatis essential to motivate us to do things, in contrast to the ever infringing hiddendemands placed on us or that we place upon ourselves, is the delicate balancingact of Managing stress.

The truth is though, that managing stress is a daily process, in every thought,situation and action. It becomes a skill mastered and practiced regularly and fromthis competency, it truly becomes stress ‘managing’.

So, how would using a Stress Diary Journal help in managing my stress better?Easy – as shown in the uniquely designed and top recommended stressmanagement tool by stress professionals, it shows you exactly: where you stress,when you stress, what you are stressing about, who you stress with, how youstress and more importantly why you stress.This is essential to know, for ‘is it not logical to identify it before you can deal withit?’



With this interactive, self help tool, the stress diary journal,your competence at managing your stress becomes so mucheasier. It is invaluable.

By using a Stress Diary Journal and doing your daily entries forthe 4 week period, you will become so much more aware ofthe impact stress has on you, as an individual. As we allexperience stress in a totally unique and different way and ona different level, both on a daily and long-term basis, thisDiary Journal becomes a personal and confidential insight intohow you think about, react, respond and adapt to stressfulevents.

Once you start your daily entries you’ll begin to see theconnections between your stress symptoms, the source ofyour stress, your awareness of your coping skills, your stresstriggers and its impact on your behaviour and you as a person.

This is the Solution


What does the Diary Journal do for me?

Stress Diaries are important for understanding the causes of short-term stress inyour life. They also give you an important insight into how you react to stress, andhelp you to identify the level of stress at which you prefer to operate. The ideabehind Stress Diaries is that on a regular basis, you record information about thestresses you are experiencing, so that you can analyse these stresses and thenmanage them. This is important because often these stresses flit in and out of ourminds without getting the attention and focus that they deserve.

As well as helping you capture and analyse the most common sources of stress inyour life, Stress Diaries help you to understand:• The causes of stress in more detail;• The levels of stress at which you operate most effectively; and• How you react to stress, and whether your reactions are appropriate and useful.

Stress Diaries, therefore, give you the important information that you will identifyand know, that is causing you stress. It also allow you to see your stress inperspective, including the ability to see the bigger picture and yet reflect on themore intense details, to highlight difficulties, problems and explore alternativeoptions.


How to use it

Stress Diaries are useful in that they gather information regularly and routinely, over aperiod of time. This helps you to separate the common, routine stresses from those thatonly occur occasionally.

They establish a pattern that you can analyse to extract the information that you need.These patterns are essential. Your individual entries or stressful incidents may be seen asisolated incidents, but then these isolated incidents may occur more frequently or regularlyover a period of time.

When you complete your entries the pattern where these incidents keep appearing will bemore evident, and may alert you to take heed. Detecting these patterns may also prove tobe a different story entirely. They could indicate ingrained behavioural or ‘acquired’personality characteristics or learnt behaviours that is contributing to your stress.

These could be things you do without being consciously aware that you are doing it.Examples may be getting particularly angry when your stress overwhelm you and its effectsmay render you angry for extensive periods of time, being in a bad mood for no apparentreason, or worse, when you are regarded as having an aggressive personality.Others may include the tendency to show negative self-esteem or placing a negative selfworth on yourself – and therefore not attempting to achieve much.


It may include having persistent negative thoughts, keeping yourself back inthe process and possibly become more depressed, or you may succumb tobeing controlled or manipulated because you do not want to assert yourself,and others may take advantage of this.

Of particular concern could be the value system and beliefs you havedeveloped or learnt and by analysing and reflecting on the stressful incidentsyou record, how you think about and what you tell yourself, including howyou reacted and responded to it, may lay these beliefs bare.

It might surprise you to find out, in black and white that you are notresponsible for your stresses, and that you can change things. It could simplymean a regular ‘software update’ – and your stress diary will show this.

So isn’t it worth spending a few minutes a day observing and writing downyour stress-related symptoms if it will help you feel more at ease now? Duringthe next 4 weeks you will focus on the kinds of stress you can control andhow to eliminate it, avoid it, and cope with it so you feel happier, healthierand more relaxed.


Using the Stress Diary:How the Diary is set out

To determine your Stress levels, a Stress Assessment Test is included in thisStress Journal Diary, with a scoring key for you to use. The Diary/Journal isdivided into a 4 week cycle as a Stress Reduction and awareness programme.

Each week has 7 days – from Monday to Sunday. Each week has a Daily StressRecording page and an accompanying Stress Analysis Page – plus a page toadd your personal notes or thoughts about your day or progress.

Your Stress Diary Journal have these sections laid out for you and you are tosimply complete the information and entries on a regular and daily basis.Each week is summarised and your stress incidents that you have recordedare analysed to determine stressors, patterns of stress occurrences, your skillstraining needs, your coping strategies, your stress reduction progress andyour overall progress.Each week is then compiled into a full monthly summary, and anaccompanying graph to highlight your weekly and overall monthly progress.


How to complete your entries

Make an entry in your diary after each incident that is stressful enough for you to feel that it is significant. Record the following information:

• Time of day: Include the time of day that you are feeling stressed. Be conscientiousabout this. You can find a companion Daily Recorder Stress Journal in a handy small size,to carry with you and record your entries in your stress diary journal just after the event. •Intensity of stress: Rate from 1 (very little stress) to 10 (extreme stress).

• What was the situation: Identify the situation that caused you stress. Attempt to be asprecise as you can. Was it the annoying comment from a co-worker or were you stuck in atraffic jam?

• What was the preceding event: Perhaps you have woken up late, or you are late to ameeting, or have an impending deadline – and you just didn’t need that traffic jam or theannoying comment from your co-worker. Sometimes the preceding cause (rather than theactual situation – e.g., the annoying comment) can be the cause to get a stress reactionfrom you. Remember that stress is often how the situation is perceived – so if you can,attempt to identify the thoughts underlying the stressful situation or preceding event.

Continued >>


• How did you react/respond: Here you can describe how you responded. Forexample, did you react to the annoying comment from the co-worker or seethe situation as an opportunity to practice your breathing exercises? How areyou currently coping with each of the causes of stress?

• What were your symptoms: Were your heart racing, did your breathingspeed up, or perhaps you got a tension headache? These are examples ofsome physical symptoms of stress. Alternatively you may notice that you havedifficulty concentrating, adopt a more negative outlook or feel more anxiousand fearful. These are some of the psychological and emotional symptoms ofstress.

• How effective was your behaviour: Did you get the desired results? Did youact appropriately or could you have changed your behaviour?How could you have reacted/behaved: Was your response justified? Howwould you react in a similar situation in the future.

How to complete your entries


Analysing your Stress DiaryAnalyse the diary in the following ways:

• First, look at the different stresses youexperienced during the time you kept your diary. Youwill become aware of the types of stress that youexperienced by frequency.• You will note that those stressors that regularlyappear are the most important for you to learn tocontrol.• Working through the stresses, look at yourassessments of their underlying causes, and yourappraisal [your decision to stress or not] of how wellyou handled the stressful event. Do these show youareas where you handled stress poorly, and couldimprove your stress management skills?• Look through your diary at the situations thatcause you stress – you may wish to adapt thesesituations


Analysing your Stress Diary• Look also at how you felt when you were under stress. Lookat how it affected your happiness and your effectiveness,understand how you behaved, and think about how you felt.

• Review how you rate the intensity of your stress at differentdays and overall period you are using the Stress Diary, and howthis changes with time

•Remember your predictions about how much you would stressand review the truth or validity of these – as it will help youreduce the stressors on a daily basis

• Review by setting your daily goals and analysing regularlywhat needs updating and which targets you are successfullyaccomplishing

• Your daily stress analysis page will give you a clear indicationand guide to what is happening and what is to change or beadapted. The options you are requested to generate toproblems or obstacles you are coming across, itself could help inyour progress and additionally your weekly and monthlyprogress reports will indicate your progress much clearer

Having analysed your diary, you should fully understand what the mostimportant and frequent sources of stress are in your life. You will know thelevels of stress at which you are most comfortable. You should also know thesort of situations that cause you stress so that you can prepare for them andmanage them well. As well as this, you should now understand how you reactto stress, and the symptoms that you show when you are stressed. When youexperience these symptoms in the future, this should be a trigger for you touse appropriate stress management techniques.

Commit to making daily entries into your diary over the full length period oftime – on a daily basis. After a period of about 4 weeks, you should be able tostart to see patterns. Your goal now will be to lessen the stress in your life bymanaging how you deal with stressful situations and you can do this byresponding to the stress in your life in a more proactive and positive manner.

Remember that you get free stress support & guidance at our interactivecommunity support website. – www.stressdiaries.com

FREE SUPPORT & GUIDANCE SERVICE


THE STRESS DIARY RANGE

ONLY @ WWW.STRESSDIARIES.COM

the solution to stress

Documents

managing stress

stress managing

level of stress

stress demands

stress symptoms

stress professionals

allexperience stress

ideabehind stress diaries