Your Stress Diary
Introduction:
Stress Diaries are useful for understanding the causes of short-term stress in your life. They also give you an insight into how you react to stress.
The idea behind Stress Diaries is that on a regular basis you write down how stressed you're feeling, so that you can understand these stresses and then manage them. This is important because often these stresses flit in and out of our minds without getting the attention and focus that they deserve.
As well as helping you capture and understand the most common sources of stress in your life, Stress Diaries help you to understand:
* The causes of stress in more detail; and
* How you react to stress, and whether your reactions are appropriate and useful.
Using the Tool:
Stress Diaries are useful in that they gather information regularly and routinely, over a period of time. This helps you to separate the common, routine stresses from those that only occur occasionally. This helps you understand the pattern of stress in your life.
To use the tool, download and use this Excel template or use this web-based template.
Make regular entries in your Stress Diary (for example, every hour). If you have any difficulty remembering to do this, set an alarm to remind you to make your next diary entry. Also make an entry in your diary after each incident that is stressful enough for you to feel that it is important.
Every time you make an entry, record the following information:
* The date and time of the entry.
* How happy you feel now, on a scale of -10 (the most unhappy you have ever been) to +10 (the happiest you have been). As well as this, write down the mood you are feeling.
* How stressed you feel now, again on a subjective scale of 0 to 10. As before, 0 here would be the most relaxed you have ever been, while 10 would show the greatest stress you have ever experienced.
* The most recent stressful event you have experienced
* The symptom you feel (e.g. “butterflies in your stomach”, anger, headache, raised pulse rate, sweaty palms, etc.)
* The fundamental cause of the stress (being as honest and objective as possible)
* If you're recording an event, how well did you handleit: Did your reaction help solve the problem, or did it inflame it?
You will reap the real benefits of having a stress diary in the first few weeks. After this, the benefit you get will reduce each additional day.
If, however, your lifestyle changes, or you begin to suffer from stress again in the future, then it may be worth using the diary approach again. You will probably find that the stresses you face have changed. If this is the case, then keeping a diary again will help you to develop a different approach to deal with them..
Analyzing the Diary
After two weeks, take the time to look through your diary in detail:
* First, look at the different stresses you experienced. Pick out the stresses you experienced most frequently, and write them out in order.
Next, prepare a second list with the most unpleasant stresses at the top of the list and the least unpleasant at the bottom.
Looking at your lists of stresses, those at the top of each list are the most important for you to learn to control. The stress planning tool helps you plan how to deal with these stresses, and how to identify the techniques that are most effective for managing them.
Working through the stresses, look at their underlying causes, and your appraisal of how well you handled the stressful events. Do these show you areas where you handled stress poorly, and could improve your stress management skills? If so, list these.
* Next, look through your diary at the situations that cause you stress. List these (this site also helps you prepare for these situations so that you can manage stress effectively).
* Finally, look at how you felt when you were under stress. Look at how it affected your happiness and your efficiency, understand how you behaved, and think about how you felt. The section on Reducing Stress with Rational Thinking will show you how to improve your mood and manage your emotions.
Having worked through your diary, you should understand more fully what the most important and frequent sources of stress are in your life. You should appreciate the levels of stress at which you are happiest. And you should also know the sort of situations that cause you stress so that you can prepare for them and manage them well.
You should also have more of an understanding about how you react to stress, and the symptoms that you show when you are stressed. When you experience these symptoms in the future, learn to use appropriate stress management techniques.
The next tool, the Stress Key, helps you identify the stress management techniques that are most appropriate for managing these stresses.
However, remember how dangerous stress can be. Do pay attention to the warning at the foot of this page: If you have any concerns over stress-related illness or are persistently unhappy as a result of stress, you need to see your doctor.
Summary
Stress Diaries help you to get a good understanding of the routine, short-term stresses that you experience in your life. They help you to identify the most important, and most frequent, stresses that you experience, so that you can concentrate your efforts on these. They also help you to identify areas where you need to improve your stress management skills, and help you to understand the levels of stress at which you are happiest, and most efficient.
To keep a stress diary, make an entry on a sheet like the one shown on a regular basis. For example, you may do this every hour. Also make entries after stressful events.
After, say, two weeks, use the diary to identify the most frequent and most serious stresses that you experience. Use it also to identify areas where you can improve your management of stress.
Introduction:
Stress Diaries are useful for understanding the causes of short-term stress in your life. They also give you an insight into how you react to stress.
The idea behind Stress Diaries is that on a regular basis you write down how stressed you're feeling, so that you can understand these stresses and then manage them. This is important because often these stresses flit in and out of our minds without getting the attention and focus that they deserve.
As well as helping you capture and understand the most common sources of stress in your life, Stress Diaries help you to understand:
* The causes of stress in more detail; and
* How you react to stress, and whether your reactions are appropriate and useful.
Using the Tool:
Stress Diaries are useful in that they gather information regularly and routinely, over a period of time. This helps you to separate the common, routine stresses from those that only occur occasionally. This helps you understand the pattern of stress in your life.
To use the tool, download and use this Excel template or use this web-based template.
Make regular entries in your Stress Diary (for example, every hour). If you have any difficulty remembering to do this, set an alarm to remind you to make your next diary entry. Also make an entry in your diary after each incident that is stressful enough for you to feel that it is important.
Every time you make an entry, record the following information:
* The date and time of the entry.
* How happy you feel now, on a scale of -10 (the most unhappy you have ever been) to +10 (the happiest you have been). As well as this, write down the mood you are feeling.
* How stressed you feel now, again on a subjective scale of 0 to 10. As before, 0 here would be the most relaxed you have ever been, while 10 would show the greatest stress you have ever experienced.
* The most recent stressful event you have experienced
* The symptom you feel (e.g. “butterflies in your stomach”, anger, headache, raised pulse rate, sweaty palms, etc.)
* The fundamental cause of the stress (being as honest and objective as possible)
* If you're recording an event, how well did you handleit: Did your reaction help solve the problem, or did it inflame it?
You will reap the real benefits of having a stress diary in the first few weeks. After this, the benefit you get will reduce each additional day.
If, however, your lifestyle changes, or you begin to suffer from stress again in the future, then it may be worth using the diary approach again. You will probably find that the stresses you face have changed. If this is the case, then keeping a diary again will help you to develop a different approach to deal with them..
Analyzing the Diary
After two weeks, take the time to look through your diary in detail:
* First, look at the different stresses you experienced. Pick out the stresses you experienced most frequently, and write them out in order.
Next, prepare a second list with the most unpleasant stresses at the top of the list and the least unpleasant at the bottom.
Looking at your lists of stresses, those at the top of each list are the most important for you to learn to control. The stress planning tool helps you plan how to deal with these stresses, and how to identify the techniques that are most effective for managing them.
Working through the stresses, look at their underlying causes, and your appraisal of how well you handled the stressful events. Do these show you areas where you handled stress poorly, and could improve your stress management skills? If so, list these.
* Next, look through your diary at the situations that cause you stress. List these (this site also helps you prepare for these situations so that you can manage stress effectively).
* Finally, look at how you felt when you were under stress. Look at how it affected your happiness and your efficiency, understand how you behaved, and think about how you felt. The section on Reducing Stress with Rational Thinking will show you how to improve your mood and manage your emotions.
Having worked through your diary, you should understand more fully what the most important and frequent sources of stress are in your life. You should appreciate the levels of stress at which you are happiest. And you should also know the sort of situations that cause you stress so that you can prepare for them and manage them well.
You should also have more of an understanding about how you react to stress, and the symptoms that you show when you are stressed. When you experience these symptoms in the future, learn to use appropriate stress management techniques.
The next tool, the Stress Key, helps you identify the stress management techniques that are most appropriate for managing these stresses.
However, remember how dangerous stress can be. Do pay attention to the warning at the foot of this page: If you have any concerns over stress-related illness or are persistently unhappy as a result of stress, you need to see your doctor.
Summary
Stress Diaries help you to get a good understanding of the routine, short-term stresses that you experience in your life. They help you to identify the most important, and most frequent, stresses that you experience, so that you can concentrate your efforts on these. They also help you to identify areas where you need to improve your stress management skills, and help you to understand the levels of stress at which you are happiest, and most efficient.
To keep a stress diary, make an entry on a sheet like the one shown on a regular basis. For example, you may do this every hour. Also make entries after stressful events.
After, say, two weeks, use the diary to identify the most frequent and most serious stresses that you experience. Use it also to identify areas where you can improve your management of stress.
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