Recording Stress And Stressors

When we feel stress, it is often because a stressor presented a potential threat. When stress is overwhelming it hinders our ability to see a way out of the situation. Recording your thoughts and emotions can help you to find a source of relief, since you can look back to see what you were thinking at the time the stressor occurred and what you did to handle the situation. Your thoughts and emotions should be recorded and reviewed daily to help you understand how stress can be minimized. Take a few minutes out of each day to record and review your situations to see if there are areas that you can focus on and help you learn from your mistakes.

You can also record an expectation list writing down the list of expectation placed on your self. If you are saying I have to be at work by 7am then you are placing an expectation on your self. Of course this is a responsibility, but you are telling your self that you cannot be trusted if you do not stay focused on the hour you must be at work. As you can see doubt is in the picture so a list can help us to minimize our thinking patterns and learn to trust our self. You will need to learn self-talk techniques, since lists are designed to make us think. When you see an area in question that causes you stress then decide if this can be eliminated. Do you need to remind your self-daily that you must be at work by 7am?

Have you failed to meet your boss’s expectations in the past? Are you responsible? If you are responsible and have not let your boss down then why are you worry about something that has not arrived yet? As you can see self-talk plays a large part in recording your stress and stressors. Self-talk is having the ability or skill to rely on your efforts without another individual instructing you. Self-talk can help you get in touch with your emotions and understand your self-better since the subconscious will become active. We are going to make a list of expectations and perform self-talk techniques to help you grasp hold of the potentials when you practice the techniques. I have to be at the bank before five or I am in big trouble. We can pull out the words ‘have to’ and ‘big trouble’ since these is major stressors that cause stress.

Can we reword this to provide us a more effective source for minimizing stress? Yes, we can. I really need to make it to the bank by five so that I can take care of my responsibilities, however, if this is not possible I will try to get this done the first thing in the morning. We still have expectation, however we are aware of our demand, but realize we may not have the choice to get the task completed today. Therefore, we are not putting a high demand on our self and realize that we have a degree of control and a means to handle the task now or later. Now we can strike the negative from the sentence and offer our self a more relaxing mind. If I am late tomorrow for my appointment, someone is going to be mad at me. This sentence poses stressors that causes stress, since we are threatening our emotions, by telling our self that expectations are risky and that we lack the ability to meet appointments. We can reword the sentence for a more relaxing approach.

First, take a piece of paper and write down the hour you are expected to meet your appointment. Place the reminder note in an area that you visit regularly. Next reword the sentence to I created my self a reminder list so I am out of harm’s way since I have control of the situation. Why does a person have to be so irresponsible? If you see this sentence presents a worry since you are focusing on something that is out of your control. Some people are irresponsible, but not everyone is irresponsible. Therefore, we can drop the generalized statement in the sentence and say, some people are so irresponsible, I am glad we are not all this way. Recording stress and stressors and learning self-talk techniques is where stress management works best.