How to Manage Personal Stress

Recognizing that you are affected by anxiety is the first phase in personal stress management. The next step is to recognize that the only one responsible for your personal stress management is you. Sure, you can delegate some of your stress management to your physician and the drugs he can prescribe for you. But then you would have to remember to take them, and you would have to be aware of the side effects that all drugs give you.

It’s much better to learn how to develop your own personal program or routine to control your stress.

One of the easiest ways to get you started on your own management program is for you to keep a journal or diary. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated, any type of notebook or even your blog will do. But it might be nice if you buy a really beautiful notebook, so you will enjoy writing in it everyday. It will be like you are doing something special for yourself, which you are. What you need to write is a short note saying what your mood is at the moment. Write why you are in that mood. If you are stressed, write what you think caused the stress.  Maybe you could put a number on your stress, say the number one means you are not very stressed and number 10 you are very stressed. This way it is easy for you to keep track of when you feel very stressed.  Remember to write down what caused the stress to appear. Was it your spouse, or your child, was it someone at work, or something that happened going to or from work? Just be sure to write what triggered your stress.

Now write down what you can do to reduce the stress or maybe even make it completely go away.    Perhaps listening to music helps relax you. Maybe going to the gym, or doing exercises, or yoga, or running, or riding a bike or hitting a tennis ball against a backboard; whatever it is that you think would help you to reduce your stress, write it down.  Try these different things and see what helps you the most to get rid of the stress. Make a note if what you did that worked; even write down those things that didn’t help you. And remember to give your stress a number.

Start to become aware of your stress levels and when they increase and they reduce.  As you write everyday in your notebook you will be getting to know yourself better and be able to make your own personal stress management plan. By writing everyday you will be able to see patterns and start to realize what the things are that get you stressed and you will be able to change what happens in your life better. 

The big thing is you must write everyday, so you start to understand what is causing your stress.  So if you forget to do it one or two days just go back and start again. It could make the difference of life or death in your life.  Too much stress kills.
Once you have gotten something down on paper, you’ll find it much, much easier to learn how to manage the stress that you have to deal with in your day to day life.

Of course, creating a plan is only part of the battle. You need to stick to your personal stress management plan as much as possible. There’ll be times when you drift from your plan but don’t use that as an excuse not to go back and start writing in your notebook again. You’ll find that having your own individualized stress management course of action plan could easily quite literally be a life saver. And the life you save will be your own.