Analyse your Stress Diary

So you have decided to keep a stress diary. You have taken the commitement to making daily entries into your diary over a period of time. Once you have kept a stress diary for a number of weeks, now is the time to analyse it.

By now you have a number of entries. All these entries will give you information about stressors, causes of stress, situations that have caused stress, your reactions to stress, your feelings, stress symptoms you have experienced, other valuable information about nutrition, lifestyle, habits, etc.

How will you handle all these entries? Well... list them all.

• List the types of stress that you have experienced by frequency, with the most frequent stresses at the top of the list.

• List the most unpleasant stressors you have experienced with the most unpleasant at the top and the least at the bottom.

• List the causes of your stress.

• List also the situations that cause you stress by frequency.

• List your reactions to stressfull events. How well have you managed them?

• List your feelings.

• List all the stress symptoms you have experienced.

• List any lifestyle changes, nutrition, habits that have reacted with your stress symptoms.

Now you have all the information you need to understand the causes of your stress.
Now you may recognize your stress patterns.
Now you can understand what circumstances make stresses particularly unpleasant.
Now you know the levels of stress at which you operate most effectively.
Now you know how you react to stress, whether your reactions are appropriate and useful, and whether your strategies for handling the stresses are effective or not.
Now you may determine how you can handle your stress and how to react to your stressors.