Date | Stress | Reaction
Monday | Work deadline | Felt overwhelmed and anxious, worked late to finish
Tuesday | Traffic jam | Felt frustrated and angry, yelled at other drivers
Wednesday | Argument with a friend | Felt upset and hurt, avoided talking to friend
Thursday | Family conflict | Felt stressed and tense, talked to family to resolve issue
Friday | Financial worries | Felt anxious and worried, created budget plan
Reflection:
I can definitely see some patterns in my stressors – work deadlines, traffic, and conflicts with friends and family seem to be recurring themes. Looking back at my reactions, I notice that I tend to feel overwhelmed and negative emotions like anxiety, anger, and frustration. I also tend to avoid confrontation and internalize my emotions instead of talking things out.
I realize that I can work on improving how I deal with stress. Instead of letting it consume me, I can try to take breaks, practice deep breathing or mindfulness, and communicate openly with others about my feelings. I can also work on creating a plan for each stressful situation instead of reacting impulsively.
Overall, keeping a stress diary has been eye-opening and has shown me areas in my life where I can work on managing stress more effectively. I am hopeful that with practice and awareness, I can change how I react to stressful events and lead a more balanced and peaceful life.
Stress diaries can be very beneficial in managing stress. Not only do they allow an emotion-focused individual a space to rethink emotions and emotional responses, they can also provide a problem-focused individual with an opportunity to keep track of stressful events in order to identify specific problems/triggers.
Keep your own stress diary for a week. Note any type of stress and how you reacted to it. After a week, examine your diary and see if you notice any patterns.
Fill out the following table. This will take about a week to complete.
Date
Stress
Reaction
Reflection:
Write a reflection about your stress and reactions.
• Are you able to identify stressors in your life?
Answer:
• How did you deal with them?
Answer:
• Can you change how you deal with them?
Answer:
Rubric:
Includes stress diary (10 pts.)
Answers each of the 3 questions completely – 5 pts. each (15 pts.)
Writes correctly with proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation (5 pts.)
1 answer