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Would you like to reduce your stress level, feel more relaxed and enjoy your life more? The first step is to identify what’s causing the stress in your life. “Stress is a subjective experience,” says Roberta Lee, M.D., vice chair of the department of integrative medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. What may feel stressful to some, like public speaking or sitting in traffic, can feel like an opportunity to share ideas or listen to a good radio program to others. “Not only are people stressed by different things but they respond differently when they are stressed. Some people feel exhausted, others get angry and others freeze.”
One way to identify the stressors in your life, and how well you cope with them, is by using this portable stress journal. Dr. Lee suggests keeping a record for at least seven days, and then reviewing it to see if patterns appear. A few tips:
- When writing down the stressful event, be specific and honest.
- Dr. Lee suggests rating the intensity of your stress level during and right after the event on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being hardly stressful at all and 5 being extremely stressful.
- When describing your reaction, include both emotional and physical responses. “Often people have only physical symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, or racing heart, and they don’t realize they are caused by stress,” says Dr. Lee.
- Your coping response is anything you do to try to lessen the stress, including trying to remedy the problem that caused it.
- For each day, there’s also the question: How did you relax today? Use this space to include anything from exercise to meditation to taking time to sip a cup of tea, so you can keep track of whether you’re giving yourself enough opportunities to unwind and whether your relaxation strategies are effective.
After reviewing your journal for one week, you may find that you can lessen the stressors in your life on your own–or at least control your responses to them better. For example, time management strategies like preparing dinner ahead of time may go a long way in lessening stress. If you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed, or notice patterns in your coping behavior that indicate a borderline addiction, such as overeating, drinking, drug use, excessive shopping or gambling, you may need to see a therapist. “Going into a therapeutic relationship doesn’t mean you have a psychiatric disorder,” says Dr. Lee. “It’s just a coping issue, and it doesn’t mean you’ll be in therapy for your whole life, just until you learn better ways of coping.”
