What’s the value of tracking your stress over time? It’s a fair question… You’ve certainly noticed that level of stress fluctuates throughout out the day, week, and month. You may feel stress in specific situations or around specific people. Your stress may be cyclical, or it may come on suddenly and without warning.
One of the most basic tenets of behavior change is awareness. In the case of reducing the stress in your life, you need to develop an understanding of what triggers your stress. Are their patterns related to when, where and why you feel stress and who’s involved when you do?
Track your stress regularly
You might consider tracking at the same time every day, or you might want to do it in (or after!) stressful situations. The Stress Tracker allows you to select the date and time of your entry, so you can always “back-date” your thoughts.
Be honest with yourself
Your records are private unless you decide to share them. You should be honest with yourself, both about your level of stress and about what is going on in your life. You need to hold up the mirror and look hard to make changes for the better.
The Whys and Hows tell a story
What was happening at the time? Where were you? Who was present? How were you feeling at the time?
Look for patterns
Does your stress peak at certain times during the day or week? Is there a particular situation, event, or person that accompanies spikes in your stress level? Do you see any repeating patterns in your feelings (frustration, anger, embarrassment, guilt)? Patterns can be very enlightening. Stick with it and you will learn to anticipate and manage your stressors!
How It Works
By using meQuilibrium’s Stress Tracker, you can quickly and easily record your level of stress along with the time and date and a brief note about how you were feeling, what was happening at the time, and so on.
The Stress Tracker keeps an ongoing record of your stress level and notes, both in chart and table form, so you can watch over time and learn about your stress triggers.
You have the option of sharing your posts with Facebook friends (it can be fun, and you might just learn from each other), but that is never required.
