Stress Management

This is my Stress Diagram, which shows what is my highest priority clearly.

This is what I did for the Sources of Stress, which shows that there are seven low stress sources and four high stress sources now.

This week the topic is Stress Management. Stress can come from many different ways, too many homework assignments can put a huge strain on students, too many exams or projects might also add mental strain to us, sometimes, even the fear of the unknown future can be extremely stressful. The consequence might be very tragic, if we fail to manage our stress well. Fortunately, there are some very useful strategies can help you handle your stress better.

The first one is Sources of Stress. It is often said that "Know the enemy know yourself and in every battle you will be victorious". So we must identify the sources of stress first, and then we can figure out how to control it. And this strategy can help "determine those sources that cause the greatest amount of stress for you". The textbook has provided twenty-one different possible causes, from Grades to Summer Job, from Career to Friends. One should place a letter in order to identify those items. Place a H for high stress, a L for low stress and a N for not an issue. After having done this, you can try to create a plan to handle those stressors. I believe that one of the great advantages of this strategy is to help you know yourself, open your eyes and see what indeed is bothering you most. Sometimes, you just feel you are under pressure, but you don't know what's going on. So you need Sources of Stress to help you know the situation.

The second strategy I want to recommend is the Stress Diagram. This stress diagram is different from the one from Physics class. However, this stress diagram can be really helpful. Most of time, we will be under many different pressures at the same time. Some causes might not be an issue at all, but some can be very serious and dangerous. So you don't want to waste too much time on those low-threat causes, and suddenly realize that there is no time or energy for those high stress sources. The Stress Diagram will help you identify the issues you need to take care of first. The first step is to list all the sources of stress. And then it is time to divide your pie chart. The pie chart will reflect the relative amount of stress. So you can easily identify what is more important and emergency by looking at this stress diagram. Basically, what I did here is kind of similar to Ranking the Task, instead of prioritize the tasks, I prioritize the sources of stress. But it is the same thing because they all are the problems you have to solve.

In order to manage your stress better, these two strategies can be used together. Besides that, there are also six other stress reduction strategies you can use, such as stress plan and five-minute escape, which I like very much.