Personal Stress Management

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Recognizing that you are being affected by stress is the first stage
in personal stress management. The second stage is realizing that the
only person responsible for your personal stress management is you.
Sure, you can delegate some of your stress management to your
physician and the drugs he can prescribe for you. But even then you
need to remember to take them regularly.
It's far better to learn how to develop your own personal stress
management program or routine.
One of the easiest ways to start on your road to personal stress
management is to keep a personal diary. Nothing complicated. You could
even use your blog (just put something in each note to say what your
mood is like). But start to make a note of what causes stress in your
life. Keep track of the times when you feel more stressed. What causes
that stress to appear? Is it a colleague at work or some other
trigger?
Then keep note of what you can do to reduce that stress or even make
it go away completely. Does listening to a particular piece of music
help? Does going to the gym and running or cycling for miles help?
Get down to the specifics. Start to notice when your stress levels
increase and when they reduce. Then use this diary to work out your
own personal stress management plan. Once you've got something down on
paper, you'll find it much, much easier to work out how to manage the
stress that you have to deal with in your day to day life.
Of course, getting a plan is only part of the battle. You need to make
sure that you stick to your personal stress management plan as much as
possible. There'll be times when you drift from your plan but don't
use those as an excuse. Get back onto your plan as soon as possible.
You'll find that having your own personal stress management plan could
quite literally be a life saver.