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Insights: I am a big worrier, especially when it comes to topics such as school. Worrying also increases my heart rate expediently.

Two stress management goals: I would like to create a coping skill for when I am stressed to lower my heart rate and calm down in high-stress situations. I would also like to learn how to deal with increased school work and my not letting stress effect my performance.

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1. One commitment I would like to make this week is to try and positively self-talk to myself when I start to get stressed out, and limit the amount of negativity I have in these situations.

2. I picked this commitment for this week because I noticed I tend to have a harsh amount of negativity towards myself when I am stressed out. I think that this would also do a good job at working with my long-term goal of calming down in high-stress situations.

3. Some barriers that may get in the way are that: I am so used to talking negatively towards myself that it may come out of habit. To combat this I can change my thought process whenever I catch myself thinking negatively. Another barrier is that I don't know where to start. For this, something I can do is write down a couple of motivational sayings I find on the internet, and say them to myself next time I am stressed out.

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1. I followed through on last week's commitment of positive self-talk. I learned that this not only boosts my mood, but also helps me to feel more confident in situations where I usually would have felt really low.

2. For this week's commitment I decided to choose an activity to do mindfully each day. I specifically decided to do an activity I like doing so that it bring me a bit of peace to my everyday hectic life. This can include things like coloring a picture, walking my dog, etc. This doesn't have to be for a long time, maybe around 10 minutes every day. During this time I can take time to really think to myself and breathe.

3. I picked this commitment because it relates to my overall goal of creating good coping skills to use when I am stressed. Also, choosing an activity I like to do makes me more likely to do it everyday.

4. Some barriers that may get in my way are that I will forget about the commitment I made, or that I will be stressed out during the mindful activity. To combat these I can set a reminder on my phone to remember to complete the activity. Something I can also do I play some calming music and take deep breaths while completing my activity so that it lowers my stress levels.

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1. I followed through with my commitment last week for the most part. I tried to complete multiple acts of kindness every day, although sometimes I would forget and randomly remember to complete them.

2. This week my goal is going to be to try to act upon my top three values listed in the other assignment (kindess, faith, and curiosity). I am going to try to make decisions based upon these values

3. This relates to my long-term stress goal as it gives me an outlet for stress. For example being curious about a topic distracts me from other stressors in my life. Similarly, having faith can increase my likely hood that i'll believe I can do better in school and with my workload.

4. Some barriers that may try to stop me are forgetfulness and stress. I'll combat forgetting by setting a reminder in my phone, and i'll attempt to combat stress by reminding myself why my values are so important to me.

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1. I followed through on last week's commitment of positive self-talk. I learned that this not only boosts my mood, but also helps me to feel more confident in situations where I usually would have felt really low.

2. My commitment for this week is to do 2 acts of kindness every single day. This could include things like helping a stranger, cleaning something up, or complementing someone. These will generally be physical actions and can be completed at any time throughout the day.

3. I picked this commitment because it is a great way to help the community and brighten someones day, as well as my own. This relates to my overall goal as helping someone else always helps me to feel great and in turn helps to lower my stress levels and take my mind off other things.

4. Some barriers that may hinder this week's commitment is that I won't know what to do for an act of kindness, or that i'll be too nervous to complete these tasks. In order to combat this I can write down a list of kind actions to do in my phone, that way I will always have them as inspiration. I can also remind myself that I am doing this for a good reason, which should hopefully help to take my nerves away.

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1. Last week's commitment of trying to make decisions based upon my top three values was a bit difficult. It was easier to create actions based upon kindess, but as for curiosity and faith (other than going to church and questioning something) it was hard.

2. The commitment I chose to follow

through with this week is picking a budgeting app and trying to implement it into my daily life. The app chose was budget bestie. This will help me sort my money into different budgets, so that I don't overspend.

3. I picked this commitment for this week because budgeting money is something that I've always wanted to start doing and relates to my overall long term stress goal by working to lower stress about finaces by having them all planned out ahead of time.

4. Some barriers that could get in my way is my tend to spend money shopping, and not knowing how to budget the money. For this I can create a special budget intended for spending, one for school, one for emergencies, one for gas, etc.

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Afternoon:

Before the exercise, I felt a little anxious. During the exercise, I myself calming down slowly. Immediately after the exercise, I felt a lot more relieved and less tense than I did before. Several hours after the exercise I didn't feel as tense as I was before.

Before bed:

Before the exercise, I felt moderate. I wasn't too anxious or too of anything. I fell asleep after the exercise was complete. I slept pretty well and did wake up feeling refreshed. This differed in the fact that I felt good when I woke up in the morning.

Summary:

I liked that this technique had a bit of everything, breathing, stretching, etc. I felt a lot more aware during this exercise than I have others in the past. This is a technique I would actually consider using in the future, but not super regularly as I didn't like the concept of setting up my laptop to do a breathing exercise.

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Social support, relationships, and the enviorment 7

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Social support, relationships, and the enviorment 7

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1. I followed through with my commitment of utilizing a budgeting app to help me save money. I think that this is something I will try to integrate into my everday life going forwards. I like seeing how I am spending my money, as well as my future goals laid out in front of me.

2. The commitment I am going to try to complete this week is to find a way to make my environment more comfortable and relaxing. This includes things such as decluttering the space so that I don't feel overwhelmed.

3. I chose to complete this task because it would lower my overall stress by giving me a space to breathe and find a sense of comfortability. This would relate to my long-term stress goal and tie into academic stress by giving me a quiet place to complete my work.

4. Some barriers that may get in the way is that I may not have time to fully clean, or don't know where to start. I think that starting with the area around my desk is a great place to start, considering that I would like to complete school work there.

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1. I somewhat followed through on last week's commitment of utilizing a budgeting app. I liked how I was able to organize my savings into different categories to better plan out and save. Although, tracking my everyday spending proved to be more difficult for me as sometimes I randomly decide to splurge on things.

2. For this week, I am going to attempt to go to bed at 11 pm and wake up at 7 am. This gives me a full and restful 8 hours of sleep. Keeping to a routine may also help me to make sure I am getting a restful sleep.

3. I picked this commitment because good sleep helps and reduces stress. It will also help my academic success, as I will be able to think more clearly. Good sleep will also help to be less irritated and worried.

4. Some barriers that may get in the way are my technology addiction and my inability to wake up in the morning. To combat this I can put my phone away 30 minutes before I go to sleep so that I can wind down. I can also make myself excited for the next day so I have a reason to get up so early and am more likely to.

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1. One thing I have learned is that my diet can affect my stress levels. This is something that I have never thought to take into consideration.

2. Something I would like to accomplish in the last few weeks of this course is learning how to calm down in a high stress situation. This could include things such as breathing tactics, coping skills, etc.

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Afternoon:

I completed this exercise around 3pm on a Thursday afternoon. Before the exercise I felt a little anxious because I had a lot of school work to complete. During the exercise I felt a little weird at first but then got used to it. Immediately afterwards I felt a little tired. Several hours after the exercise I felt the same as I did before the exercise.

Right before sleep:

I did this on a Thursday night after work at around 11:30 pm. Before the exercise I felt tired and a little annoyed because of the day I had. I fell asleep pretty quickly when completing this activity. I slept pretty well I didn't wake up at all during the night or anything, and slept for around six hours. This is pretty normal for me, although sometimes during the night i'd wake up around once.

Summary:

Something I did not like about this technique was how much you had to repeat the same phrase, I found that to be a bit annoying. I found this technique to be a bit less effective compared to ones like the deep relaxation activity. I do not think I would continue to use this method just because of how ineffective it was for me and that I did not really enjoy it too much. During autogenics, the body is resting and the mind is doing the same thing over again while relaxing. This calms the body down, allowing it to decrease in heart rate. Due to this, the body demands less oxygen and the heart can stop beating as quickly as it reaches a resting state.

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Daytime 1:

Before the exercise, I felt a bit tense and was heavily overthinking. During the exercise I was paying attention for the first bit, then my mind started wandering onto other things. After the exercise, I did not feel much different at all. I kept thinking about all the things I had to do.

Dayime 2:

Before the exercise, I felt the same as before. During the exercise I tried to focus more, but it was hard to visualize what the sound was saying. After this, I felt confused and not really relaxed. Several hours after, I still felt indifferent.

Summary:

I did not like the visualization concept of this technique. I am not very good at listening to something and visualizing it so I found this to be quite hard for me. Out of all the techniques I have done, I have liked this one the least. I would not consider doing this again in the future.