I have realized that I have a long way to go regarding my progress toward a stress-free lifestyle. I have many life stressors, but I need to work towards fully being happier and making my stress more manageable.  

2. Establish 2 stress management goals you would like to achieve by the end of the semester. Make these goals as specific a possible. Consider what you would like to achieve and how you will achieve it. Also, be sure to be realistic. Remember we have 15 weeks together. 

Two stress management goals that I want to have are to 

1. establish a routine to manage my time more effectively regarding homework and my mornings/ bedtimes to allow my life factors to not get in the way of my health. 

2. journal regularly so I can manage my emotions and remove some stress from my life. Journaling was something I used to do a lot but I haven't in a while, and I miss it and believe it can help me become more in control of my emotions and stress levels. 

I noticed that I was able to journal a lot more than I was in the past! For the most part, except for 2 days over the past two weeks, I was consistently jounraling and sticking with my commitment. I was able to get more in touch with my emotions as I had hoped and I learned that building a healthy habit is really important for your mental health and for managing your stress. 
2. What will you try this week (see examples above)?  Be as specific as possible. Consider what you will do and when will you do it. (note: research suggests that we are more likely to follow through with clear/specific goals). Note: the examples about are very general. If you select one listed above be sure to make it more specific to your needs. 

This week, I really want to change my approach and goals with journaling. Instead of hoping that it will revolutionize and change my self-esteem and every problem I currently have, I am starting to see it as a journey and not as an end result. To be more specific, I want to journal as I am ready to go to bed and not only at a set time. The two days that I had forgotten to journal, I was already asleep. Secondly, I want to choose a prompt from a journal I just bought when journaling so that I have an intention when I am going into it as well.
3. Why did you pick this and how does it relate to your overall/long term stress management goals. 
I picked this goal because I realized that I was bottling up my emotions or venting them to a friend, which is not fair to either of us. I think in the long term, and even now, I will be more in touch with my emotions but also I will be able to harness my thoughts and fears and see them as a way to make progress and as things I can work on.
4. Consider what possible barriers or obstacles might get in your way. List 2 and what you might do to manage them. 
Honestly, mostly my constraint has been time, since journaling is a way to connect with yourself but it does take a lot out of your day. I have started getting ready for bed earlier so that I am able to spend more time on my journaling and as I am integrating it into my routine, I am making it habitual so I will not need the timer. This is solving the time problem, because when it is part of my routine, it no longer requires additional time as it is already factored in.

I noticed that I was able to follow through with my commitment much more. After I realized that the process from journaling will take time and that I need to be consistent with it, I was able to set my intentions much better. I also started using prompts from Healing With Words by Rupi Kaur and that has helped a ton! I was able to follow through, and I noticed that I was much more clear on my goals and what I expected to get from daily journaling. 
2. What will you try this week (see examples above)?  Be as specific as possible. Consider what you will do and when will you do it. If you select one listed above be sure to make it more specific to your needs. 
This week, I will try to create a prioritizing method to put my idea for journaling and my time at the forefront of my day. By making myself a priority, I can start seeing this journaling as more of a process and less about the result and as something I have to do. To do this, I will start focusing less on one thing this week, such as social media, and instead channel that time towards writing my thoughts out. 
3. Why did you pick this and how does it relate to your overall/long term stress management goals. 
This goal helps wiht my overall and long term stress goals because I have already seen that I am more in control of how I feel and that I can understand and contextualize my emotions much better. I chose this because that was exactly what I was struggling with. I was closing myself out and journaling helped before, yet I wasn't doing it for some reason. I have felt less stressed and more in control of my life. 4. Consider what possible barriers or obstacles might get in your way. List 2 and what you might do to manage them.
Two barriers I still have now are my emotions/ where I am in understanding them as well as choosing prompts that resonate with what I need that day. Since this whole journey is a process, I am struggling with getting my full emotions out and understanding them fully, a lot of what I write is half of the whole story and the other half I have to still discover. I am trying to write whatever is on my mind before I understand it and then to reflect on those ideas after so that I will get better at this. For my prompt problem, I will start taking a few minutes to flip through the book I have before choosing one for the day.

 I was able to follow my commitment as I was able to prioritize myself and my time with my journaling. I started to do it less as a routine and more as a growth aspect and so I did it throughout the day as needed. I learned that sometimes this happened when I found a pretty sunset or after a rough moment and I have been ranting to friends less because I do it as needed. Journaling has helped me a LOT recently especially, and I even started doing my journaling at school, etc. 

This week, I will try to completely remove my ranting and devote myself to journaling entirely when I need to get emotions out. Sometimes, I rant to friends, which helps but it can be excessive and I think that resorting to journaling instead is a better option, especially since I have prompts on my phone and such too.

I chose this to have more control of where and who I share my emotions with and to better understand myself. I can manage my stress better when I can understand myself better, and that is my goal. 

My barriers were honestly time and being frustrated or emotion heavy in the moment, but that issue has kind of solved itself since I journal as needed, and I always know how to journal w a prompt in mind or without now.

2. Share one thing you want to accomplished in the last few weeks of this course. Be as specific as possible. 
I think I want to find a way to make journalling more than a nightly routine, I tried carrying a journal around with me at school but I was not using it as much as I anticipated. I think journaling in the moment would be great for me. I might have to start setting reminders to just journal even if I don't need to until I start doing it when I do.

2. Compare this technique to some of the others you have practiced. (longer/shorter, easier/harder, more/less effective for you and why )
This was longer than journaling because it required you to set around 25-30 mins of your time whereas journalling can take any amount of time depending on the prompt and how introspective you get. 

3. Would this be a relaxation technique you would consider using on a regular basis for stress management? Why or why not?
I think I would use it occasionally if I truly had the time, or if I was having a really hard moment and I was getting in my head a lot. It is calming but requires a quiet space and time that sometimes I will not have. It did help though. 

4. Many people find a significant decrease in pulse rate after participating in autogenics. Discuss what is occurring in both the mind and the body to explain the decrease in heart rate.
The mind and body are coming in touch and your breathing slows a lot which means your heart rate slows a lot. This is calming to the mind but also can cause your body to come to a slower point as well.

1. How did you feel before the exercise?

I felt really calm before honestly, but it caused my mind to slow down even more and just rest and focus on the present. 
2. What was your experience during the exercise?

I had a good experience with it and I sat and followed the video. 
3. How did you feel immediately after the exercise?
I felt very grounded and connected with my life, which is a slightly weird explanation, but it felt good. 

4. How did you feel several hours after completing the exercise?

I felt good afterwards! I think that it was wearing off, so doing it before bed helped!

  Right before bed (answer as soon as possible the next day):

I felt very calm, similar to the last exercise. 

I can't fully remember how fast I fell asleep, but I do know that I slept well. I think it was overall a good experience, and I didn't wake up in the middle of the night like I sometimes do. 

I slept really well and felt great the next morning. 

Usually, I wake up multiple times at night, but I slept really well. I actually slept through an alarm. 

SUMMARY: After you have practiced the exercise and described your experiences answer the following

1. What did you like or not like about this technique.
Like some of the others, it required remembering to look at the video and play it, and canvas closed a few times throughout the video. It also took a little while, which requires planning. 

2. Compare this technique to some of the others you have practiced.
I liked this more than last week's exercise, but I like journaling the most. I did this one an extra day though because it was so relaxing. I liked doing it at night. 

3. Would this be a relaxation technique you would consider regularly using for stress management? Why or why not?
Yes definitely, it was such a peaceful activity and it definitely reduced my stress before I slept. 

 

I was mostly tired before the exercise since I did this fairly early in the day. I think this helped me connect with my surroundings because I was still a little asleep 

This exercise was beneficial since it took me to a different location mentally. I felt very calm. 

I felt refreshed and I skipped coffee, which I didn't regret!!

I still felt awake like I hoped.
 

This time, it was more mid-day. I felt good, but a little exhausted from the day. 

I felt very tired after from having gone to school and work. I felt calm during the exercise. 

After I felt recharged, so I was able to wind down for the day and go to sleep. 

Good, I fell asleep well!