Stress Management

So over this past weekend I had a "me" weekend.  The kids are at the grandparents, my hubby is out of town working.  It is just me and the dog.  I can honestly say I cannot remember the last time I had days all to myself where I did not have something that HAD to be done.  I think it was before the kids were born (so 7 years or so).  At first I was pretty lost, but then I realized I had time for ME!  Time to sit down, reflect on life and figure out some game plans.

The biggest hurdle in my life (and in most peoples life) is a lovely word called STRESS.  Stress gets me all the time.  I stress about everything!  All these little stressors that nag at me, whether warranting the amount of attention I give them or not, pile up and create a huge weight on my shoulders.  Soon, I feel bombarded and cannot tell up from down or left from right.  Life turns into a giant elastic ball where all the bands keep snapping at me causing me actual physical pain in my shoulders, neck and head and a sense of disorientation.  So, this weekend it was time to take the time to do something about it.  Make a game plan and put it into action.

My Game Plan:


First, I wrote down everything that is causing me to feel stress these days.  From there I prioritized those items by taking into account whether those items are really going to matter in 30 years.  My list got substantially shorter and resulted in five things that I need to deal with.  The items that were no longer on the list I crossed off and let go...  I am not going to let them bother me any more.  What was originally a giant elastic band ball, became a small manageable pile of elastics.  (There is something to be said for writing down things like this and then scrapping the list...  it seems to be a physical way of releasing it that you can see it actually disappearing).


I then took a binder and labelled it "The Plan".  In it I put some dividers and whole lot of paper. Behind each divider I made a title page that indicated the Action Plan for the five things I need to address. I added a start date to the plan and then an outline of how I was going to accomplish eliminating this stressor from my life (a summary basically).  Behind the title page I went into depth with step by step instructions of how to get there and the consequences of not following through with the plan (for me this is important, it's like a kick in the pants to get it done, plus it forces you to face reality).  Some of the plans are quite long, but I made sure I put all the steps necessary to accomplish my goal.

Now what?


The biggest challenge I will be facing is how to stick to the game plan, but I think if I continue to write down the everyday stressors I do experience at the end of each day and then let them go, it will allow me to stay on track as I can pay attention to the bigger, more important, tasks at hand.  I dated all the plans so that I can see my progress in terms of time as I get closer to completion.  The binder will be left out in a visible spot so I cannot "forget" about it.  My daily action plan consists of referencing the binder each day, checking off the steps, and dating them as I complete them.  If new situations arise that are of importance I can add them to the binder, if I complete tasks, they can be removed.  I was originally going to use a notebook, but I felt a binder would be easier as it could be updated as needed.

So will it work?

I believe so.  As long as I follow through. Only time will tell :)