List the things that cause stress in your life at the present time. Determine which factors are causing
positive stress and which are potentially negative and harmful.
Develop an action plan to enable you to cope with the negative factors more effectively. A good action
plan looks ahead and deals with what, when, where, and how to solve the problem.
Some of the things in my life that are causing me stress or have caused me stress in the last year are
having a baby and his health being not so good. He was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and
because of this he had to stay at the NICU for a month. So needless to say he is going through a rough
time of things since he was born. This causes stress on me because what parent wants to see their new
baby go through anything like this. Other things that stress me out are bills, money, getting my
homework done on time, and driving in traffic. Having my baby was positive stress, but his health
problems are negative stress. The bills and money issue and wondering if we are going to be able to pay
everything and still have money to buy food is a negative stressor because this one actually makes me
feel sick at times. Getting my homework done on time is a positive stressor because I always feel like I
accomplished something and feel good when it is done. Driving in traffic can be a positive and negative
stressor. Sometimes it does not affect me hardly at all but other times it can make me feel so stressed
that I get nauseous and get a headache.
When I am dealing with negative stressors, I usually try deep breathing techniques, or yoga to help me
relax. I also sometimes will go outside and walk in the peace and quiet. It is sometimes just nice to step
away from it all and take a break from what is causing the stress so that I can come back to it refreshed.
When dealing with the money problems a good action plan would be to think about what I could do to
fix the problem, then find out when bills are due so that I can set a budget. This way I can start setting
money aside for when the bills are due, after I do this, I set money aside for other things that are
needed and make sure that there is no unnecessary spending. From the point this system is set up all
money is accounted for so that everything can be covered. If we have to go without things that is how it
will be, but we will have food, and the bills will be paid.