Journal Writing - Putting Your Stress Down on Paper

Journal writing can be an effect stress reduction technique. By changing your behavior when you are put in a stressful situation, you can start to develop coping strategies that will stop your stress eating you up.

Write Down the Problems and Concerns that Triggered the Stress

Have a look at the events and circumstances that trigger the stress and prioritise them into the order you'd like to solve them. By increasing your self-awareness, you are unlocking the puzzle to reducing your stress. If you get writers block, think about questions like "How was my day today" or "What thoughts are going round my mind right now?". For the first few days you might want to write down everything whilst you are prioritising. If this list becomes unwieldy, concentrate on the items that trigger the most stress in your life, since these are the ones you will be tackling first.

How Do You React to Stress?

Fear and anger tend to dominate the emotional scale, however, there are many subtle shades of these emotions including worry, grief, guilt, frustration, jealousy, sadness anr more. If you find you label all your stressful feelings as fear or anger, try to spend a little time looking at the more subtle, underlying feelings. Once you have identified what causes the stress, you are in a position to ask "Why does that cause stress?" and then add that to your journal. Try not to pre-judge or censor your writing, try to make it as fair and honest as possible.

Write Down the Resolution

Once you have identified the "What" and "Why" of your stress you can start to write down possible solutions to dealing with those triggers. Participants in journal writing think this is the most helpful and therapeutic part of the process and enjoy creating a reasonable action plan to reduce the stress in their daily lives.

When you have completed the journal you may want to review the main points with friends and family, so they are able to understand your circumstance more effectively, and will be more able and prepared to offer you support if you want to call on their help.

American Psychological Association Announces Annual Stress Report

As many as 80 percent of Americans are stressed about their personal finances and the economy, according to the annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association.

7000 Americans responded to the study, published in March 2009.

According to Dr. Katherine Nordal, the association's executive director for professional practice, in the past, top issues that caused stress were raising children, personal finance and work. Yet this year the number 1 worry centers on money and the economy, something Nordal has not seen appearing as a common complaint in over 30 years of experience.

She says "Most people are driven to counseling because of relationship problems with marriage and children, depression and anxiety. But what we're seeing today is that the economy and finances are viewed as significantly more stressful, by more than 8 out of 10 Americans."

It seems it's not just workers on Wall Street that feel under pressure -significant number of Americans are feeling the strain too.

CNN Article on the American Psychological Association Report

Is Exercise The Answer to Your Stress Problem

If you're looking for some lasting stress relief, there is probably nothing better for you than exercise and physical activity which might come as bad news to some.

You need to realize that you only get exercise and physical activity through effort and work on your part; you can't simply sit on the couch and "wish" stress relief upon yourself. Rarely does this happen.

Let's look at why is it that physical activity, one of the last things anyone wants when they're stressed or depressed, is so healthy and healing when it comes to tension.

Exercise Releases Endorphins

Exercise releases those "feel good" chemicals and hormones, endorphins. This gives you stress relief by making you feel calm and relaxed. You might not realize this because of course exercising energizes you just as you're engaging in it, but once those endorphins are released you feel more at ease and can sleep better as well, which in turn can lead to stress relief the next day. If you're still not too happy about needing to exercise to get relief from tension and stress, remember that this doesn't necessarily mean in a gym. You can get plenty of physical activity just by playing with your kids, taking up a sport, or getting a dog that will need walking.

Exercise Relaxes Muscles

Some easy stretching and light exercise can provide stress relief by increasing blood circulation so that those muscles can loosen up and be healthy. This means the body will be in less pain and will feel looser and healthier.

When you're under stress the muscles have a tendency to stiffen up, as if ready for action. Exercise is also a great means of stress relief because it helps to loosen tense and cramped muscles.

This is a very primal response to tension that you may not even be aware of. However when muscles are stiff and tense, blood cannot flow freely in those areas and blood is very necessary for the health and healing of muscles. So it's a vicious circle - tension creates stiff muscles which in turn means they are often in pain, which creates more tension.

Physical Activity

Physical activity also increases blood circulation to all areas of the body as well. This can provide a measure of stress relief because blood is a healing agent; it carries nutrients as well as oxygen to all the body's cells. This means the cells of the brain as well! When you increase your blood circulation it's like you're actually feeding and healing your brain more often. This means that you're better equipped to handle the stress that life throws at you. You can achieve stress relief because you're thinking clearly and are able to address and solve problems you have rather than allowing them to multiply and overwhelm you.


The key is to be active on a regular basis, even if it's twenty or thirty minutes every day, in order to get lasting stress relief.