Stress Management Plan

Garett Manack

Exercise 1: Recognizing Professional Stress

1. I realize I am stressed when:

I am time crunched and I am unprepared for school or workout session with a client

(personal training).

- Which makes me feel:

Nervous, Anxious, Overwhelmed, The typical fight-or-flight response- stress, heart

racing, sweating.

- And I react by:

Either cramming to get things done or moving them back when possible.

- Afterward, thinking about it calmly and quietly, I realize and tell myself next time I may

choose to:

Manage my time more effectively and be better prepared ahead of time.

2. Signs and Symptoms of burnout for me:

a. Feeling overwhelmed with workload between school, work, and home life.

b. Frustrated with manager at work when extra duties are placed on me or changing in

work schedule.

c. Some detachment- I haven’t been going out of my way to hang out with my friend over

the weekends.

d. Having trouble getting enough sleep some nights- thoughts racing.

e. Questioning whether I have what it takes to do well in school.

3. Coping mechanisms that I use now within my environment:

a. Working out to relieve stress- I have direct access to exercise facility at school and

work (Gold’s Gym)

b. Talking with my fiancé to get things off of my chest helps relieve some stress.

c. Hanging out with my friends and family.

4. Three things I did last week to take care of myself:

a. Exercised at least 3 times.

b. Consumed a good diet- I didn’t skip breakfast and my meals were healthy and

balanced.

c. I was able to get outside and enjoy nature by going for an outdoor run on the towpath.

Summary of physical stress symptom scale

Looking at the results from my physical stress symptom scale, I find that I have scored above a

14 in the skin symptoms category. According to the scale I have a likely chance to experience

psychosomatic disease in these symptoms (Acne, Dandruff, Perspiration, and Excessive dryness

of skin or hair). I am also at slightly higher risk of disease in the metabolic symptom and

cardiovascular symptom categories. Often when I think about stress, I only think about the

emotional side and not the physical symptoms. This is very eye opening to me and points out the

physical stress symptoms that I need to address in the near future.

Summary of the Holmes Stress Scale

My score total for the test was 245. This puts me in the 150-300 category on the sale, which

indicates an accident/injury quotient increase by 50%. I notice that I am also on the higher end of

this range going towards the 300+ category that increase my risk to 80%. It’s interesting that

even some positive experiences in my life like getting into grad school, getting engaged, and

getting back involved with my church can also contribute to the overall stress in my life.

My Stress Management Plan

1. My major identified stressors:

- Time constraints; Time management issues that leads to under preparedness

- Financial worries with school and planning a wedding

- Anxiety that comes with balancing educational, work, and social aspects of life

2. How I react to these stressors/ recognition of stress:

- My acute reactions to stress fall into the general fight-or-flight response. My heart seems to be

racing and I get the feeling of being overwhelmed and anxious. My skin get cold and clammy.

The more chronic symptoms I have pointed out through the assessments include trouble sleeping

due to racing thoughts, the general feeling of being overwhelmed. I’ve also pinpointed some

symptoms of burnout such as doubting my abilities, getting easily frustrated at work when there

are slight changes, and slight detachment socially.

3. Ways I plan to cope with each stressor:

- Overall I plan to be more aware of my physical and emotional symptoms of stress.

- Anxiety with balancing school, work, and social responsibilities & time management:

My plan to avoid these stressors is to get a planner to keep myself organized and on schedule.

Right now I don’t use a planner and just review the assignments/exams on the Sunday before

each week. Using this strategy, I know what I need to do each week, but I don’t have a specific

plan to complete each task in a timely manner. By starting to use a planner, I will be able to

identify each task and decide when to complete it. This can be anything from setting aside time

to study, complete an assignment, etc. Also, I plan to lay out my work schedule and set aside

time and plan to hang out with friends and family.

- Financial worries with school and planning my wedding:

I understand that financial worries are never going to go away throughout my life, but I think I

can make it much less of an uncertainty. To do this, I plan to sit down with my fiancé and

developing a budget for myself personally and for the wedding. My personal budget will include

looking at my average salary, expenses (travel, insurance, social, etc.), and develop a plan to try

to save as much money as possible. We will do the same for the wedding by accessing how

much family financial support we are expecting, and what we need to pay for out of pocket. We

will also have to plan for future purchases of buying our own house and all of the related

expenses.

4. Check-Ins for my plan

- To make sure I am following my plan, I plan to use my fiancé to check in on me weekly or at

least bi-weekly. Every Sunday, I will develop my weekly plan in my planner and have my fiancé

review it to make sure it is done and point out any weekly events I might have missed.

When it comes to the budget for the wedding, I plan to have bi-weekly or monthly check-ins

with my fiancé to make sure we are following the budget. Also, we can reassess and make

adjustments to the budget as changes in financial needs occur.

5. General ways I plan to prevent or relieve stress:

- Three ways in which I plan to relive stress effectively are to continue working out regularly and

eating healthily, getting outdoors to enjoy nature as much as possible, and confiding in my fiancé

and church groups. These are three of my favorite hobbies and activities that allow me to either

relieve my physical stress in a healthy way (exercise) or have a calming effect (nature and

church/family).