Week 3 Stress management update.

Week 3 has passed and I have to say it has been an a chaotic week with assignment deadlines creeping up. I notice my stress levels has been a roller coaster of personal pressure and frustration to completing assessment task on time. So it was a perfect week to really utilise these stress management strategies to reduce my stress levels.

This week decided to revisit stress managing techniques that I have reviewed in the past two weeks which were exercise, meditation and music.

Exercise

I decided to start of the week by doing some kind of physical activity from Sunday (14/5/2017) to Tuesday (16/5/2017). Pressure from trying to complete my parts for a group assignment initiated my rise in stress levels in those 3 days. How I allowed this trigger is to change an article that was required for the group assignment last minute. My as stress level rose my ability to complete the task I needed to do began to suffer. I would scale my stress levels to be 8/10. From then on I decided to go outside for a walk around my block. Walking in the fresh air, seeing how active my neighbourhood is and also seeing nature helped me to reduce my stress within the first 5 minutes of my walk. 15 minutes later I reach home and felt very much at peace. My stress levels reduced to a 2/10. As soon as I resumed my work I had a much clearer thought process than before. 

Meditation

For the next 2 days, Wednesday (17/5/2017) to Thursday (17/5/2017) I decided to revisit meditation. Stress continued linger over me in my personal life. I was worried about certain events that are happening in my life right now such as a potential volunteer opportunity and having hopes of getting in. In times like this as I experienced mid week I decided to take 10 minutes (using the stop watch on my phone to time it) to meditate. Within the first 2 minutes of my meditation I found it challenging to keep a quiet mind. However, once the 3rd minute passed I noticed how much calmer I feel both mentally and physically. I felt very soothed. Loose from all the thoughts I had prior to startng. My stress level went from 6/10 down to a 2/10.
I did revisit this particular meditation music video I had found on youtube. . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc6VqCdOqpY

Music

Finally the last two days of this week I decided to revisit music again as a stress relief tool. from Friday(19/5/2017) to Saturday(20/5/2017. With my individual assignment due very soon yet again I found myself returning to that horrible head space. I felt like I was thinking 1000 miles a minute. I found it very hard to concentrate. Due to this I decided to listen to some Indian classical music my stress level were rather high, listening to the Indian classical music has helped sooth me. My stress level dropped from 8/10 to 3/10. My mind became much more peaceful compared to how I was prior to using the music to reduce my stress level.

Week 2 update part 2

The end of week 2 of the stress management journey has come.

In this update I will share the stress management technique I have tried from Wednesday (9/5/2017) to Saturday (13/5/2017). 

The activity I experimented with is a little unconventional. It's bead embroidery. The reason I have chosen this is because my brief research suggested that certain hand crafts such as hand embroidery can provide an affect similar to the traditional forms of meditation.

My brief experience from doing a little hand bead embroidery had a mixed affect on my stress levels in the past 4 days of practising hand bead embroidery. On Wednesday the day I started this unconventional form of meditation had a great affect on me. My stress level before I started was at 7/10.  To my surprise, as I sewing sequence and beads on to fabric I noticed how quiet and low key 1my thoughts were. I beaded for about 30 minutes straight reducing my stress level down to 3/10. On Thursday (11/5/2017) I felt the same kind of eternal bliss of silence that lasted for 30 minutes. Friday (12/5/2017)  and Saturday (13/5/2017) this eternal bliss of a quiet mind slightly faded. My stress levels prior starting were 8/10. By the end of the 30 minute beading session my stress did reduce to 5/10 I did not feel as relaxed as I did on Wednesday and Thursday.

Week 2 update - Stress management Technique - meditation

Although week 2 hasn't completely finished I do need to make this update.

In week 2 I decided try out a couple different stress management technique. One technique I decided to try for 3 days (Sunday 7/5/2017 to Tuesday 9/5/2017) is meditation. I chose meditation purely on the many positive affects it has on people I know personally and also many successful celebrities such as Oprah who uses meditation as a technique to slow down and find peace for a few minutes in their busy lives each day.

My first few attempts at meditation has not been very successful. My stress level on day one (Sunday 7/5/2017) has been a 8 out of 10. The trigger of this high scaling was due to preparation for a mid-semester exam and a group presentation together. As you could imagine I was mentally very distracted with how i would be completing my assigned tasks for the group presentation which was held on Tuesday as well as completing my assigned task for the final presentation that will be will presented on the very next morning. If anything the meditation had very little affect on me on both Sunday and Monday.
On Tuesday however I felt the affects of meditating became much more effective on my stress level which reached 8/10 prior to starting dropping to about 5/10. My trace of thought became much clearer.

I did use a 5 minute meditation music. I found it helped a lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc6VqCdOqpY

Learning the importance of stress management Week 1 reflection

My first week of of this journey has widened my understanding of what it means to have proper stress management skills.My personal experience has taught me how stress effects me and the reasons for my getting stressed in the first place.

My thought process increases and my anxiety levels increase when I become stressed. The triggers of this experience are primarily from University work load and my poor time management skills (which I am working on with a newly learned time management technique) only enhances my stress and anxiety levels.

In week one of this journey I have used a 2 different techniques that are known to help reduce stress. Music and exercise. 

Exercise

The affects I have gotten from exercise has been extremely positive for me. I found my stress levels (from a scale of 1 to 10) from a typical 7 or 8 out of 10 reduced to about 4 or 5 out 10. The added benefit of this stress relief activity is I'm recognising the health benefit as a result from physical exercise. I exercised for 3 days in week 1 (Sunday 30/4/2017 to Wednesday 3/4/2017). I enjoyed the exercise a lot to the point where I have decided to do some kind of physical exercise a few times a week from now on.

Music

My experience with music has been a hit and miss as part of my experiment (from Thursday 4/5/2017 to Saturday 6/7/2017). The primary genre of music I have been listening to is pop music. However, I have also been listening to some cultural songs. My stress levels prior to listening to music has been about 8 out of 10, reduced to 6 out of 10 after listening to some music. Although my stress levels reduced just not as much as the results I have gotten from exercising.