Identifying Your Stress Triggers

Stress is something everyone deals with, though each person usually has a different level of stress. In order to put a stop to yours, you need to figure out what is causing it. This is done by identifying the stress triggers, which might be situations, people, or events that lead you to feeling stressed out and anxious.

Journaling

A very common way to figure out what is causing you stress is by keeping a journal or diary. This is where you record all of your thoughts and feelings each day, then look back on it when you have a stressful day. You should be able to pinpoint people or situations that led to your increased stress on those days. Remember to look back on your journal entries often to try and find a pattern to discover what was causing your stress. It may be a co-worker you work with often, eating too much junk food and feeling guilt because you are on a diet, or personal issues leading to your stress.

Consider Your Physical Changes

Your body can also be showing signs of stress, even though you might not realize this is what is going on. For example, do you notice that after dealing with a certain person, you tend to get really bad headaches or muscle tension? This is your body's response to the stress that this particular person causes. You might also find that when you are having a bad day at work or your car breaks down, you suddenly have stomach aches or other digestion issues. These are other physical signs of the stress. When you know the physical signs of stress, you can then try to figure out what was going on just before you got those  headaches to figure out what was causing your stress.

Notice Your Behavioral Changes

You can also look at how your behavior changes and then narrow down why you think you are behaving in a different manner to figure out what is stressing you out. For example, if you are suddenly not sleeping very well or are sleeping too much, try to think about what was happening on those days of insomnia. You should be able to narrow it down to something that is causing you stress. Some other behavior changes to use when finding your stress triggers are anger or resentment towards others, lashing out, being irritable, eating more or less than you used to, or having changes in your work performance.

By noticing when you are stressed and paying attention to what causes stress, you will be in a better position to avoid these stress triggers in future.