Coping with Stress

After taking the three surveys listed in this week’s blog assignment, I learned a lot about both my levels of stress I feel and the ways I cope with stress. After taking the life stress survey, I calculated a total score of 133 which means that I scored well all things considered and that I have a relatively low amount of life change and a low susceptibility to stress-induced health breakdown. I think a lot of this is since the top 10 options on the survey were all weighted extremely high and none of those stressors affected me such as divorce and loss of a family member. After taking the coping and stress management skills test, I was enlightened to find out that I do not cope with stress very well despite not being susceptible to stress induced health issues. I got a score of 49 on this survey which shed light on my lack of effectiveness when dealing with even minor stressors in my life. This survey opened my eyes about the way I approach stressful situations and it inspired me to set more goals and to have discipline towards sticking to my pre-determined stress coping techniques. This encouraged me to focus on enterprise risk management within my day-to-day life which entails developing plans to mitigate stress when a stressful situation arises (Swift 2021). After taking the Type A personality survey, I found out about the types of things that get me triggered and how my attitude towards the types of situations presented could be worked on to help improve the way I feel about stressful situations induced by small things or the behavior of others. I am extremely happy that I took these surveys because they presented opportunities to improve myself by shedding light on things that I was not initially comfortable finding out about. 

I learned that I could do a better job with managing my stress by finding and adhering to healthy coping mechanisms such as journaling and meditation. One article I read about reducing stress in the workplace places an emphasis on making employees feel more engaged to reduce the burn out effect (Peart 2019). I think finding something that I feel engaged with would be a good strategy for me to try for reducing and dealing with stress. 

Sources: https://hbr.org/2019/11/making-work-less-stressful-and-more-engaging-for-your-employees

https://canvas.oregonstate.edu/courses/1833321/files/88998841?wrap=1