How to Reduce the Stress of Transitions

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How to Reduce the Stress of Transitions

If you are even imagining a change, involved in a change or starting to work on a change—you already know. You know change and transition can be stressful. No question about it.

Have you been wondering, “How can I find time to relax? I’ve got too much to do!” Sure, you make time to relax on vacation. Or on a day off. But how can you make time to reduce stress when you’re in the middle of major life changes? Don’t you have enough on your plate already?

One step at a time

You are most likely to see long-term results if you break down this big topic of “Transition Stress” into smaller pieces. And specific actions. Working one step at a time, you’ll discover how to shift your stress response and live with less stress each and every day.

Stress affects different people in different ways. What one person finds stressful, another finds exhilarating. Some people are very sensitive to high-paced, rapidly changing situations, others are more “stress-hardy.”

Here’s a handy tool that you can use to get started understanding what you do:

Take a personal stress-scan
The Stress Cycle Map is a powerful visual tool to help you get a sense of your own stress response. You’ll fill in the map with your own responses, so you can see for yourself, why you find something stressful. Remember, this is just for you.

The map breaks down a stressful event or pressure into separate components. It can help you identify what you feel, think and do in response to a situation. It can help you discover if your stress response is effective-- actually relieving stress—or if your response is part of the problem, and adding stress.

Think of the map as a way to release the pressure you may be feeling. A handy method to get “what’s bugging you” out of your head and onto paper.

Let’s get started:
Make your own chart on a blank sheet of paper. Draw a box or oval large enough to write inside of. You can draw one box or oval for each question. Pick one way of organizing your chart. Either as a vertical stack with all the boxes on top of each other. Or, draw a circle and spread out boxes/ovals all around the circle.

Get a pencil or pen, close the door and start filling it in. This can take 2-10 minutes or more, depending on how detailed you get.

Pick an event or a pressure that’s on your mind. Write this in the event/pressure space.
Ask yourself, “Why is it stressful to me?” Write down any thoughts or feelings you have about why you find this event or pressure stressful.
Ask yourself, “What do I do?” This could be any action, or non-action that you take in response to the feeling or thoughts you’ve written down.
Ask yourself, “What do I think?” Explore the thoughts you have. Write them down.
Ask yourself, “What do I feel?” Explore your feelings and write them down.
Ask yourself, “ Is it working? Does my response remove or minimize the stress?”
Ask yourself, “Is it not working? Does my response add stress?”
Are you experiencing symptoms that you attribute to stress? If so, write these down.

This is a self-exploration method that you can use when you encounter a stressful situation. Make a chart today. Do another one tomorrow. Pick the same event or situation. Pick a new event or situation. Get in the habit of making a map to see what’s going on when you get stressed. Over the next two weeks, make a map whenever you want to get the big picture of why you feel stressed out.

Keep these charts in a file, and after two weeks put several charts together and see what patterns you notice. Once you see what’s going on, you may find yourself making different choices simply because you’ve got the big picture.

Take This With You:

As often as you like over the next two weeks: Make a map using the Stress Cycle method to review an event or situation that you feel stressed about.

Strategic Storyboarding

One step at a time

Take This With You:

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