For our last post during stress awareness month, I wanted to share a tool that is incredibly helpful for gaining perspective on stress. This is a very simplified version of a tool that all of our clinicians use in therapy, so bring any awareness you gain from this to your next session to go even deeper!

Start with yourself in the center on a sticky note. Place other sticky notes around you – one for every relationship you interacted with today (physically, over some form of communication, or just people you spent time thinking about), the roles that you engaged in today, and the tasks you were responsible for today. You’re just thinking about today. Don’t forget to also put yourself somewhere on the map; notice that in this example “me” is very far from “me” and is blocked by all of the other roles. It’s often difficult to focus on personal needs and priorities when too many other things are in the way. Arrange these sticky notes however you need until it most accurately reflects what is going on in your life – there may be some things that you can clearly see are getting in the way of others; maybe some relationships that you put really far away from “me” because other things are getting in the way; or maybe you feel completely covered up by all of the “stuff” around you. 

This is just another tool to gain some insight into what might need to shift or change. – Amanda