Its spring and there seems to be a lot going on in Tobermory. What about for you? As a volunteer and Chair of The Meeting Place we’ve got a video in the works, Volunteer Fair and Seminar coming up and our annual fundraising concert in 6 weeks. Not to mention a bunch of worries and excitement about the future. Yikes! I feel a little stressed out. Coincidentally or maybe not, I received an invitation from my professional association to try something called Stress Strategies – an on-line tool. Its Canadian, credible, down to earth and free – I checked! Who wants a hidden bill when you are trying to reduce stress? This set in motion a series of questions that I have asked before. Is stress something the average person can really reduce or change its effect? Can you actually learn to reduce stress successfully if needed?
As a social worker I’ve always believed in people’s strengths to deal with adversity but I’ve never taken a close personal look at everyday stress.
I also thought about CIRC, the Community Information & Resource Coordination service at The Meeting Place. One of the things the Coordinator does is give information and support to people in stressful situations. Maybe this is a tool to add to the resources and face-to-face discussion. So I passed the link on to Jennifer, our Community Coordinator to see what she thinks. Now I’m a bit more curious.
I’m a person who generally thrives on a certain amount of stress; its gets me going, and when I do things the stress usually changes somehow. It’s kind of automatic and I don’t think about it much. But I decided to try out the Stress Strategies tool. I really did and I got a quick but good plan on changing a couple of key things I’m stressed about right now. I spent 10 minutes; I saved my plan on-line in my own account and did print out. I still love paper. The interactive site pulls up little resource boxes to add learning specific to your plan. You can change it up any time you want. The whole thing is pretty easy to use and there’s a little intro video, but be prepared to read a bit. In the 10 minutes I spent I came up with three additional messages to self. INVEST. FINISH IT. USE IT.
Here is what some others say about who StressStrategies.ca is intended for:
StressStrategies.ca is designed to provide individuals with information, self-selected strategies and skill development. StressStrategies.ca is designed to be mobile-friendly, free and easy to use. The online tool walks you through the process of identifying simple and actionable strategies to manage stressors that are having a negative impact on the quality of your life. From there, you are empowered to develop a personalized action plan with concrete, practical steps that will enable an individual to manage stress more effectively.
So if your interested or you think you should pay more attention to what’s stressing you, take look. I don’t think it can hurt. It’s spring. Now waiting for what Jen says. Maybe she will send out a comment.