Expanded ABC Analysis
OK. Let’s take a look at the activating events in your environment. What type of situations cause you to stress out? Is it traffic? Or standing in a line at a checkout? How about your boss? Or spouse? Or kids? Take a few minutes and make a list of the top 10 events that happen regularly in your life and cause you stress. Try to order them with #1 as the event that causes you the most stress.
Now, let’s take a look at how you react to those 10 items. Start with the #1 item. What’s the underlying issue associated with that stressful event. Does it have to do with wasting time? Costing you money? You having to do something that someone else should be doing? Try to put the item into a general category. Like Time. Or Money. Or Relations. Do this with each
of your 10 items. Do you see a trend? Do more than 3 or 4 have the same category? What does that tell you about your beliefs about that category? If you were to change your beliefs about that category, would it help with your stress?
For example, if you see that Time is the category for 6 of your stressful events, what are your beliefs about Time that cause those events to be stressful? Let’s say it’s about you being able to see your favorite TV shows every evening. If you changed your feelings about see your favorite shows (like maybe not watch them at all), would that help with your stress? Maybe giving up your TV shows would be worth having less stress?
Finally, let’s look at the consequences the stress is having on your life. In the example above, maybe you’re stressing out about all the things you have to wait for, to the extent you get home late and don’t get to watch your favorite TV shows. Maybe this is causing you to have a few drinks to relax since you don’t get to have the time to do that while watching TV. Maybe the additional alcohol is causing you to gain weight and be irritable with the family.
If you feel you can’t change the times you have to wait, and you can’t change how you feel about having to wait, can you at least change the consequences of how you cope with the stress? (Like giving up the alcohol?) With that change, maybe the additional stress of gaining weight and fighting with your family will make the stress of waiting much easier to bear.
Let’s take a look at another stress test that can shed a different light on how stress affects you.
Next Step:
Take a test to determine how likely you are to develop illness as a result of your stress.
Previous Step:
Take time to determine how much stress is in your life and what effects it has on you.
