Stress can cause very serious damage to our personal well-being and overall physical and mental health.  There are many things that we can do to avoid stress or to drastically eliminate its impact on our lives.  My personal strategic plan for stress management has worked out very well over the last week.  The criteria that I established over a week ago to properly address the stressful situations in my life have proven to be effective.  Perhaps the greatest success of my plan was actually being able to follow it.  I was able to exercise daily and avoid stressful situations by remaining organized.  However, this week seemed to present very few stressful situations, so it is difficult to determine whether the plan and its implementation was performed well or if its success simply stemmed from having little stress throughout the week.

The stress management plan does need to continue to be adjusted and evaluated for proper implementation and effectiveness.  Many of the barriers with the plan came from time management issues.  The first two days of the week were difficult because I had to change my usual schedule to allow for time to exercise.  Within the first day, I was forced to work out late at night because I did not set aside time throughout the day.  I was able to get a full seven hours of sleep every day this week and I made sure to eat at every meal.  Overall, I think my body responded very well to this behavioral change, but it will continue to take a lot of effort to maintain this new lifestyle.  I will need to hear how my classmates and professor respond to time management concerns with regards to stress management so that I can learn appropriate techniques eliminate stress from my life.  Otherwise, I think this plan is on the right track to accomplishing all of its main goals.