5.8 Reflection

Reflect on the following questions:

1. Reflect on a period of your life when you felt completely overwhelmed (exhaustion phase). Which personal beliefs, assumptions, or past experiences may have contributed to your prolonged stress, and how do they still affect your capacity to cope today?
2. Consider the core values that guide you (e.g., family, career success, creativity, spiritual growth). In what ways might these values conflict or reinforce each other under stress, and how does that interplay influence your decision-making?
3. When you feel the initial “alarm” of stress (e.g., rapid heartbeat, irritability), what specific emotions surface, and what deeper fears or insecurities might be driving them? How do these emotions affect your relationships and daily routines?
4. Examine the different roles you fulfill (e.g., caregiver, employee, student, or friend). How do these roles interact and sometimes compete under stress, and what does that reveal about your identity, priorities, and sense of purpose?
5. Think of a time when stress served as a catalyst for personal transformation or growth in your life. What elements of that experience made it productive rather than destructive, and how can you replicate those conditions in future high-stress situations?