Looking for the right tool to help manage stress? Stress management worksheets work very well for this purpose.
In today’s article, we’re sharing a collection of printable worksheets you can download, print out, and use to help manage and lower your stress and anxiety levels.
Stress Can Be a Good Thing
In small amounts, stress can be a good thing. It gives us motivation and helps us to get things done.
Unfortunately, we live in an age where chronic stress has become a problem. Many of us have to deal with daily challenges in the workplace, making ends meet, and looking after our family’s and our own welfare.
Our fight-or-flight response is triggered to cope with what the body perceives as threats. When this happens constantly, we develop physical ailments such as respiratory problems, digestive issues, and heart disease that can lead to stroke.
Knowing how to manage stress is important not just for our health, but also for the overall quality of our life.
Some Techniques for Lowering Stress Naturally
Chronic stress is not caused by a single factor, and for many people it gets to the point where they need to take medication to keep it at bay.
Here are some suggestions on how to reduce stress naturally.
To help you out, we’ve rounded up the best worksheets that can be printed out and used instantly. Continue reading to check them out and see what works best for you.
1. Stress Management Tool
If you’re looking for a worksheet that helps you manage stress quickly, here’s one from Solutions for Living that you might want to try.
This free, printable worksheet has sufficient space for writing down crucial information you need for stress management.
Use this worksheet to identify the following:
2. Taking Control of Your Emotions
Perhaps you’re currently experiencing a personal crisis and need something to help you cope with the stressful situation. This workbook created by Elly Prior is a great option.
In a gentle, informative way, the worksheet walks you through the emotional rollercoaster you may be going through right now and helps you find solid footing through actionable ideas that keep you from being overwhelmed.
3. Yoga Art Therapy for Stress Management
This worksheet gives you the chance to work off steam and lower your stress levels. It has a fun theme of incorporating art and movement to alleviate anxious thoughts and emotions.
Yoga poses are printed on the first column of the worksheet. The second column encourages users to copy the picture and draw the pose.
Finally, the third column asks users to copy the picture by actually doing the yoga pose.
The activity works in two ways.
First, drawing the poses encourages mindfulness and moves your attention away from what’s causing your stress. Second, doing the yoga poses incorporates moderate exercise that helps lower stress levels in a natural way.
4. Stress Management Workbook
via SafeSpot
SafePost provides a series of Wellbeing Workbooks to help users learn more and cope with the stress they’re experiencing. There are four workbooks in this series, and the example above is workbook number one.
This printable workbook features 45 pages of helpful information for understanding stress, as well as activities and writing prompts that promote stress management.
5. Stress Diary
via Personal Development Insights
The habit of keeping a journal is a cathartic practice that provides a safe place where you can write down thoughts about what’s stressing you out.
This free, printable worksheet provides gentle encouragement and useful tips for alleviating stress and maintaining a stress diary where you record emotions, experiences, thoughts, and situations that give you stress or feelings of discomfort.
6. Stress Management Journal Worksheet
This worksheet helps you regain control of your life and minimize your stress.
It can be used for your daily or weekly reflections, as well as stress management. The worksheet is helpful for identifying the things causing your stress, depression, or anxiety.
Some of the writing prompts in this worksheet help determine:
It also features several mantras to remind you to stay grounded and let go of whatever is causing you stress.
7. Manage Stress Workbook
via US Department of Veterans Affairs
This workbook was designed for veterans as a guide for identifying and tracking stress, as well as for utilizing a variety of techniques and strategies for coping.
The workbook has 20 pages that provide valuable tools for stress management, such as:
8. Stress Journal
via ONTSpecialNeeds on Twitter
This Stress Journal emphasizes the importance of learning to recognize what causes stress before determining the coping strategies to be used.
To track the main stressors in one’s life, the user records the date, time, and details of the stressful situation(s) they encountered during the week.
The user also rates their stress level during that moment (high, medium, or low).
Finally, the user records their reaction to the stressful event.
When users keep track of stressors and their stress levels, much can be revealed about the nature of their stress. With this knowledge, they can then begin addressing it.
9. Introduction to Stress Management
via Therapist Aid
This is a three-page worksheet featuring questions and prompts to explore more deeply the user’s understanding of stress, as well as identify situations in their life that are a source of stress for them.
The worksheet asks users to identify the major physical symptoms that manifest as their response to stress.
This technique promotes self-awareness and mindfulness and can hopefully be a way to resolve a person’s extreme response to stress.
10. Anxiety Buster Printable Worksheet
This worksheet provides space for helping lessen the overwhelming feeling people often get when dealing with stress.
The guide questions allow you to identify the top four things that you worry about and help you reflect on ways you can deal with them. This enables you to regain your sense of control rather than feeling helpless in the face of anxiety or stress.
The worksheet also has a section that helps shift your focus from worry to gratitude. There are spaces for listing down the things you’re grateful for, as well as the things you are praying for.
At the bottom of the page are several suggestions (with boxes you can tick if you’ve done them) you can try to fight off fear, such as prayer, going outdoors, taking a break from screens, and eating healthy food.
Clicking on the image of the worksheet on the website itself takes you to a .jpg version that you can download to your computer for easy printing.
11. Daily Self-Reflection Worksheet
This worksheet is part of a set of coping tools created to help you understand stress, anxiety, and other mental health struggles you may be going through.
The main purpose of the worksheet is to help you track your mental health needs. This lets you explore new ideas that you may uncover by reflecting on the events of the day.
The guide questions and prompts help you plan goals, identify what your strengths are, establish better coping skills, and celebrate the wins for the day.
To access this and other worksheets in this set, you need to scroll down toward the bottom of the page on the original website. You can then choose the file you want by clicking on its download link, which takes you to a PDF version of the file.
12. The Worry Workbook
This workbook is designed to help teens understand and manage stress. It serves as a journal, tracker, and brain dump.
By using this workbook, you’ll be on your way to becoming more resilient—capable of recognizing negative thoughts and shifting them to positive ones.
Some of the features you’ll find in this free printable include:
You can download the workbook by scrolling to the bottom of the page in the original post. Select the paper size you want for your downloaded file by clicking on the appropriate link, which will redirect you to a PDF version of the workbook.
13. Quick Guide to Calm
This worksheet combines several strategies to give you a process for regaining control of your emotions when you’re starting to feel overwhelmed.
With the guide questions in this worksheet, you’ll reflect on what’s stressing you out. You will then be guided to find ways to regain control of the situation. In addition to this, you may also write down situations that you recognize you have no control over.
The worksheet has space for you to draw up an action plan for regaining control, as well as a timeline/deadline for your action plan.
Subscribing to the site’s newsletter is required to access this worksheet. A download link is sent to your email address after you’ve signed up.
14. Stress Exploration Worksheet
Stress manifests in different ways for different people. Sometimes, we don’t recognize that we’re already under stress.
While a small amount of stress can be helpful for accomplishing something, being under too much stress can be overwhelming.
This worksheet helps determine the activities and situations in your daily life that trigger stress in you. It also lets you identify the things you do each day that can lessen or prevent stress.
A free version of this worksheet is available on the Therapist Aid site. Simply click the “Download Free Worksheet” button you’ll find in the middle of the page, and you’ll be redirected to a PDF version of this worksheet that you can download and print from your computer.
15. A Not-to-Do List
Many people define their worth by how productive they are. They use long to-do lists and are dead set on crossing off every item from their list.
Perhaps you’re a person who gets anxious when there’s only a handful of tasks on your to-do list.
This template encourages you to stop overcommitting your time and resources and simply step back and create space for yourself where you’re not drained, feeling obligated, distracted, and stressed.
The template has boxes for you fill with tasks that you refuse to do for the reasons specified in each box header.
To print this template, search for the phrase “this free Not To Do List printable” in the original post. This is the download link that you need to click on to be redirected to the printable PDF version of the template.
16. Categorize and Prioritize
There are likely times when you get stressed by all the thoughts swirling around in your mind. To ease the overwhelm, you can grab a piece of paper and a pen and start writing down all the thoughts and ideas in your head.
This technique is called brain dumping. You can use this template to list down everything that you’ve been thinking about, assign it to a category, and determine its level of priority if it’s a task you need to take care of.
If you need more brain dump templates, check out this collection for catching your best ideas.
To access the worksheet, scroll down to the bottom of the page in the original post. You can select the paper size (A4 or letter) for the printable PDF version of the file by clicking on the appropriate link.
17. Putting Everything on the Table
Making decisions can be stressful for many people. This worksheet helps keep stress at bay by letting you list down every idea that comes to mind during a brainstorming session.
It’s like a brain dump worksheet, but you write down your ideas for a specific topic.
To access the file, click on the “Printable PDF” button you’ll find at the top of the page in the original post. You’ll be redirected to a downloadable version of the file that you can save in your computer.
Final Thoughts on Stress Management Worksheets
There you have it—printable stress management worksheets to help improve your response to stressful situations.
Bear in mind that most stressful situations are beyond our control. The best thing you can do is to be aware of how you react to situations like this and, when necessary, change your reaction so as to protect your health and overall quality of life.
The following resources are worth checking out to learn more about stress management and improving your quality of life:
