Figure Out if You are Stressed
When trying to achieve your dream life, many things affect your outcome, one of those being stress. Actively managing stress and keeping life simple can make a dramatic improvement in your daily life.
Stress can be sneaky and it sometimes does not make itself obvious. We often think it is just part of life and not extra stress. In 1967, Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe, published a study in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research that provided a way for anyone to determine how much stress they were under the influence of. The researchers asked people questions about specific life events and had them rate them for the amount of stress they created in their life. The comparison tool for all the rankings was that of the stress a new marriage would cause. The participants ranked events based on if they believed the occurrence was more severe and required more adjustment than a new marriage would require. Then they took the collected data and formed a final ranking from the median of each number and then dividing by 10.
In order to determine your current stress level you will add up the numbers next to the event that has occurred in your life in the past three to six months. The total of these numbers will help you determine your current stress level. Remember everyone manages stress very differently so there may be variation if you adapt quickly or slowly. In addition this data does not take into consideration regular stressful events such as using drugs, drinking, chronic illness, and other major negative daily influences. Besides that there are chance stresses such as car accidents that will also impact your score. Even positive changes in life can be considered stressful, you still have to learn to adapt to your new reality.
Below is the scale that they created. This is presented as information only and should not be used for diagnostic or treatment purposes.
EVENTS
- Death of spouse 100
- Divorce 73
- Marital separation 65
- Jail stay 63
- Death of a close family member 63
- Personal Injury or illness 53
- Marriage 50
- Laid off 47
- Marital reconciliation 45
- Retirement 45
- Change In health of a family member 44
- Pregnancy 40
- Sexual difficulties 39
- Addition of new family member 39
- Business of adjustment 39
- Change in finances 38
- Death of a friend 37
- Change to different line of work 36
- Change in frequency of arguments with spouse 35
- Mortgage over $10,000 31
- Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
- Change in job responsibilities 29
- Son or daughter leaving home 29
- Problems with in-laws 29
- Outstanding personal success 28
- Spouse begins or stops work 26
- Beginning or end of school 26
- Change in living conditions 25
- Changing of personal habits 24
- Trouble with boss 23
- Change in work hours or conditions 20
- Change in residence 20
- Change in school 20
- Change in recreational activities 19
- Change in church activities 19
- Mortgage or loan under $10,000 17
- Change in sleeping habits 16
- Change in number of family activities 15
- Change in eating habits 15
- Holiday 13
- Christmas 12
- Minor violations of the law 11
How do you manage your stress levels? There are many options for you to manage your stress health, below are some ideas to get you going.
1. Exercise – one of the best ways to manage stress.
2. Decrease Debt – debt was just one of the items on the list that you can manage by tackling head on. Reducing your debt will reduce your stress level.
3. Deep Breathing – stop for two minutes take a few deep breaths you will almost immediately be amazed at how great you are feeling afterwards. This is really great to do right before bed so that you can get a nice restful evening of sleep.
Stress can easily impact our life, by taking control we not only build a better life today but the chance to have a longer life overall.
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