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.
The total of your stresses in the past three to six months will give you an estimate of your stress level. Please keep in mind that everyone has a different ability when it comes to handling stress. This list doesn’t consider regular stresses as drug use, alcoholism, chronic illness, allergies, abuse and random stresses such as car accidents, or a tax audit. Plus, some stressors you may get used to at a quicker rate than others. You will also observe that some of these occasions are positive happy events. Regrettably even positive things take time to adapt to and may cause stress in the beginning.
Following is the scale that was developed to help you determine your stress level. This is presented as information and should not be used for diagnostic or treatment purposes; if you feel you need more help please see a professional.
LIFE EVENT
- Death of spouse 100
- Divorce 73
- Marital separation 65
- Jail term 63
- Death of a close family member 63
- Injury or illness 53
- Marriage 50
- Fired at work 47
- Marital reconciliation 45
- Retirement 45
- Change In health of a family member 44
- Pregnancy 40
- Sexual struggles 39
- Addition of new family member 39
- Business of adjustment 39
- Change in financial status 38
- Death of a close friend 37
- Change in line of work 36
- Change in number of arguments with spouse 35
- Mortgage over $10,000 31
- Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
- Change in job requirements 29
- Son or daughter leaving home 29
- Trouble with in-laws 29
- Outstanding personal success 28
- Wife or husband begins or stops work 26
- Beginning or end of school 26
- Change in living conditions 25
- Revision of personal habits 24
- Problems with boss 23
- Change in work hours or circumstances 20
- Change in home 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 patterns 16
- Change in number of family get-togethers 15
- Change in eating routine 15
- Vacation 13
- Christmas 12
- Minor violations of the law 11
Now that you know where you are with stress you can begin to work on reducing its impact on your life and health. Stress relief is a very personal thing, everyone is relaxed and happy in a different way. Yet many are the same, so below is a list to get you started with some new ideas.
1. Exercise – one of the best ways to manage stress.
2. Decrease Debt – living within your means not only helps you create more wealth, but also reduces stress. Studies have shown and the scale above show that debt hurts.
3. Restorative breathing – our ability to stop and take a couple full breaths for a minute or two is a major help to our stress levels. It makes us stop and think and also get the right amount of oxygen flowing around.
Remember less stress means you can enjoy your life even more, so start working on reducing your stress. Less stress also reduces your chance of heart disease. So you get a more enjoyable life and less risk of disease? I am in!
You can find more tips on stress and Heart Disease Prevention please visit http://www.squidoo.com/heart-disease-prevention2
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