Transitions
You may have heard it said that the only constant in life is CHANGE; yet there is nothing easy about change. You’d think that the more you experience change, the easier it would be. Unfortunately for most of us this is just not so. Recently I’ve found myself in the midst of a great deal of change which has renewed my interested in a wonderful little self-assessment tool called the Holmes Rahe Scale. http://www.geocities.com/beyond_stretched/holmes.htm . If you check it out, you’ll see that even positive change can be very stressful. Events such as getting married, experiencing an outstanding personal achievement, going on vacation, and a change in your recreation level all have significant impact on your stress level. All of these things are stressors, what we feel as a result is STRESS! Often the stressors are out of our control….how we experience stress is ultimately within our control. We’ll be examining the many things that you can do to control stress in this blog. Tonight I’d like to begin with the simplest and quite possibily the most powerful tool….your breath. Take just a moment to connect with your breath. Close your eyes, breathe in through your nose and then breathe out through your mouth. Allow the air to go deep enough that it forces your stomach to push out. Notice where your in-breath shifts and becomes your out-breath. You might want to imagine that your are breathing in peace and calm, and breathing out tension and anxiety. For now, that’s all I want you to do. Just connect with your breath a minimum of three times a day. I’ll check back in a day or so to see how it’s going and to add to your tool box. I’ll look forward to hearing your experiences …. just B R E A T H E!
This was my score. What does it mean?
OVER 300 POINTS: This score indicates a major life crisis and is highly predictive (80%) of serious physical illness within the next 2 years.
The life stress scale is intended to gauge the current impact of stressors in your life. Stressors are external, stress is your internal experience in response to external stressors. Although the scale addresses the cumulative load of stressors, it does not assess your level of self care or the degree to which these stressors may be resulting in the experience stress. As you may know, stress impacts us physically as well as emotionally. A high score means that it is important for you to take positive action to protect your emotional and physical health. Self care is important and can include everything from exercise and eating well to mindfulness, social support, and therapy. Your score can serve as a reminder to practice self care and to do all you can to learn to process external stressors effectively.