Stress Kills!

I took a course a while back on stress management. The first thing we did was take a stressor assessment. This assessment asked about various major and minor life changes that cause stress in our lives- things like divorce, moving, losing or finding a job (yes, both, and they count as two separate events), promotion, demotion, having a child, losing a family member, having a family member move in with you, starting school, etc.

Me on one end, exhus on the other... and six dearly-loved stressors in between!

Then we added up the points associated with each event. Anything over a certain amount indicated a distinct risk of a serious health event in the next 12 months. My score was approximately 3x that amount. Ha! And that was another stressor!

The test was written a couple decades back. The authors felt it was NOT appropriate to adjust the scores for modern life: The human body hasn't changed enough to warrant any change to the health-event risk. Stress levels have changed, but human physiology hasn't.

The level of stress that grade school kids today face has been said to be comparable to what mental ward patients of decades past dealt with. No wonder there's acting out, bullying (some kind of stressor driving that behavior), anxiety, depression, suicide.. and that's just grade school kids! High school kids, and even adults are dealing with these and more!

Adults end up with moodiness, high blood pressure, headaches, body aches and pains, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset (through the entire tract), frequent illness, chest pain....

And really, it's no wonder. Today's world, with the speed at which life is happening, is just not compatible with stable mental and physical health.

The ability to slow down, de-stress, and find peace is invaluable.

So what are you going to do to de-stress today?