A brand-new month is already here – can you believe it? If your life is like mine May is always a busy month for my family and I. My schedule is filled with school plays, spring concerts, 8th grade dances, end of the school year activities packing up my college daughter to return home, graduations and birthday celebrations all on top of our regular schedule. Whew! I normally approach busy seasons flying by the seat of my pants, exhausted, stressed and doing way too much. This year I am working on being intentional and focusing on how I want to feel as I move through life. More peace, patience, enjoying the journey and joy in the middle of the storms. Self-care strategies that I have mentioned in my previous post have helped me tremendously.
One of the ways we can be more intentional about self-care is to be more aware of what our stress levels are and their long term impacts. There is a great tool called the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale that can help you understand the way different stressors both good and bad can impact our lives on a short term and long term basis. It is good to be aware of the different levels of stress and how to better manage on a day to day, month to month and year to year basis.
Take a moment and add up your stress levels based on this quiz/point system below and assess the impacts that your stress levels can have on you. An online version can also be found here:
Once you add up your scores you can use this scale:
Total Point Score:
11-150 Points - You have only a low to moderate chance of becoming ill in the near future.
150-299 Points – You have a moderate to high chance of becoming ill in the near future.
300-600 Points - You have a high or very high risk of becoming ill in the near future.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we will dive into this topic even further this month as well as develop better-coping strategies to be more intentional with our mental health and self-care practices!
Cheers to May!
By Kara Norman- Empower Her, Inc.
Kara Norman Atlanta Based Women Empowerment Thought Leader and bi-weekly blog contributor.
Kara Norman has been working with Women and Girls for a number of years. Her nonprofit organization Empower Her Inc , have led to many opportunities in the space of making social changes as it deals with women and their many roles in society. You can learn more about Kara Norman and Empower Her Inc. at http://www.empowerherinc.com/