Do you know your stress level?

With the high level of stress in today’s marketplace, we find ourselves becoming almost numb to stress and many people don't realize just how stressed they are especially the high achievers.

Read through the following ten stress symptoms and signs and see how many you can identify with in your life.

Score yourself on a scale of 1-10 for each sign (with 1 for strongly disagree and 10 for strongly agree)

Warning Sign 1 : Frequent & sudden emotional outbursts
You find yourself frequently & suddenly angry and lashing out at the people around you, such as your family, friends and work colleagues with no apparent cause.
(Score=    )

Warning Sign 2 : Overwhelming feelings
You feel overwhelmed with the little things in your work life like your usual routines of relating with others, listening, reading, writing, etc. and feel like getting away from it all?

(Score=   )                                               

Warning sign 3: Exhaustion

You get very tired but find it difficult to sleep and staying awake is no option because of lack of strength.

(Score=  )

Warning sign 4: Sudden appetite change

You experience a sudden change in your appetite for food, drink, sex and power like eating impulsively(without any thought), uncontrolled drinking, diminishing sexual functions, unexplainable craze for power/respect, etc.

(Score=   )

Warning sign 5:  Loss of sense of purpose/values

You lost interest in things that you formally hold dear like social/religious fellowships, weight and fitness control, community service, personal development, etc.

(Score=   )

Warning Sign 6 : Too frequent Colds/illness
You catch every single cold or flu bug that comes around and just can't seem to get over them as quickly as you used to. You're starting to feel like you are constantly ill.

(Score=   )
Warning Sign 7 : Waning mental strength
You find it much harder to concentrate than before or gain clarity of your mind on an issue. You now give up on a task easily. Your memory seems to be going and you are frequently starting to do something and then forgetting what it was you were doing.

(Score=   )
Warning Sign 8 : Mood Swings
Your mood changes from happy to sad to angry to tears to worry all at the drop of a hat with no apparent cause.

(Score=   )

Warning Sign 9 : Social apathy
You no longer care as much about your appearance or your environment as you once did. Your paperwork is piling up, posts/mails go unopened, social networks like facebook become boring and you even go out without brushing your hair or ironing your clothes more often than not.
(Score=   )

Warning Sign 10 : Time pressure
You now feel as if someone has removed twelve hours from your day and you struggle to keep up unlike before. You find it difficult to track how you spend your time.

(Score=   )

Sum up your scores for the ten warning signs to get your total score (……….).

Divide your total score by 10 to get your average score (………)
Assess your stress response level by pitching your average score with the appropriate category below:
Less than 3 ... sounds like you're living an overtly chilled out life. (HYPOSTRESS)
Greater than or equal to 3 but less than 5 ... You are on point but make sure you stay there. (EUSTRESS)
Greater than or equal to 5 but less than 9 ... take time out and learn how to reduce and manage your stress before it becomes too serious a problem (HYPERSTRESS).

9 - 10 ... Now, this is a real problem. Beware of DISTRESS & BURNOUT!

You care to know more about your stress and how to master it, check my post tomorrow.
It's well!

The currency of winning life's battles

Do you hope for something like health, happiness or higher life today? Whatever it is, just know that it must be backed by the right feelings to get it right.

This reminds me of the early men and women that exchanged goods and services by engaging in trade by barter.

Mr A comes with five tubers of yam in exchange of a piece of land from Mr B.

With advancing age and civilization, trade by barter gave way to cowries and to coins and then to papers called money.

We now buy and sell with money in various forms.

You buy or sell your victory in any life’s battle majorly through the interplay of your emotions.

The holy bible says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for (i.e. your thoughts) and the evidence of things yet to be seen (i.e. your feelings and actions)….. By this, men of old obtained good reports or results.” (Emphasis mine)

Whatever you hope for in life; health, happiness, prosperity, etc. must be backed up by the corresponding feelings.

In the movie, ‘The Secret’; several practical evidence of how nature conspires together to bring to pass what you consistently think and feel were made mention of.

Dr Don Colbert in his bestselling book, Deadly emotions; made mention of several medical evidence of the link between emotional pains and physical pains.

According to Daniel Goleman, the author and pioneer of emotional intelligence (how you handle your feelings and the feelings of others); research over the years has proven that emotional intelligence is a greater predictor of success in life than mental or academic intelligence.

In fact, it’s said that 85% of every man’s achievements in life is a function of his/her emotional intelligence.

No wonder Albert Einstein, one of the world’s greatest scientific minds of all times also said in one of his biographies, "I never discovered anything through rational thinking. Gut feelings did!"  

Many have ‘lost’ loved ones, juicy deals, loyal customers, dedicated employees and even their health and happiness to the poor handling of this currency of winning life’s battles.

“But a business man or woman has to be emotionless to get the job done,” someone might query.

There’s no vacuum in this world. It’s either you entertain positive or negative emotions. If at all you get the job done with a negative emotion, I dare you to try the positive emotions and see what your ‘return on investment’ will multiply to.

Let nothing steal away your joy today.
Let nothing instil fear into you.
Regardless of the challenge, hold your peace, express love, have faith, forgive easily, don't be irritable.
You'll get it right if you hold onto the right feelings.

Have a great day!

HOW YOU CAN OVERCOME YOUR HEALTH & WELL-BEING CHALLENGES WITH SELF-AWARENESS.

Hi.

Do you know that your brain processes millions of information every second much more than the fastest computer does?



Do you know that there's nothing smarter about the hydrogen & oxygen molecules


that cycle through the human DNA than d ones that form


ordinary water?


Do you know that the same sugar molecules that sit passively in a sugar cube


are found with just minor variations in d human DNA?


Do you also know that the burning of this sugar cube over a gas flame yields only


a flash of light, heat & carbon while it produces all d thoughts & emotions that we have as human when our body burns it as its basic


fuel?


Do you know that even cells scraped from a criminal's mouth when put in


another room & connected to d polygraph (lie detector) respond with the


same electrical charges as him while he sits in a different room?


What could be responsible for this magnitude of unique differences?


The innate human intelligence!


It is responsible 4 d discomfort u feel when your mind-body


connection is in disharmony & d comfort when in harmony.


Your body is designed with such a high-level intelligence that it listens to your real lifestyle needs in diet & nutrition, fitness, relaxation & recreation, relationship, beauty & even environment & communicates them to your brain for interpretation and appropriate execution?


Any state of imbalance in your mind-body system at its minutest stage is picked by the body’s intelligence. When it remains unchecked over a period of time, it progresses into a disease.


As a matter of fact, most diseases are gross results of unchecked mind/body imbalance as about 80% of all primary health care conditions have been said to be preventable.


The persistent headache, recurrent palpitations, easy fatigue, chronic back pain, unusual sleep patterns, fading memory, precocious facial aging and the likes may be your body’s intelligent way of drawing your attention to your lifestyle patterns.


Self-awareness is the act of paying close attention to your mind-body processes for the sole purpose of making quality lifestyle decisions.


Your health & wellbeing is largely ruled by your lifestyle.


Your lifestyle is ruled by your thoughts, emotions & belief system.


What’s the belief system feeding the what, when & how you eat?


What’s your thought on spending quality time with your loved ones or on exercise?


Friends, permit me to say that many of our health & wellbeing challenges will cease to be if those lifestyle patterns that have become routines in our lives are readdressed.


Increase your self-knowledge.


Readdress your lifestyle choices including those that have become regular routines in your life.


Be responsible for your health.


You are God’s most intelligent creation & the key to your peak performance in life and at workplace is in its awareness.


It’s only you that can stop you!


It’s well.