Handling the Top Stressors in Life
For a while now, besides helping entrepreneurs and busy professionals with stress reduction and finding success without the stress, I have been helping those who have recently been laid off. What I have found is teaching the best practices for job transition is easy. What is more challenging is helping new job seekers to manage the emotions that come with the transition.
Unfortunately, many people I work with have been with one company for twenty or thirty years. When they are laid off, there are a host of issues which arise. Like in a divorce, they are angry that they gave so much to something and are being seemingly thrown away. They are resentful for having given so much and not feeling respected and taken care of in return. Those who are a few years from retirement are stressed by having to re-write their game plan. Many have not had to seek a new position in decades and are overwhelmed by learning and executing a new process. Some are frozen by fear and consumed by the sadness of loss.
Job loss is one of the top stressors humans currently experience. It is difficult. And for a few clients in transition, job loss is not the only issue they are challenged by. Many also experience one or more of the other major stressors. They may also be going through a divorce. Some are challenged by their own or their loved one’s health crisis. Some have positive changes like moving or having a new baby, but these positive experiences still tax their mind and body.
The Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory has long been a rating system for our stress levels. Check it out and calculate your current score for the past year. I scored in the highest category – and they don’t even have points for going through a major weather disaster. How about you?
Calculating my stress level made me feel some immediate relief. I pride myself on the strides I have made in reducing the negative effects of stress in my own life. Knowing that I am at the top end of the scale helped me understand that I just needed to step up my stress reduction tools. My normal practices could not cut this intensity and I needed to supplement my practices with additional tools and habits. Just knowing this and implementing a new tool or two, has already allowed me to feel some relief.
The Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory is used to predict a “major health breakdown” in the next two years. I’ll add the caveat, that this will only happen if nothing is done to relieve the stress. November 1, 2017 is National Stress Awareness Day. Use this reminder as an opportunity to check-in with your own stress levels and to begin making changes in your life to reduce your stress.
One step you can take today is to gain instant access to the Making Time for Stress Relief online course. This free self-study course was designed to help you begin to make changes in your level of stress, even when you think you don’t have the time. In five to fifteen minutes a day, you can utilize tools to not only reduced the effects of stress when they occur but to begin reducing the long-term effects of stress.
None of us deserve to experience the long-term mental and physical effects of stress. Commit today to make a change in your life by Making Time for Stress Relief.
