Are you Stressed or Blessed?

The Take Charge! Workshops are based on the belief that we would all love to live a life that is vibrant, passionate, focused, delightful, meaningful, refreshing and balanced. We all want to be fully who we are. We all want to put our heart and soul into our lives and our relationships; and we want to help others to do the same. But this does not happen just because we want it. To achieve this kind of life we need to know how to take care of our bodies and brains.

The rule is a simple one – when you help your body work in the way that it was designed, your body will work with you. When you work against your body, your body and brain will work against you.

So Step Number 1 is identifying whether you are working with your body or working against your body. You cannot begin to enhance your life until you have the courage to Take Ownership of your current level of stress.

Feel free to print the questionnaire below.

Are you Stressed or Blessed?

Complete the questions below to describe what is currently true for you. Record your scores in the box to the left of each question:

4 = This is happening regularly – too often for comfort

3 = This is beginning to happen more frequently

2 = This is happening occassionally

1 = This happens very rarely

Assess your Stress

_____ Do you find yourself frequently upset or irritable?

_____ Do you have very high standards for yourself?

_____ Does your mood and energy swing up and down?

_____ Are you withdrawing from key relationships in your life?

_____ Are you less communicative with others?

_____ Do you overextend or overcommit yourself in terms of time and/or energy?

_____ Do you find it difficult to turn off your thoughts at night or on the weekends long enough to feel relaxed and refreshed the next day?

_____ Do you take medication for stress or stress-related complaints – such as, headaches, backache, anxiety, sleeplessness, allergies, mood swings and any other?

_____ Do you feel mentally or physically drained a lot of the time?

_____ Do you feel low, depressed, sad or empty?

_____ Do you feel like you are working harder but accomplishing less?

_____ Do you try to be all things to all people?

_____ Is your day filled with constant frustration?

_____ Do you feel inadequately compensated for everything you do at home or at work?

_____ Do you rarely laugh at yourself or at the funny/ridiculous side of life?

_____ Do you find it difficult to concentrate on what you are doing, and be fully present, because you are thinking about other things?

_____ Do you become upset when setbacks occur … tending to focus on the negatives?

_____ Do you have more physical complaints recently than before – headaches, insomnia, fatigue, frequent colds, allergies, joint pains or any other?

_____ Once you find the time, is it hard for you to really relax?

_____ Do you feel your life is more hard work than fun?

____ Total Score

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Interpreting Your Score

0-20 Congratulations! You are blessed to have so few signs of stress.

You have the skills to live your life without building stress. Well done!

21-45 You show low levels of stress. This is good news.

Be sure to keep yourself at this level and avoid building more stress.

46-60 Warning signs of bad stress – getting too close to the edge.

You are responding to life in ways that builds stress. Learn how to stop doing this.

61–70 High stress – starting to feel burnout.

If you continue to ignore this level of stress, it can only have bad consequences.

71- 80 ‘Stop the World I Quit’ – You have burnout.

Burnout is very debilitating physically and emotionally. Call me and lets talk. __

If your score reveals low levels of stress, Take Ownership of this and enjoy this good news! Whatever it is you are doing to avoid building stress, it is working!

If your stress levels are high, Take Ownership of this and realize that your stress will not let you be joyful, energized, passionate, excited, present, focused, and refreshed. And your body is sending you very strong messages.

This means you are faced with a choice – to continue your stress-building behaviors and ignore your body’s messages OR learn how to reduce your stress and increase your joy.

I invite you to:

Read about my dynamic Parents, Take Charge! and Teachers, Take Charge! Workshops where you will learn 7 powerful tools for living a stress-less life.
Schedule a private mentoring session and discover what steps of action you personally can take for reducing stress and becoming everything you would love to be.