What is Your Stress Level

Recently, I was bored and decided to take a few stress tests.  Life change stress tests, perception of
your own stress tests, how well you deal with stress tests.

The results are in and according to WebMD, I am in danger of incredible stress!  This is based off of the life changes that have occurred in the past year for me.

The thing is.......I don't feel stressed.  I have found that the busier I am, the less time I have to think about what is stressing me out.

I think that many people are able to use exercise as an outlet to forget about the daily stress in life.  I am no different. 

However, I also believe that you have the ability to control how stressed you are.  You cannot control the amount of stress in your life, but you can control how you handle it.  I think that I have learned to deal with stress in my life in a variety of ways.  Some could be universal and others may apply just to me.  Here are some of the best ways that I have learned to handle daily stress.

1.  Being busy.  This may seem odd, but for me, keeping busy helps me to forget about all the things that are bothering me. 

2.  Figure out what is causing the most stress and deal with that first.  If something at work is bothering you, get that done or dealt with first.  I have found that personally if I take care of what is bothering me the most, then I can better perform on the other aspects of my life.

3.  Prepare and Overplan.  Having contingency plans and contingency plans for those plans helps me to deal with unexpected stressors better.  This is similar to how you need to be prepared for any and all situations on race day(flat tires, etc.)

4.  Figure out what you can control.  Don't worry about things out of your control.  They won't change and there is nothing that you can do about them anyways. 

5.  Don't stress about things that haven't happened yet.  When I think of this, I thought of this
scene from a recent movie with Will Smith(my favorite).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSKzLtRzY78

6.  Take time each day to do something that you truly love to do.  For me this is exercise, reading, talking with family, and prayer.  All of these help me to step away from things that are bothering me.

7.  Don't jump into situations that will cause more stress.  If you have a lot on your plate already, don't go back for seconds.  Figure out when it is a good time to take on more and when it is a good time to leave it for others.

8.  Have people that you can talk to.  We all need people to talk with, cry to, and even yell at during times of high stress that will know how to help us and won't judge us for it.  Find those people.

9.  Realize that you are not alone.  Everyone has stress in their life.  Most likely you are not in the worst situation of everyone around you.  Understand that, count your blessings, and think of those who would love to be in your shoes.

10.  Understand that you are in control of your life.  It may not seem like it all the time, but you can control a few things in your life.  One of these is your attitude. "You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you."  - Bryan Tracy. 


As people we need to be able to deal with stress, and tests do not dictate who we are.  Only you can control you.

So, I ignore these results and still believe that I am stress free.....for now.


Training Totals thus Far this Year.