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Self-Assessment Activity

We experience stress in various ways, and to varying degrees. We often talk about the impact of stress on our own "body, mind, and spirit", but there are also recognizable signs of stress in our interpersonal relationships. Listed below are some of the most typical signs and symptoms of excess stress, or distress.

Think for a few minutes about any major change(s) to which you have recently had to adjust to. These could be in your professional or personal life, of both. Which of the following "symptoms" describe your experience? These may describe your reaction then, or ones you are still experiencing.

Frequently feeling defensive, or "armored"
Muscle tension, muscle weakness, muscle spasms
Abandoning religious practice without any other spiritual sustenance
Incompetent
Inability to think through and complete tasks and processes
Tiredness, fatigue, lack of energy, or, paradoxically, hyperactivity
Excessive forgetfulness, "spaciness," "black holes" in our memory
Ignoring one's conscience or sense of "right" and "wrong"
Inability to find meaning and sense of purpose in life
Disturbed sleep, nightmares, tossing and turning, waking up tired
Isolating oneself from others, withdrawing from social activities
Lack of enthusiasm or engagement, "not feeling anything at all"
Frequent crying bouts which are easily triggered and hard to control
Nausea, acute or dull pain in abdomen, heartburn, indigestion, cramps
Mind "goes in circles" thinking endlessly about the same problem
Can't turn off the thinking process; mind races "a million miles an hour"
Headaches, dizziness
Lacking faith either in the "human spirit" or any "higher power"
Confusion, jumbled thoughts, getting distracted too easily
Feelings of deep despair and disillusionment

Scoring of Self-Assessment

MENTALLY NUMBER THE ABOVE LIST, IN SETS OF FOUR, FROM TOP TO BOTTOM AND TALLY UP YOUR SCORES FOR EACH NUMBER.

Score all 1s as mental:

Score all 2s as physical:

Score all 3s as spirital:

Score all 4s as social:

Our physical, logical, and intuitive dimensions are designed with early warning systems that tell us something is not working properly. When a particular aspect of our life is being misused or ignored, it will try to get our attention by giving us little signals, little "taps on the shoulder." As you know, these feelings can be classified into four domains: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Depending on which feelings you checked, you will have a total score in terms of which domain you checked the most "stress signals".

Summarize your evaluation to the self-assessment activity and click here to share with the instructor.