The Stress Inventory Measure

The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory

The Social Readjustment Rating Scale

INSTRUCTIONS: Mark down the point value of each of these life events that has happened to you during the previous year. Total these associated points.

Life Event	Mean Value
1.      Death of spouse	100
2.     Divorce	73
3.     Martial separation from mate	65
4.     Detention in jail or other institution	63
5.     Death of a close family member	63
6.     Major personal injury or illness	53
7.      Marriage	50
8.     Being fired at work	47
9.     Marital reconciliation with mate	45
10.  Retirement from work	45
11.   Major change in the health or behavior of a family member	44
12.  Pregnancy	40
13.  Sexual difficulties	39
14.  Gaining a new family member (i.e. Birth, adoption, older adult moving in, etc)	39
15.  Major business readjustment	39
16.  Major change in financial state (i.e. A lot worse or better off than usual)	38
17.   Death of a close friend	37
18.  Changing to a different line of work	36
19.  Major change in the number of arguments w/spouse (i.e. Either a lot more or a lot less than usual regarding child rearing, personal habit, etc.)	35
20. Taking on a mortgage (for home, business, etc.)	31
21.  Foreclosure on a mortgage or loan	30
22.  Major change in responsibilities at work (i.e. Promotion, demotion, etc.)	29
23.  Son or daughter leaving home (marriage, attending college, joined mil.)	29
24.  In-law troubles	29
25.  Outstanding personal achievement	28
26.  Spouse beginning or ceasing work outside the home	26
27.  Beginning or ceasing formal schooling	26
28.  Major change in living condition (new home, remodeling, deterioration of neighborhood or home etc.)	25
29.  Revision of personal habits (dress manners, associations, quitting smoking)	24
30. Troubles with the boss	23
31.  Major changes in working hours or conditions	20
32.  Changes in residence	20
33.  Changing to a new school	20
34.  Major change in usual type and/or amount of recreation	19
35.  Major change in church activity (i.e. A lot more or less than usual)	19
36.  Major change in social activities (clubs, movies, visiting, etc.)	18
37.  Taking on a loan (car, tv, freezer, etc)	17
38.  Major change in sleeping habits (a lot more or a lot less than usual)	16
39.  Major change in number of family get-togethers (“”)	15
40. Major change in eating habits (a lot more or less food intake, or very different meal hours or surroundings)	15
41.  Vacation	13
42.  Major holidays	12
43.  Minor violations of the law (traffic tickets, jaywalking, disturbing the peace, etc)	11

Now, add up all the points you have to find your score.

150pts or less means a relatively low amount of life change and a low susceptibility to stress-induced health breakdown.

150 to 300 pts implies about a 50% change of a major health breakdown in the next 2 years.

300pts or more raises the odds to about 80%, according to the Holmes-Rahe statistical prediction model.

Content from: Change Your Mind: 7 Ways to Harness the Power of Your Brain to Achieve True Well-Being - Available on Amazon

Confidence Scale

Complete the following confidence scale to rate how confident you in your ability to achieve your health behavior change goal. A number of situations are listed below can make it hard to stick to behavior change goals. On a scale of zero to 100, please rate your confidence or self-efficacy in each of the blanks regarding how certain you are that you can get yourself to continue to practice your new or positive health behavior(s) on a regular basis during each of these situations (Pajares & Urdan, 2006). 

Rate your degree of confidence by recording a number from 0 to 100 using the scale given below:

0          10        20        30        40        50        60        70        80        90        100

Cannot                                          Moderately                                   Highly certain

do at all                                             can do                                                     can do

Confidence

(0-100)

_____When I am feeling tired

_____When I am feeling under pressure from work

_____During bad weather

_____After recovering from an injury that caused me to stop exercising

_____During or after experiencing personal problems

_____When I am feeling depressed

_____When I am feeling anxious

_____After recovering from an illness that caused me to stop exercising

_____When I feel physical discomfort when I exercise

_____After a vacation

_____When I have too much work to do at home

_____When visitors are present

_____When there are other interesting things to do

_____If I don’t reach my exercise goals

_____Without the support from my family or friends

_____During a vacation

_____When I have other time commitments

_____After experiencing family problems

Rate your confidence regularly and use the sources of self-efficacy to improve your numbers.

Remember, self-efficacy is task and situation-specific, so you may want to create a confidence ruler for all of the behaviors you wish to improve and in a variety of situations. For example, you may score a 90 in your confidence in your ability to exercise three times per week, but a 40 on your confidence in your ability to eat healthy on a daily basis. In addition, you may be faced with situations that make it difficult to stick to your health behavior change goal. Make a list of challenges that you may face on a regular basis when trying to achieve your health behavior change goal. The challenges on your list should vary in difficulty level, where some may be easier for you to overcome, and others may be more difficult. Next to each challenge, suggest solutions to overcome it or an alternative, positive health behavior that you could engage in.

Content from: Change Your Mind: 7 Ways to Harness the Power of Your Brain to Achieve True Well-Being - Available on Amazon

Change

It’s no secret — change is difficult. Everyone knows it. Yet we all often wish to change something about our personal health behaviors, habits or lifestyles. Fortunately, the real secret is that meaningful, successful and sustainable change is possible!  

Change is a process of transformative self-enrichment. And it’s easier once you know how to successfully undertake the change you wish to achieve. The problem is most people simply don’t have the right tools, resources or knowledge of how health behavior change works for them. After all, changing our behaviors is a very personal thing to do. Celebrity diets and cookie-cutter fads don’t work for everyone — but we often assume they do. And when they don’t work for you, you think you’ve failed and give up.  But you haven’t failed — you simply didn’t have the right thing for you!

Research also shows that about 20% of the population is preparing to take “change action” at any given point of time. So rest assured you are not alone if you are not quite ready for full-on action. And sometimes, people jump into action without taking time to prepare for the drastic changes they are about to encounter. Without the appropriate “prep time,” they are setting themselves up for a greater likelihood of failure.

In my blogs and my book, Change your Mind, Change your Health, you will discover which of the five stages of change you are currently in. You’ll also learn about the best, most relevant techniques for you at your given stage of change to empower you to move closer to action. Oh, and I almost forgot the most important part — You’ll have FUN in the process!

I’m here for you, to help you change in your way and at your pace — to transform your health and your life, and achieve an independent, self-assured and sustainable sense of total wellbeing.

Let the change begin!

Content from: Change Your Mind: 7 Ways to Harness the Power of Your Brain to Achieve True Well-Being - Available on Amazon

Are You Ready to Change?

The Stages of Change Model

There’s more to changing than just waking up and saying, “Today’s the day.” Change is not simply like flipping on a light switch. It’s a meaningful process of transformative self-enrichment. Imagine a room filled with unlit candles — you light one and things begin to emerge. You start seeing things you never noticed before — around you and in you. You light more and more candles until you are bathed in a new, warm glow. You’ve more than illuminated yourself, you’ve illuminated your world.

While it’s important to embrace your desire to change, the first step is to know just what “Stage of Change” you are in. According to Dr. James Prochaska, creator of the Stages of Change model, “[The] stage of change predicts the likelihood of success in our attempts to change more accurately than anything else about us.” In other words, knowing where we stand on the path of change helps ensure we’re as successful as we can be as we take the journey.

Dr. Prochaska identified five stages of change:

·         Pre-contemplation (“I’m not ready to change.)

·         Contemplation (I’m thinking about changing.)

·         Preparation (I’m getting ready to change.)

·         Action (I’m actively taking steps to change.)

·         Maintenance (I’m sustaining the change I’ve made).

Before figuring our what stage you’re in, it’s first important to realize that change is very personal. We all have our own path, and progress through the stages of change is neither linear nor same for everyone. This does not mean that progress isn’t being made, but rather that different people face different challenges that are sometimes outside their control. It’s possible to get briefly stuck at one stage or even regress to earlier ones. This is natural and should be expected. And knowing in advance that it can happen empowers us to be prepared to overcome any fear or feeling of failure. Remember that for some, baby steps can be giant leaps, and so long as you never give up, you are making progress.

The following assessment will help identify the stage of change you are currently in for the personal or health-related behavior you want to change. Simply and honestly answer “Yes” or “No” to each of the four questions.

Stages of Change Assessment

1.      I solved my personal/health behavior more than 6 months ago.

2.      I have taken action on my personal/health behavior within the past 6 months.

3.      I am intending on taking action on my personal/health behavior in the next month

4.      I am intending to take action in the next 6 months.

Your Stage:

Pre-contemplation:  If you answered NO to all statements, you are in the pre-contemplation stage. You are not thinking about, and have no plans to change your behavior at this point in time.

Contemplation: If you answer YES to number 4, and NO to all others, you are in the contemplation stage. You are thinking of or have intentions to change “down the road”, but not right now. You may be weighing the “pros and cons” of changing, or facing what you consider serious barriers to change.

Preparation: If you answer YES only to number 3 & 4, you are in the preparation stage, and preparing to actively commit to change. 

Action: If you answered YES to number 2 and NO to number 1, you are in the action stage, and in the midst of changing your desired behavior.

Maintenance: If you honestly answered YES only to number 1, you are in the maintenance stage, and taking the steps to successfully sustain your changed behavior.

Now that you’ve determine which stage of change you are currently in, it’s important to realize you may not actually achieve the degree of change you desire within the timeframe you originally intended. Remember, change is a process and it can take time.  But once you commit to making change happen, it will, because you are your own master of transformation. You are a personal change magician.

Let your magic begin.

In future blogs, I’ll share helpful tips, inspiring stories and proven techniques to help you move through the stages of change and closer to action.

Content from: Change Your Mind: 7 Ways to Harness the Power of Your Brain to Achieve True Well-Being - Available on Amazon