6 Minute Reset, Ready, Set, Go

No matter what you are attempting to accomplish the Whitworth Stressometer can be helpful to your daily performance improvement endeavors. Whether you are trying to learn to manage anger, anxiety, insomnia, depression, trauma memories, IBS, migraines, weight, smoking cessation, healing, relationship issues, longterm illnesses, romance, performance under pressure, creativity, communication, chronic illness…, you can benefit from using the stressometer to check and see what your stress score is first. By taking a few minutes to adjust your stress score lower before you begin an activity, you will be more successful. Your performance of all of your nonlifethreatening activities will be better when you are at a stress score of six or less. Six is the fix.

Lots of things happen in our mental outlook and decision making abilities that I think are really cool when we are calmer in our muscle tension and breathing and thinking. First of all, we like ourselves a little more and are able to identify our preferences more easily so we problem solve more uniquely, individualistically and meaningfully than we do when we are rushed or tense. The decisions we are more inclined to make when relaxed are more likely to, also, be pleasing to us in the furture. In other words, calmer decisions usually translate into choices now that are more beneficial and in our best interest overall as well. Calmer decisions are usually not immediately gratifying but are delayed gratifiers instead. Preferential/calmer decisions may not be immediately or impulsively gratifying at all, but they will be gratifying later on. It is easy to confuse preference with immediate gratification and they are very different really. Immediately and impusively chosen decisions are not really preference at all, they are anxious and stress generated choices instead that may gratify you in the moment but will generally translate into self-criticism or self-sabotage later on and overall. When we are calmer first, before we begin an activity, our performance is more likely to line up with our best interests overall. Calmer decision making moment by moment builds a momentum over time and adds to our overall sense of wellbeing.

Decisions made under pressure are more likely to be rash, impulsive and immediately gratifying and unlikely to benefit the decider in the future. When you are in a true life threatening emergency rushed and sudden decisions are required and helpful. The rushed experience of heightened awareness to potential dangers tenses our muscles and create shallow breathing in order to convert our mind and body over to the adrenaline and cortisol stress hormones to run our Central Nervous System. This conversion happens in a split second and is only helpful in a true emergency. The sudden conversion to the adrenaline laced thinking and behaving system creates specific belief patterns, breathing patterns and muscle tension patterns we call fight, flight and/or freeze.

Making It Personal~Learning to Recognize False Alarms In Yourself:

What does your 8, 9, 10 stress pattern look like? If it is not a true life or death emergency you will need to slow your system down in order to problem solve effectively. For all non-life threatening yet stressful situations you encounter it will be important to stay calmer to make choices that you are happy with later on. For example, when looking at your habits or daily rituals you are interested in changing like eating habits or alcohol intake or sleeping or exercise routines or anything in your life that stress has rearranged to become an accidental coping routine that is not benefitting you in your life overall, it will be very helpful to learn to relax before performing any of these activities so your decisions will be more to your liking overall.

Before each activity use this strategy: 1. Exhale all of your breath from your lungs very slowly. Next, 2. Relax your shoulders by dropping them as low to the floor as possible. Lastly, 3. Refuse to judge yourself or your situation. Life is hard enough without all of the judgment. Just refuse to do it for a moment right now. Repeat these steps until you are at your level 6 and then do the daily activity you have had trouble with. Keep working on your interior to stay calmer during each activity that has become problematic due to stress.