Assess Your Stress

Fill in your personal results according to the instructions found below this table.

ID Number (W number):

First Name:      Last Name:

Gender:       Age:   Major:

Classification:

Resting Heart Rate:     Beats per minute

Breathing Pattern:       Abdomen     Chest     Both

Respiration Rate:     Breaths per minute

Stress-o-meter: 

 

Resting Heart Rate: Check your resting heart rate (pulse) after you have been sitting or relaxing for at least 30 minutes. You will need a watch or clock with a secondhand (or digital seconds).  First, find your pulse. You can find your radial pulse on the thumb side of your wrist or your carotid pulse on your neck just under the jaw. For 60 seconds count the number of beats you feel. Place this number in the first box of your assessment.

Breathing Pattern:  Find a chair with a back.  Sit in the chair so your back is primarily straight up and down against the back of the chair.  Place one hand on your abdomen with your palm covering your navel.  Place your other hand on the upper part of your chest with the palm of that hand just above your heart.  For a minute or two, become aware of your breathing.  While sitting straight up, notice your breath as it goes in and comes back out.  Become aware of your hands as you breathe in and comes back out.  Become aware of your hands as you breathe in and out.  Which hand seems to move more--the hand on your abdomen or the one on your chest?  Or do your hands both seem to move equally?

Try this second technique to see if you get the same results: First, breathe out and empty your lungs. Count to three as you inhale deeply. Now hold it. Did your shoulders go up?  Did you feel like the air filled the upper part of your lungs?  If so, you probably lean toward what is called chest breathing. By contrast, if you are a diaphragmatic breather, you will feel your abdominal area expand, your belt tighten, and fullness in the lower part of your lungs and chest. Select which type breathing pattern best describes how you breathe.

Respiration Rate: For about a minute, become aware of your breathing again. This time, count how many natural effortless breaths you take in a minute.  Be sure to breathe as normally and naturally as possible. Each inhalation and exhalation cycle is considered on breath. The number of breaths you take in one minute is called your respiration rate. In the box above, record the number of breaths you take per minute.

Stress-O-Meter:  Think back over the last month of your life, including all of your waking moments.  Give yourself a rating on the "Stress-o-Meter" along a continuum in which:

"1" means that you feel your life has been relatively stress-free during that period.  You have felt blissful and calm most of the time.  Everything seemed to go your way.

"10" means that you felt very high anxiety most of the time and that this was a month packed with high levels of stress.  You felt totally overwhelmed, like your life was out of control, and like you were unable to cope.

Considering the last month as a single period of time, you most likely would rank yourself somewhere between these two extremes.  Give yourself an average number for the last 30 days (we all have highs and lows). What number between 1 and 10 would you give yourself?  Once you have decided, select the number from the box above.

Then hit the submit button.

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