The PODE Scale

How often have you told someone, "I'm totally stressed out!"

Life is filled with lots of short-term annoyances and stressors like running late for a meeting, having a fender-bender in a parking lot, having a disagreement with your spouse or friend, and even missing that easy putt. When these happen, our body usually reacts by increasing our blood pressure, our heart rate and our breathing. Even our muscles become tense. However, once things calm down, the body corrects itself returning to normal levels.

Long-term stresses like chronic health conditions, unhealthy relationships and job dissatisfaction can lead to physical ailments and even depression.

There are many stress scales like the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale that lists life events and gives them a stress value or the Perceived Stress Scale that measures a person's perception of stress. Both rate short and long- term stress.

I created the PODE Scale to help people cope with everyday short-term stress. After all, what is a stressful situation for one person may not be for another.

The PODE Scale asks you to rate a stressful situation on a 1-10 scale. A rating of 10 means you died; 9 means someone you love died; 8 means you or someone you love is ill. With these parameters, you'll be amazed that most stressful situations are rated under 5!

Giving a situation a numerical stress level gives you an opportunity to immediately assess the situation realistically and, most often, put it in the proper perspective.

So, the next time you are in a traffic jam or your child overflows the bathtub, take a deep breath and ask yourself, "What is the actual stress number for this situation?"