How are you doing,
really?
Free Self-Assessments
To achieve a healthy lifestyle you must know about you. Knowing you includes, your family history or genetics, your biological, psychological needs, habits, likes and dislikes. What is your ability to connect with others or what hinders this? To what capacity are you able to manage stress in your life? Your ability to handle stress is important because stress is a part of life. It is wise to have a plan to manage stress; hence the words, ”stress management.”
Taking self-assessments can give you an idea of what’s going on with you so be honest.
Always remember you are worthy of self-care.
Please note: These self-assessments are for informational purposes only. They are not to replace the diagnosis of a qualified professional. Do not attempt to self-diagnosis yourself with a disease or disorder as a result of taking any of these assessments. Once you get your result especially if they are concerning, share them with a qualified medical doctor/counselor.
Remember once you get knowledge, it’s time to take action to be healthy and live whole. Please read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page before completing any assessment.
Depression
Possible causes of depression include a combination of biological, psychological, and social sources of distress. Depression is a mood disorder with symptoms that include: persistent sadness, loss of interest in pleasurable activities, appetite and sleep to name a few. Depending on the severity of the depression one could experience suicidal thoughts as well.
This assessment is available to take online with the ability to instantly score your answers. If you have some concerns about your mood, don’t hesitate to click the button below and take the MDI. As stated before, seek the help of a professional especially if you find you’re not managing your symptoms and/or your score is high. Don’t sit there and suffer. You matter.
If you are suicidal there is help! The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a 24-hour resource to talk with someone about your issues. Please call 988. Text and online chat is also available.
Childhood Trauma
Research has linked childhood trauma to adulthood dysfunctional patterns. Family traditions and culture are passed down from parents to their children and so forth. This too is true for dysfunctional patterns such as abuse, neglect, poverty, violence among other traumas.
The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Questionnaire is a 10-item self-report measure developed from the ACE study to identify childhood experiences of abuse and neglect. It was discovered that the higher a person’s ACE score, heightens their risk for developing health problems.
People who suffer from childhood trauma are at higher risk of abusing substances, experiencing mental health issues, relationship dysfunction, addictions, cognitive developmental issues, physical health problems and/or being a victim of abuse in their adulthood or a perpetrator.
If you complete the ACE Questionnaire and discover trauma in your childhood, its recommended you seek professional help.
Nutrition and Dieting
Nutrition means to get the necessary nourishment from food for health and growth. Dieting is to restrict yourself to small amounts of food or particular foods for the purpose of losing weight.
Nutrition is so important to health. If a person doesn’t get what their body needs from food that person becomes nutritionally deficient. When a person’s body does not absorb the correct amount of nutrients this can lead to deficiencies and cause a variety of health problems. These health problems can include digestion problems, skin disorders, stunted or defective bone growth, and even dementia.
Please notice that all of these have to do with an intricate part of who you are: dementia-affects the mind; digestion, skin problems and defective bone growth affects the body. So eating properly not only affects the obvious, the body, but the health of your mind as well.
Living whole must also include consciousness of the amount and types of food and drinks you are consuming.
Do you consider a healthy balance of water, caffeine, vegetables, fruits, fats, proteins, carbs, and sugars? More importantly do you think about the amount of calories you take in daily in comparison to the amount you burn?
My Net Diary offers tabs that include a dashboard-the summary of your calorie intake and goals. The food tab allows you to record your meals and count the amount of your daily calories to meet your weight loss and nutritional goals. The nutritional label also pops up on the screen for the food item that you typed onto your log.
The plan tab gives you a breakdown of the carbs, sugars and fats you should be getting every day according to your body type and weight loss goals. The exercise plan allows you to log your daily exercise which will appear on your dashboard. There is a community tab that allows you to look for friends who use the site as well as read the blog. You can ask a registered dietitian questions. The My Net Diary Library is filled with articles on health such as measuring and estimating portion sizes. The articles are printable.
Another awesome part of My Net Diary is all of this is free! However, with a low cost premium plan, you can get a customized exercise plan that is not available with the free account. There is an app too.
My Net Diary and other tools like it can be seen as nutrition and dieting 101.
A proper understanding of nutrition and seeing it as necessary for living a healthy lifestyle opens doors for your overall healthiness, eliminating excessive cravings for sugar and caffeine. Cravings such as these indeed affect your mental, physical and emotional health. What you eat absolutely affects your mood, energy levels and desire to be physically active or not.
Will a healthy eating lifestyle take work? Of course! Anything expected to yield a reward requires focus and hard work but when you create new habits they’ll stop being work and become routine.
Again, this site is being shared with you for informational purpose only. CNW.LIFE™ is not receiving any financial compensation for suggesting it.
Hope its helpful!
Emotional Intelligence
Emotions are the catalyst to why we do somethings or avoid doing somethings. I can’t imagine there is one person alive who has had a task to accomplish but didn’t do it, procrastinated or complained about having to do it because of this statement right here,
“I don’t feel like it.”
In some cases we have the luxury of “abandoning ship” when there is a task we don’t feel like doing but other times (like having to go to work), we can’t rely on our emotions to dictate this type of response due to the fact that not going to work can come with serious consequences.
Although many may agree with the above statement, there are those who still live in such a manner where their emotions dominate their decision-making. The end result produces behaviors such as impulsive spending or entering into a relationship while ignoring obvious red flags.
Emotions are not bad but they’re unreliable on their own. Instead, there should be a combination of emotions and rational thinking when making decisions and speaking.
Understanding and increasing rational thinking skills help improve decision-making skills. These skills can heighten the level of success in areas that are important to you because rational thinking takes a level of brainstorming, planning and time.
What is emotional intelligence? It is your ability to regulate (control) your emotions which influences the emotions of others’. Your emotional response can either cause you to grow or stifle your growth and destroy things around you.
In other words, your relationships, money, work relationships and social relationships or the lack thereof can be a result of a healthy or unhealthy emotional intelligence.
If you are interested in knowing your EQ, click the link below where you can take a FREE quiz offered by The Institute for Health and Human Potential. According to the website, after you complete your quiz, your results will be revealed and recommendations on how to manage your emotions and connect more skillfully with others will be provided.
Check out this YouTube video for a simple explanation of how EQ can be applied to your professional and personal life.
Anxiety
To be anxious or even sad are natural responses to life’s stressful events. There is nothing wrong with having an anxious response to a given situation i.e the fight, flight or freeze response is the perfect example. These are God-given emotional responses that are key to survival, telling a person to fight or flee. Anxiety may be experienced while trying to make this decision.
On the other hand, anxiety becomes concerning when it impairs daily functioning in relationships, school, socially and work over a set period of time determined by the DSM-5.
Anxiety becomes a disorder when a person meets all of the criteria determined in the DSM-5 and are diagnosed by a qualified health professional. A person can have anxiety but not necessarily have a disorder.
You can start by taking this self-assessment to get an idea of the level of your anxiety. Again, don’t attempt to diagnose yourself to have or not have a disorder. Just let this be a start for you to put into perspective what you’re experiencing and a guide to communicate with a professional your experience.
If you are having any symptoms of any kind that are disturbing your ability to function at your healthiest, talk to someone.
Self-esteem
Self-esteem is the essence of a healthy human being because it is the personal value one places on themselves.
No matter how valuable others may think you are, if you don't believe for yourself that you hold value, your mental health can be impacted.
A healthy self-esteem can lead to a great life full of love, joy, peace and adventure. Low self-esteem can lead to lack, stagnation and living beneath one’s potential. Why? Because anyone who dares to believe they are valuable will love, care and live to preserve their life and legacy. Think about it as if you were watering a beautiful flower you received. You know the flower will not last forever but you do what you can to preserve its life and color for as long as you can because you value it.
Life is short so start valuing yourself! You’re a beautiful gift to your loved ones and community. You are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) with much to offer many people. Take time today to evaluate your self-esteem. If there are areas in need of improvement start taking care to get your needs met in the right ways. You’re worth it.
Mindfulness and Attention
“If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind goes when it wanders.”
―Vi Keeland
If your body is present in Tuesday but your mind wanders to a day that took place 20 years ago you are not living in the present.
Mindfulness is important because it allows you to be in the present; in the here-and-now. Many people are captive to their past because they have not disciplined their minds and/or haven’t allowed themselves to heal. Negative thoughts can lead to depression and anxiety.
Being mindful interrupts the past from lingering around, engages you in the moment and releases you from the future which hasn’t come yet.
The present allows you to slow down; to feel your heart beat; to experience life as it is today; to relinquish thanksgiving and gratitude to God for allowing you to have another day.
Are you focused on the now? Or are your thoughts focused on the past? Could this be stealing your joy for today?
Take the MAAS to see what your mindfulness level is.
Spiritual Gifts
1 Corinthians 12 states God has given gifts to all believers and those gifts are to be used for “the common good” (vs. 7).
It’s not about a feeling but about knowing. It’s not about being seen by others but about knowing who you are in Christ, where He has you to serve, who He wants you to serve; in what capacity He wants to use you and why He has you there. This is purpose.
LifeWay® has an assessment to help you develop an understanding of your gifts. The Spiritual Gifts List provides the names and definitions of the spiritual gifts in the survey. Take a look and get going on the survey to discover how gifted you are!
Rest and Relaxation
It is okay to lie in your bed past 7:00 AM on your day off. It is okay to sit on your sofa with no plans. It is okay to lounge in your pajamas a little longer than usual. Rest and relaxation are absolutely essential to your overall health. Rest is to cease striving and working while relaxation is to take a mental break. Your spirit needs rest too.
Think about this:
When you are done doing what you do for everyone else, are you okay with being alone with you?
Are you okay sitting with your own thoughts, emotions, imperfections, and needs?
When given the opportunity to rest do you look for opportunities to stay busy instead?
Do you depend on people to be available for you to experience peace?
The best rejuvenation comes from the inside out-when your spirit is full. You can only rejuvenate your spirit by sitting still with God.
God tells you to, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, NIV).
Sitting still is to spend time in worship and prayer with God. It is to mediate (think deeply) or to study the Bible, laying in His presence, soaking in all His love for you.
DappyTKeys Piano Worship is a dynamic music ministry that was created to help you sit with God in His sweet and comforting presence. The Holy Spirit, even in your silence, can lift your anxieties.
God says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6-7).
God cares about what worries you. God cares so much that He asks that you bring your concerns to Him in prayer. On your journey towards wholeness you cannot forget about your spiritual needs. Make God apart of your life. You will never be fully satisfied without taking care to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
You do not have to be a “spiritual” person at this time to press that button below. Even if you have’t talked to God in a while for whatever reason don’t talk yourself out of sitting with Him now.
Press that button because you need Him. He loves you and wants to spend time with you.
Don’t have anything to say?
That’s okay. Just be still.
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”-Psalm 46:10
“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still".-Exodus 14:14
Instructions for meditation and relaxing:
Comfortably lie down or sit.
Take a deep breath slowly inhaling for 4 seconds then exhaling for 5 seconds. Do this until you can feel your heart beat.
Listen. Sit still. Journal or not. There are no rules.
Note: If your mind wanders, quiet it by continuing to deep breathe. It may be difficult at first because your mind may be used to running constantly. The more you do this the easier it will be to shut the thoughts off.
Stress Management
If you are a person waiting for stress to no longer be present in your life than you will be waiting a long time.
Stress is a part of life. However, too much stress and too little stress management can be detrimental to your health.
Learning stress management is learning what your limitations are, what you can and cannot control and applying self-care consistently.
Understanding stress and how it affects you is important because what you perceive as stressful others may not. What you may be able to handle others may falter under.
The Perceived Stress Scale is a self-assessment tool that assesses your perception of stress.
This assessment allows you to discover what your perceived stress level is. Take what you learn and build a self-care plan. A plan that includes caring for your overall health-your spiritual, mental health and physical needs.
Hobbies & Interest
Its’s time to take a look at what brings the adventure into your life!
To have a hobby means that you do an activity(ies) in your free time for pleasure.'
To have an interest means you’re in the position of wanting to know more about something or someone.
Hobbies and interests are essential to practicing self-care.
NotSoBoringLife.com is this super cool website with a ginormous list of hobbies people have submitted. It is full of new and creative ideas for hobbies while sparking interest for traditional ones. The owners are working on adding descriptions and instruction for each hobby. They also invite people to continue to submit new ideas for hobbies.
While this is not an assessment it is a great resource for you to make it your responsibility to live YOUR OWN LIFE TO THE FULLEST.
Don’t wait on something or someone to make that happen.
If you do you may be waiting for a long time.
Be the conduit of your own happiness. Get to having fun today!
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual-5 (DSM-5) (the book professionals use to diagnosis health issues), PTSD is a mental disorder that is observed in those who have been exposed to: “death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence, in the following way(s):
Direct exposure
Witnessing the trauma
Learning that a relative or close friend was exposed to a trauma
Indirect exposure to aversive details of the trauma, usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, medics).”
This list comprises of Criteria A only of the DSM-5, a snippet of the criteria that must be met for a diagnoses of PTSD. This assessments asks questions that fit into the diagnostic criteria of PTSD. The higher the score, the higher it is likely that the test taker is showing serious symptoms of PTSD.
While there is a PTSD self-assessment available, PTSD is a very serious disorder and the client needs to be under the care of a qualified professional.
This assessment is provided for those who may think they are experiencing symptoms of PTSD.
Should you choose to take this assessment please do not take this assessment, discover that you are dealing with symptoms of PTSD and call no one. Remember once you get the knowledge, it’s time to take action to be healthy and live whole.
Take care of yourself. Seek professional help as soon as possible.
Interpersonal Communication Skills
Interpersonal communication allows you to connect with others on personal, emotional, spiritual and business levels. Communicating makes the world flow every day. However, while some people are great communicators others struggle to spark up conversations. The struggle to communicate could potentially cause anxiety and limit one’s ability to make the connections they so desire.
Taking this Interpersonal Communication Skills Inventory may help provide individuals with some insight into their communication strengths and areas in need of development.
Quality of Life
Quality of life measures how satisfied a person is with the parts that make up their entire life. This includes: health, personal safety, social relationships, emotional well-being, work, belonging, financial well-being, quality of environment, and spirituality.
The Global Quality of Life Scale is a very easy way to look at your life as a whole and self-measure your level of satisfaction of your life at the moment.
The scale is between”0-no quality of life to 100-perfect quality of life.”
You are to rate your entire (global) quality of life based on this scale.
If you weren’t able to score yourself at an ideal rating be encouraged.
Here’s a suggestion: grab a pen and a sheet of paper, make a list of the quality of life areas.
Next to each area write things you can do to improve these areas. Be creative. Think outside of the box. Challenge yourself for growth by doing some research and ask questions.
Again the quality of life areas are: “health, personal safety, social relationships, emotional well-being, work, belonging, financial well-being, quality of environment, and spirituality,”
*Bonus: The Life Engagement Test is a self-assessment to help you determine your ability to identify goals that are you value your perception that these goals are attainable.
Personality Tests
Many people live life not knowing who they are, not appreciating and valuing their uniqueness, wasting precious time comparing themselves to others.
The benefit of knowing your personality traits is that it makes room for you and others around you to comprehend your needs. It allows you to take the wheel back from the need to compare yourself to others. It helps you identify your strengths so you can thrive in who you truly are and live on purpose!
The only difference between successful people and those who are not successful in their own eyes is that the people they think are successful are really just doing a great job being themselves. They are letting what makes them unique shine. It may seem like they are someone “more special” than you are but they aren’t. There is one of “them” like there is one “you.” Again, they’ve just embraced it and have done a great job of being who they want to be.
What about you?
Have you ever wondered why you think, feel and do the things that you do?
Do you want to know?
Great news! Personality tests can help answer some of those questions. Now, keep a realistic perspective here. No one test can tell you everything as people are ever-changing; the accuracy of their answers depends on their honesty. However, personality tests can give you a summary of what characteristics make you who you are.
Now, apply this to your journey of wholeness, using what you learn about yourself to move forward: once you score your test take a look at it and see what parts of you can be celebrated and even capitalized on. Look at your strong areas, get involved in projects and put yourself in situations in which your strengths are allowed to shine.
Pertaining to areas you scored lower in, take a look to identify if these are the areas you tend to compare yourself to others such as feeling the need to be an “extrovert” when you are clearly an introvert.
Matter-of-fact let’s talk about Introversion and extroversion; neither one is better than the other. Both personalities must be balanced. There may be circumstances the introvert must learn to speak up to access opportunities. On-the-flip-side, the extrovert at times may need to sit back and quietly observe.
No personality is better than the next as long as you mean well and are treating others with love, care and respect. Keep a healthy perspective of your traits and gifts and don’t compare yourself to others.
The SAPA Project Assessment is a free, confidential and anonymous test you can take to see what personality traits you have. The more questions you answer the better accurate your score will be. The site recommends, “100 responses for good accuracy in your ‘Big Five’ scores, 150 responses for reasonable accuracy in your 27 factor scores, and 200+ responses for high accuracy in both.”
Pretty much this is saying if you can answer 200 questions or more, honestly, you’ll get the best results in determining your personality traits.
Recommendation: If you are unclear of what the “Big Five” Personality traits are there is a great article on VeryWell Mind explaining them. You should take a look.
Get to know and celebrate yourself.
Exploring Your Skills and Career Interests
Going to work every day gives us the space to use our skills, help others and have purpose.
What you do on a daily basis for your work could be creating joy and a positive experience or diming your light because you’re unhappy with your job.
Are you doing work that brings you fulfillment or are you just doing what pays the bills?
If it is the latter, I encourage you to reevaluate your skill set.
“My Next Move,” by O*Net, is a website created for career seekers. O*Net describes their reason for serving the public as such:
“My Next Move is an interactive tool for job seekers and students to learn more about their career options. My Next Move has tasks, skills, salary information, and more for over 900 different careers. Users can find careers through keyword search; by browsing industries that employ different types of workers; or through the O*NET Interest Profiler, a tool that offers personalized career suggestions based on a person's interests and level of work experience.”
Click the button below if you are interested in taking a look at your skill and career interests.
(CNW.LIFE™ has provided this link as a suggestion and is not receiving any financial compensation for doing so. There are no guarantees you’ll find a job or gain new skills).
Disclaimer: All content found on the CNW.LIFE™ website, including: text, images, social media posts, advertisements, marketing tools, questionnaires, audio, videos or other formats were created for informational purposes only. The self-assessments belong to the respective authors and publishers and are public domain. The assessments are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical/mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment but are for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a mental health/medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
If you think you may have a medical/mental health emergency, call your doctor, go to the nearest emergency room, or call 911 immediately. CNW.LIFE™ does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on this site. Instead, provides the information for your personal use which you have the choice to use or not to use. Reliance on any information provided by CNW.LIFE™ owners, employees, contracted writers, or medical professionals presenting content for publication to you on this site is solely at your own risk. By you choosing to continue use of this website you agree now and in the future not to hold CNW.LIFE™ owners, employees, contracted writers, or medical professionals responsible for any damage, loss or risk you may experience. No one can guarantee “expected” results because everyone experiences things differently.