The week of May 10 - 16 is designated as National Women's Health Week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health. Given the challenges we're facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no better time to take time and assess your overall health.

Your Initial Self-Assessment

Here's a visual way to do a self assessment that can alert you to areas of your health that may need attention:

On a sheet of paper make a list of major health and wellbeing categories you want to to assess. As an example, your list might include:

* Emotional and mental wellbeing;
* Food consumption habits;
* Sleep;
* Exercise and movement; and,
*Spiritual practices.

This isn't an exhaustive list, but it could be a starting point. Choose other or additional health and wellbeing categories important to you.

Next, honestly assess how satisfied you are for each category on a 1 to 10 scale.

If you rate a category with a 10, you're totally satisfied with how things are for that category. A rating of "1" means you are totally unsatisfied.

If, for example, you're exercising regularly with a mix of strength, flexibility, and heart health activities, you may rate Exercise and Movement as a 10.

If your food consumption practices could use some improvement, you may rate that category as a 6.

When assessing emotional and mental wellbeing, you might conclude chronic stress is a major problem so you may rate that category as a 3.

At the conclusion of your category assessment evaluation, your list might be:

* Emotional and mental wellbeing: 3;
* Food consumption habits: 6;
* Sleep: 8;
* Exercise and movement: 10; and,
* Spiritual practices: 7.

You now have a visual numeric representation of the health and wellbeing categories important to you and your assessment on a 1 to 10 scale for how you're doing in each category.

Next, you can choose one or possibility two categories you want to improve and build activities into your day-to-day routine to create the health and wellbeing positive changes you want to experience.

FREA Self-Care Tools for Emotional Wellbeing

At FREA, we encourage everyone to make emotional self-care and stress reduction a high priority everyday. Have a look at the Self-Care Skills page on our FREA site at https://www.frea.support/self-care-handouts.

Consult With Appropriate Medical Professionals

It's wise to always consult with an appropriate licensed medical professional for an overall health and - if you have experienced emotional or mental challenges - a mental health professional.

Original blogpost on FREA.support: Link: https://www.frea.support/post/create-a-positive-health-care-plan-during-national-women-s-health-week

Resources: National Women's Health Care Week information at Office of Women's Health - Link: https://www.womenshealth.gov/nwhw/about?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

FREA stress reduction resource page: Link: https://www.frea.support/self-care-handouts

Host information: Stephen Carter, CEO, Stress Solutions, LLC, https://www.EFT-MD.com

Email: CarterMethod@gmail.com

Website for podcast: http://www.MindOverStress.us

Mic: Ultravoice XM8500