At the end of the 60's 2 American physchologists Holmes and Rahe made a list of stress factors. These are the most typical stress situations that any person can experience:

• Death of a spouse
• Partners break-up
• Divorse or separation
• Being sent to jail
• A close family members death
• An accident or serious illness
• Getting married
• Getting fired
• Returning to the job market
• Becoming a pensioner
• Being pregnant
• Problems with sex life
• Changing jobs
• Money problems

This list by no means ends here, but shows the most common stress factors in general for the majority of people.

Prioritizing both work and family first, before taking care of yourself can often lead to stress? You're most likely also narrowing down your own leisure time, to take care of your job, domestic chores and your family members.

If this sounds familiar, you belong to this group, and could be stressed becaus:

• you can not live up to your ambitions and own expectations. For example. you've not yet learned to play golf, even though you promised yourself that you would learn that three years ago.

• you don't have time to do things you've set your mind on. For example, four years ago you decided to read a certain book, but you've still not put aside time for yourself to read it.

The feeling is that you don't have a life. Frustration and at the same time guilt of thinking of yourself first.

Solution:

No time like the present and it's only you that change things. If you need inspiration, read '10 years younger in 10 weeks' by the Danish author Thorbjörg Hafsteinsdottirs or another one that focuses on your well-being. Then you're actually already well under way to a stress free life.