A Quiz That Predicts Your Longevity

By Lissa Rankin MD 

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

If you have a conscientious doctor, you’ve probably been asked important health questions such as:

- Are you eating a mostly vegetable based diet?
- Are you avoiding sugar and limiting glucose-spiking carbohydrates like white pasta and bread?
- Are you choosing organic?
- Are you avoiding habits that can harm your health, such as cigarette smoking,  excessive alcohol intake, and drinking too much caffeine?
- Are you exercising regularly?
- Do you get enough sleep?

If your doctor is particularly hip, you may have also been asked about your stress levels and what you’re doing to keep your stress under control. But is your doctor helping you understand what stress really is? You may think it’s all about how long your “to do” list is, but you may not realize what stress is to your body.

What Is Stress?

As I wrote about in Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, as far as your nervous system is concerned, stress is anything that triggers the amygdala in your primordial limbic system to activate the “fight-or-flight” stress response. And whenever this happens, your body’s natural self-repair mechanisms- the ones that help prevent heart disease, fight cancer, ward off infection, and assist in anti-aging- get flipped off.  As far as your body’s health is concerned, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that trigger the stress response may damage your health more than a poor diet, avoiding exercise, bad habits, and sleep deprivation.

But the good news is that the opposite is also true! Because your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings are at least partially under your control, you have the power to switch off your body’s stress responses and return the nervous system to the health-inducing relaxation response that activates the body’s natural self repair.

So which questions should your doctor be asking? Which ones should you be asking yourself? Check out the following questions which assess your “whole health” and which all have been scientifically proven to affect your health and longevity.

Take The Whole Health Quiz

1. Do you feel well supported with loving community and intimate relationships with friends and family who allow you to express your authentic self?
2. Do you feel in touch with your life’s purpose?
3. Are you able to stay in alignment with your integrity in your professional life?
4. Do you feel financially secure?
5. Are you in a nurturing relationship with a romantic partner who allows you to express your authentic self?
6. Do you feel satisfied sexually, either with or without a partner?
7. Are you able to set healthy boundaries with the people who stress you out?
8. Are you comfortable saying no?
9. Do you feel spiritually connected to a Higher Power that you trust has your best interests at heart?
10. Do you have a healthy way to address negative emotions, such as anger, resentment, grief, anxiety, and depressed mood?

CONTINUE THE TEST

Previous articles by Lissa

• 8 Ways Overcoming Fear Can Improve Your Health
• A Radical Way To Grow Spiritually In A Relationship
• Why Engaging In Work You Love Could Save Your Life
• How To Set Health Goals & Surrender Attachment To Outcomes
• The Health Benefits Of Finding Your Tribe
• 7 Tips For Finding Your Tribe
• 10 Surprising Things That Trigger “Fight-O-Flight”
• 10 Signs You’ve Found Your Calling