BY CJ Vetter
Texas – According to a report published by personal-finance website WalletHub, Texas was ranked the ninth most stressful state to live in. Louisiana was ranked first, while Utah was ranked the lowest at 50.
The report determined the level of stress by comparing 41 key metrics across the states. Things such as credit score, housing cost, crime rate, divorce rate and more were observed, and then combined to determine the overall stress of living in each state. For example, Texas was ranked first in the number of average hours worked per week.
Texas also scored very highly when it came to stress related to work, coming in second only to Alaska, and followed closely by Louisiana. During the COVID-19 epidemic, and the sudden burst of economic and population growth, it’s no wonder that many Texans aren’t exactly calm in their business. Texas also came in at fourth most stressed in matters regarding family, earning it a very high ranking overall.
“I am a mindfulness researcher and I am convinced that above the lowest threshold, awareness of what brings us joy versus what stresses us out is the most important thing to sculpt a life worth living,” Doctor Maryanna D. Klatt, a professor at the Ohio State University College of Medicine said.
However, Texans were able to slip out of the top five by a few metrics; one place where Texans weren’t stressed was in the wallet. When ranked by stress induced by money, Texans got off easy at rank 32, and while not precisely high, Texans did escape the top ten when it came to stress involving health and safety, landing at rank 14. Michele Schalin of Mindful Metamorphosis, a local therapy group, believes that the modern blending of work and social life may be the cause for why Texan’s are so stressed.
“We used to have a very fine line, where work ended and work begun. Years ago, it used to be that you'd work 9 to 5, like the song, that's it.” Schalin said. "Part of calming your body and mind down involves nature; years ago, that's where we were. We don't have balance, in mind, body or nature."
Other interesting tidbits about the lone star state provided by the report showed that Texas was ranked fifth in states stressed about the median credit score. Texas also was also rank 30 when it came to stress induced by housing affordability.
Alisia Tran who holds a doctorate in psychology and is an associate professor at the University of Arizona recommends that when fighting stress, you should approach it from multiple fronts such as identifying stress and using practices to reduce it in the moment, as well as finding ways to reduce it over all.
“Fighting stress is an individual process so I think the first thing to do is identify what is the cause or source of your stress, what helps reduce stress for you at that moment and more generally what resources do you have at your disposal to deal with the stress,” Tran said.
For more information, and to read the report, visit WalletHub.com or Wallethub.com/edu/most-stressful-states/32218. To learn more about Mindful Metamorphosis, visit mschalin.com.
