We developed the online color test to measure stress, tension, depression, or anxiety around the self-help program 15 Minutes 4 Me. In my private practice, I often asked patients to fill out this test on a regular basis until their score was in the green zone for three months in a row. The interesting thing was the experience that, through filling out the test on a weekly or monthly basis, some patients had enough to go on in order to evaluate their own progress and to adjust there where necessary.
"Measuring is knowing", the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stated already.
Color your life green: why green?
Green is the color which shows that you have no stressed, tense, anxious, or depressed feelings. Your therapeutic goal is therefore clear: color your life green! In our clinical practice, too, we notice that people who regularly check if their life is still colored green find it easy to adjust and easily learn to go back into the green zone.
Color your life green in stress
About 80% of the population lies in the green zone for tension and stress. By coloring your life green, you bring yourself below the tension limit which causes most symptoms of stress. So if you are unsure whether or not you want to follow a self-help program, you can test yourself first. If your life is green as it is, you can re-take the test a few times to check if this remains this way. In case your stress life is presently orange or red, you can choose if you want to look for ways to reduce your stress toward the green zone. You cn measure your stress indefinitely for free on our website. In a coming article, within a few weeks, we will give tips against stress which can help y ou to color your life green in stress once again. Maybe this can help you help yourself even without a self-help program. And if you notice that you need more help, you can at any time start the self-help program.
Color your life green in depression
In depression, taking the online color your life green test is a useful tool in order to notice relapse early on. During a therapy or guidance, the therapeutic goal also is the same: color your life green! Work toward the green zone. To avoid relapse, it is useful to be in the green zone for at least three months before stopping guidance or self-help program or medication. If not, the chance of relapse occurring is real. If you want to practice relapse prevention, we recommend you to keep going with the color your life green test longer than so. For example, you can test yourself every month for a year after stopping your program. As soon as you return to the red or orange zone, you can quickly and preventively take action and apply the things which you learned in your self-help program or therapy. This way you avoid only taking action once the depression already arrived. Relapse prevention this way really gives you the chance of reducing an actual relapse. About 80% of the population is colored green in this test.
Color your life green in anxiety
About 94% of the average population colors green on this test. If you have an orange or red color, you are part of the 6% which is in the alarm zone. Especially after following an online self-help program, internet course, online therapy, or hypnotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, it is useful to repeat your anxiety test weekly or monthly, and to, as soon as your life is no longer green, do your exercises. These can include your anti-worrying exercise, your mindfulness exercise, yoga, or another type of self-hypnosis exercise or relaxation exercise. Take the test sometime and color your life green in the three parts of the online self-test by adjusting yourself until you manage to color your life green for at least three consecutive months! In one of the coming days or weeks I will take the time to write an article with tips against stress, tips against depression, and tips against anxiety in order to help you to color your life green more easily. This way you once again learn to enjoy life.
Paul Koeck, MD
