Dealing with Stress

Over an extended period, your body can become addicted to stress. While the responses your body generates feel good in the short term, over the longer term, instead of de-stressing when you need it most, you may tend to find new ways to try to generate the stress high. Stress addiction may be thrilling but it can be deadly.

“It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way,” says existential therapist Rollo May. When you’re dealing with stress, it’s important to stop running and review the LifePilot basics of living in alignment with your values. This will provide you with a structure that will help reduce your stress.

Getting up in the morning with a fully-planned day is a great stress reliever. This keeps me focused. Once my top priorities are done, I can relax a bit with the good feeling that I have accomplished what I set out to do. I always leave room in my day for fitness, family and things that increase my happiness quotient.

In this way, I avoid procrastination and worry, which are huge stress inducers. As my friend Alfredo Molina says, “Worry is the misuse of imagination.” Ninety percent of the things you worry about never come true in the first place, and the other 10 percent are things you can’t do anything about.

Excerpt from 'LifeManual' by Peter H. Thomas. www.lifemanual.com. Copyright 2005, 2006. All rights reserved.

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