How would it feel to be able to go through your day feeling less stressed about problems that arise, without needing to prevent the unpreventable? To see opportunities that others might miss and to open doors that lead to new paths of happiness? To better savor the good times and to let the bad times roll off your back more easily? With a little practice, this can be your new norm.
This book has been written to help you shift your whole experience of stress in your life, so that you have a whole new range of possibilities. You will learn techniques that will help you to better manage the stress you face, strategies for structuring your lifestyle that will enhance your internal and external coping resources, and habits that can increase your resilience to stressors you will inevitably encounter as you move through life.
I know from experience—both personal and professional—that these techniques work. I have received feedback from clients and readers that the strategies in these pages have helped people live healthier, happier lives. I have also practiced virtually all the techniques discussed in these pages at least once and can attest that they do work. This collection of stress management tools has helped me to effectively cope with everything from mundane life hassles to serious crises and major life challenges, and it can help you as well.
You cannot eliminate stress from your life, and you may even face stress that momentarily throws you off balance. However, these techniques—used either alone or in different combinations—can enable you to quickly get back to a place of feeling centered, sometimes even before you realize you needed centering. In fact, several of these strategies can help you to learn and grow from the stress you face, coming out stronger in the process. Rather than merely surviving the stress in your life, you can thrive through the process of learning to cope. This book will show you how.