Melissa Roberts - The Everything Guide to Stress Management: Step-by-step advice for eliminating stress and living a happy, healthy life

Step-by-step advice for eliminating stress
and living a happy, healthy life

Melissa Roberts

To Steve, Mari, and Renita, who taught me
how to mastermind stress, and to everyone
who reads this bookyou are the expert on
you, and you can bust your stress.

Thank you to my family, my friends, and my beloved Mark for your support during the writing of this project. I know I was a stressor to all of you, and I appreciate you using your stress-management tools in the face of my deadline.

Thank you also to the students of my stress reduction course at Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas, as well as the various groups where I have shared my stress reduction and meditation seminars. A special thank you to Lee Ann, Jean, and Brenda at the Labette Assistance Center in Parsons, Kansas, for their volunteer proofreading, quiz-taking, and zeal for seeing this book become a reality, and to Sergeant Neil Springer and the other officers of the Parsons Police Department in Parsons, Kansas, who shared their experiences managing stress on the job.

1. Mastermind stress before it masterminds you.
   
2. Accept that stress is a part of life. It will not go away. As long as you are alive, and as long as you care, you will experience stress.
   
3. Awareness is key to managing stress. If you dont know you are stressed, then you dont know how to stop it, manage it, or thrive in the midst of it.
   
4. You have the power to change your life, and your stress. Only you let something stress you out. Only you can stop it.
   
5. There are many tools for busting stress. Know them. Find them. Use them. Have fun, lots of fun, with them.
   
6. Do not be afraid to say no to anyoneyour spouse, your boss, your doctor, your hairdresser, or your kids. No protects your personal boundaries and keeps you safe.
   
7. Your stresses change depending upon your stage in life. Expect different stressors as you age, and be prepared for them.
   
8. Constantly seek new ways to manage the new sources of stress in your life.
   
9. Know when grief is triggering your stress, and honor your loss.
   
10. A strong person knows when to ask for help, even when its hard. Theres no shame in seeking a therapist, finding a financial counselor, or paying a personal trainer if it helps you manage your stress and live the life you want to live, free from suffering.
    

WELCOME TO The Everything(Guide to Stress Management. First, its important to note that this book does not contain everything essential to managing your stress. You do. You are the expert on you, and only you have the power to choose life over stress every day. You reflect in your stress journal. You choose exercise instead of working overtime. With patience, dedication, and practice, you will master your stress. Its only a matter of time.

Stress has so much power in modern life, but thats only because we let it. Missing meals, ignoring aches and pains, eternal commutes, plugged into computers rather than real conversationsmodern life forces people to live unnaturally. This puts pressure on you. No ones designed to work ten hours a day or watch television all the time or eat high-fat foods without health problems. Many people cause much of the stress they experience.