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a hurricane had hit. Think about the last time your boss asked you to do something that involved hours of unpleasant work.

Rather than resisting the experience and having our stress hormones shoot through the roof, we can choose to experience it differently. We are in charge of our experience, not the conditions in our world, and we alone determine how we will experience it. We can face the experience head-on, breathe through it and say to ourselves in effect, "Okay, this is not as I'd like it to be right now, but it has no control over me. I refuse to let it effect my wellbeing. I refuse to make myself miserable over it. It will not kill me. It's temporary. Moreover, I am determined to find something good about it!" You never know what untold good a situation will bring you unless you look for it. Which brings up my final point

6. Gratitude. Either at the beginning of the day, or the end while you are getting ready for bed, make a mental list (or even better, write it down) of at least 10 things for which you are grateful. It can be as little as the tree in your yard that gives blessed shade on a hot day, or the food in your pantry, or the flower that just bloomed in your yard. It could be as big as that fact that your children are safe and in their beds, or that you have a job, or that you have your health. We often take for these things for granted.

It doesn't have to be an act of thanking God, in particular, if you are not religious. You can simply express gratitude to the universe around you. Just the act of expressing gratitude is one of the best ways I know to release tension, flood your body with wellbeing and put you in the flow of more things to be grateful about.

There we have it. Following these six simple steps will have an immediate effect on your stress level and keep the snakes at bay. And, it will eventually change your relationship to stressful events by empowering you to have authority over your reaction to conditions in your life. Write these steps down on a piece of paper and put it in your purse. Stick them to the bathroom mirror. Put these tips anywhere you will see them to remind you of your power over the stressful moments in life.

Learn more about this author, Victoria Loveland Coen.
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