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It's time to throw out all those old-fashioned ideas about stress and start looking at it from a new perspective. Stress is great! Stress is wonderful! Stress is the best thing that could happen to you!

I'm not kidding you either, I'm deadly serious. Did you know that getting married is more stressful than losing your job? That retiring is more stressful than having trouble with your boss? No? Then let's look at stress more closely.

Stress is a physical reaction, not an emotional one. That's the first thing to understand. When something or someone triggers a stress response, the first thing your body does is release a hormone called adrenaline which makes your heart race. As the heart pumps faster, it sends extra blood to your brain and muscles, and that extra blood pumps them full of extra energy.

Does that sound bad to you? Or does it sound like a great way to get more things done?

So what goes wrong? Why does stress leave the average person feeling tired, depressed, and unable to cope with life? Why can't you ride that wave of stress for all it's worth?

Well, for a start, that extra energy has to come from somewhere. We're talking food. Regular, nourishing whole foods that feed the body. Chances are that when you're working late, trying to meet deadlines, you're skipping meals or grabbing something quick that fills you, not feeds you. Your body just doesn't have the resources to sustain all that energy. You run out of steam. Only at the end of the stress cycle, when the stress reaction is finished and you're tired and miserable, do you suddenly realize that you need help to cope with stress.

The other reason is all those hormones in your bloodstream. If they stay there too long, they become toxic. You need to drain those hormones from your bloodstream regularly with a relaxation response.
Stress. Relax. Stress. Relax. That's the cycle you need to manage stress positively and make it work for you, not against you.

Start while you're flying high, when you don't feel stressed emotionally but your body and mind are raring to go. While you're flying high, nothing seems impossible. Once hit the end of the cycle, even the simplest suggestions become too much effort.

The first thing you need to do is take some time to relax. You won't feel that you need to, but just ten minutes of sheer relaxation a day will help sustain that super-energy. By relax, I mean you to calm your mind and body completely. Use yoga techniques, meditate or pray. If you can't find ten minutes during

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