"A diamond is simply a lump of coal that handled stress very well."

This is the quote with which I begin many of my stress mastery seminars.

If you are alive, you are experiencing some level of stress. It's a sign we are alive. In fact, the only people with no stress at all are in the cemetery.

As human beings, we are hard wired both psychologically and physically, to have a very basic reaction to stress. It's called the fight or flight response.

We tend to respond to stress by either fighting or fleeing from it. Since fighting is not a very adaptable or legal response in our society, we tend to flee instead.

We take flight and flee into anxiety, depression, hypertension, addiction and other unhealthy behaviors intended to run away from our stress.

Family physician Dr. Karl Hempel says that a significant number of his patients each week are dealing with a stress related or stress induced illness.

So it is clearly a matter of how we respond to and attempt to manager our stress that make the difference.

A quick tip

Dr. Hempel's favorite prescription for stress is exercise. The most simple, readily available and easiest way to beat stress is to exercise.

It can be as simple, and powerful, as that.

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