Stress---Human Beings are like Tea Bags!

You don't know you're strength until your put in hot water.

"Inner resources are those abstract qualities and characteristics that
become a tangible bridge over the chasm of chaos. These include, among
others, intuition, creativity, willpower, faith, humor, love, courage,
self-reliance, and optimism." In other words, when we have a stressful situation our character and inner character or true strength is brought out. Our ability to deal with certain situations using our character can make any situation a huge problem or a little 'bump in the road'.

Here are some ways to work on your inner character from the book Managing Stress 3rd Edition:

1- Make time for yourself (start with 5 minutes/day and work up to a half hour) to learn about and create yourself to handle stressful situations.

2- Understand your emotions. Figure out what is causing the 'stress'. Most of the time it is an emotion you are not familiar with... Happiness, sadness, fear, anger, excitement.

3- Have self esteem and creativity to deal with situations. This point ties into the previous two pointers. Understand that you are unique and growing towards a better you.

4- Balance your emotional, spiritual and physical self to keep
homeostasis... As stress is sometimes described as the lack of
homeostasis.

5- Be like a Baby. Curiosity, imagination and creativity-key characteristics that can help you deal with any situation.

Bryan from the Shiatsu Massage School of California in Santa Monica describes some people as being addicted to Stress! Cortisol, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine and other hormone levels that raise when we are over stimulated. Some people get addicted to this and need it to feel AWAKE... What a scary thought, because stress is proven to cause hypertension, some cancers, pain and other problems. Anatomical changes are caused by stress. Such as, an increase in sweat and constriction of muscles, making the body work harder. Having control of your mind, emotions, body and spirit (you as a whole) will make dealing with stress more tolerable.

Here are 6 steps to help you deal with stress:

1- Identify your stressors

2- Which of the above stressors cause anger and fear?

3- Try to balance your mind, emotions, body and spirit. Are any of these categories overwhelming or lacking? (ie. If stress occupies 50% or more of your emotions, you are out of balance and should try eliminating or modifying some commitments)

4- Try one of the following coping skills:
Cognitive Restructuring
Behavior Modification
Journal Writing
Art Therapy
Humor Therapy
Creative Problem Solving

5- Try one of the following relaxation techniques:
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Meditation
Hatha Yoga
Mental Imagery and Visualization
Music Therapy
Message Therapy
Tai Chi Ch'uan
Progressive Muscular Relaxation
Autogenic Training
Clinical Biofeedback
Healthy Nutrition
Exercise

6- Create your character to deal with stress... For example, if you like the way Eddie Murphy takes different life problems into perspective, try adapting his humor:)

*Everyone will have a different solution to dealing with stress, take the time to find what works best for you! At a young age, Bill Gates found out it was his intelligence, competitiveness and ambition that are his strengths and helped him achieve success(bizzle.com).

Information taken from and I highly recommend Managing Stress 3rd Ed. It gives great detail on all of these coping and relaxation techniques.