What is Stress?
Any interference that disturbs a person's mental or physical well-being

What Happens When Stress Persists?
High blood pressure, muscle tension, headaches, backaches, indigestion, irritable bowel, ukcers, etc.

Choose Your Attitude:
Do you manage your emotions or do they manage you?

Unhealthy Stress Reduction:
Victims seek instant gratification, make impulsive and ill-considered choices, moving them further and further off course

Choose New Behaviors:
1.Separate from emotional stressor

2. List and prioritize everything you need to do
3. Discover time savers
4. Say "no"
5. Exercise

Choose New Thoughts:

1. Elevate
2. Trust a positive outcome
3. Take a mental vactation

Choose New Behaviors:

1. Separate
2. Exercise
3. Relax
4. Journal
5. Channel anger into positive actions

Choose New Thoughts:

1. Reframe
2. Distract yourself
3. Forgive
4. Indentify the hurt

Choose New Behaviors:

1. Prepare thoroughly
2. Relax
3. Breathe deeply
4. Bring a piece of home to tests
5. Request accommodations

Choose New Thoughts:

1. Detach
2. Reframe
3. Visualize success
4. Assume the best
5. Say your affirmation

Choose New Behaviors:

1. Do something towards your goals
2. Exercise
3. Listen to uplifting music
4. Laugh
5. Breathe deeply

Choose New Thoughts:

1. Dispute pessimistic beliefs
2. Distract yourself
3. Focus on the positive
4. Find the opportunity in the problem
5. Remind yourself

Limits on Happiness:
Research has found that we inherit a happiness set point from our parents. 50% of our happiness is determined by a genetically fixed set point. 10% is affected by circumstances, only for a short time

Savoring Pleasures:
When we savor an experience, our Inner Guide tells us to "pay close attention to this and stay with it", we let a pleasant experience linger in our awareness

Gratitude:
"a felt sense of wonder, thankfulnedd, and appreciation for life", recall a painful experience and then how you feel now, the ket is noticing what you feel grateful for now that the pain is in the past

Engagement:
Another way to increase happiness is becoming so engaged in an activity that we lose awareness of anything beyond what we are doing

Strawberry Moments:
Life is full of difficulties, obstacles, challenges, and pain. We wonder when will all of these problems end? And among the problems is a strawberry (if you notice it)

Contribution:
Showing kindness to others increases positive emotions, can be small (holding the door open), can be big (donate money to a charity), or huge (taking actions to reduce homelessness)