The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

by Brian King

Ultimately overcoming stress and managing its impact on our lives depends on this basic realization: most of our stress is from percieved threats, not clear and present threats.

Learn to assess your stress. Learn to tell the difference between bears and traffic. The first thing we should do when we start to feel agitated or stressed is stop and ask ourselves, “Is this situation actually threatening?” If it is, then Houston, we have a probl—uh I mean, bear!

Learning how to increase the right kind of prefrontal activity, or thoughts, and being able to consciously redirect choices made by other areas of the brain, is the key to living a less stressful existence.

Some might describe their love of chocolate by saying they are a “chocoholic,” but I really don’t like that term. First of all, there is no such thing as “chocohol” and “-aholic” is not a suffix. You can’t just add that to some noun and pretend like it makes sense. “But Brian, what about me? I’m a shopaholic!” No, you just really like shopping. “But I’m a workaholic!” No, you just really hate your family.

Fifty percent of how happy you are right now is attributed to your genes, about 10 percent is due to your circumstances, and the rest to your behaviors and thoughts.34 Happiness and resilience may be partially genetic, but we have a lot of potential to modify our emotional state.

Resilient people approach life by thinking and planning; they see their problems or adverse events as temporary and/or solvable.

I should also let you in on a little secret: optimistic people have pessimistic thoughts all the time. The most optimistic people among us are still plagued by negative thoughts, the difference is that they don’t dwell on them or ruminate.