The Art of Taking It Easy Quotes

“The traffic was real, but it was your own beliefs, values, and expectations that made the situation into one that you found stressful.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“The simplest description I have ever come across is that stress is our brain’s reaction to a perception of threat.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Worrying is nothing more than internally generated stress—stress we impose on ourselves thanks to some particularly troublesome thoughts.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Learning to keep our brain active can help us avoid excessive worrying.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“One of the first pieces of advice I will offer is this: 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! It is a simple question really, and it requires clarity of mind that we often do not have when we are enraged or frightened or whatever, but if we can take a moment to assess our stress it will help us calm down. Imagine again that you are sitting in traffic and you start to feel your blood boil a bit. Before you allow yourself to react, ask yourself if this situation represents an actual threat to you. Chances are, it does not and you will start to calm down.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Before you allow yourself to react, ask yourself if this situation represents an actual threat to you. Chances are, it does not and you will start to calm down.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh.” Happiness is a great emotion, and really preferable to the alternative, but for many people it is a difficult thing to experience because of stress.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“I know there is a chance that some of you may have been attacked by bears, and if this is bringing back horrible memories for you, I’m sorry, but you should have come to terms with that before reading this book.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“I used to live in Los Angeles, a city famous for its traffic and absolutely nothing else.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“As they say, always check your source. If only people on Facebook followed this rule before sharing a political meme . . . oh well, human nature is what it is.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Despite the distance, we felt a connection so strong that we decided to take our relationship to the next level: sell most of our belongings, get rid of our homes, and travel the world together as nomads. You know, like everyone does when they fall in love.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“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. If you are going to get all worked up over traffic, consciously or unconsciously, living in the world of what could happen rather than what is happening, you might as well watch out for unicorns.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Sometimes to stay physically and mentally healthy in the modern world, we need to challenge ourselves so that when life hits us, we are ready. Parenthood presents certain challenges, or problems, and like any problem, solving them increases resilience. Not solving them, you know . . . doesn’t.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Researchers also suggest that one of the primary drivers of happiness is having a sense of purpose.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Although it is true that I loved being unattached and only responsible for myself, there is a giant pile of research that suggests married people are happier than single people,6 and people with children are happier than people without7”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Nothing is our most common stressor, and it is neither traffic nor bears. It is literally nothing.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“What is interesting to me is that social media is whatever we make it: we control the content we are exposed to.19 And yet, I often hear from people who quit it because of “all the drama.” Which is a shame, because there are so many positive messages being shared on a regular basis. We just have to learn how to filter the nuggets from the dirt.20”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Worrying is nothing more than internally generated stress—”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“When stressed we should ask ourselves, is this an actual threat? If it is an actual threat, then can I do anything about it?”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“The problem is that more often than not, there is no bear. Remember, stress is not our reaction to threat, it is our reaction to the perception of threat.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“we are facing an actual threat and we can do something about it, our stress response is there to help us out.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“If you are facing a threatening situation and there is something you can do about it, then you should do that. But if there is nothing you can do about it, what is the point of allowing yourself to get stressed?”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“am understandably stressed. Now can I do anything about it? Realistically the answer is no.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“the second question brings it home to help alter our behavior.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Can I do anything about it?”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“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?”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“most of our stress is from percieved threats, not clear and present threats.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Whatever the reason, I would like to point out that in all those scenarios the perceived threat was a product of your thoughts. The traffic was real, but it was your own beliefs, values, and expectations that made the situation into one that you found stressful.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“we could just get people to deal more effectively with stress, we could reduce or even eliminate a great deal of pain and suffering.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“love watching her learn, grow, and develop.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors