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Stress Management: Most Popular Articles

These articles are the most popular over the last month.
The Type A Personality Quiz
Do you have a Type A personality? These questions will help you look at obvious and subtle clues in your behavior and patterns that can help you assess whether or not you exhibit Type A personality characteristics and could benefit from some changes to safeguard your health, happiness, and stress levels.
Optimism Quiz
Are you an optimist? Optimism leads to many advantages in life, including better health, more success and less stress. Take the Optimism Quiz and test yourself: are you prone to optimism or pessimism?
The Stress Reliever Personality Test
There are many stress relievers available, but if you pick stress relievers that match your personality traits and lifestyle, you're much more lieky to stick with them, and you'll find it easier to adapt stress relief into your lifestyle. Take this fun personality test to help you find the stress relievers that best fit your personality and lifestyle!
Stress Myth Quiz
We all experience stress in our lives, and stress can affect you in many ways. Because stress is so common, it often comes up in conversation, and many ideas about stress are passed around. Some of these ideas about stress are accurate, and some are stress myths. When dealing with stress, the more you understand, the better, so it's best to have all the facts so you can maximize your health. This quiz allows you to test your knowledge about stress and increase your understanding at the same time by taking this quiz about stress myths. At the end of the quiz, you'll not only find your score, but you'll be directed to additional information about the questions you missed. Ready to weed out the stress myths from the facts? Great! Here we go:
Cortisol, Stress and Your Body
Cortisol is known as 'the stress hormone' because stress activates cortisol secretion. While it is important in proper body functioning, too much cortisol in your bloodstream can lead to serious health consequences. Learn more about cortisol, the effects of cortisol, and how to stay healthy in the face of stress.
Stress Symptom Quiz
Stress can impact your body in many ways and cause a wide variety of symptoms. This tool is designed to examine your stress symptoms—or physical symptoms that you have that are likely due to stress—and provide resources appropriate to your situation, to allow you to relieve stress and the various stress symptoms that present themselves in your life.
25 Stress Relievers
Here's a growing list of stress relievers you can use to reduce stress in your life and relieve tension in your mind and body right now! Each stress reliever on the list has links to resources to help you get started so you can feel less stress in your life fast.
Happiness Quiz
While there’s more to happiness than just the absence of stress, many of the areas we focus on in stress management are the same areas in life that, according to recent research, are correlated with overall happiness as well. This 16-question self test can help you examine those areas of your life and roughly measure your overall happiness level.
The Job Burnout Quiz
Is your job putting you under excessive levels of stress? Our work lives take up much of our waking hours, and affect us greatly. This quiz is designed to analyze features of your job that may put you at a greater risk of burnout, and assess your emotional state and feelings about your job, to let you know more about your burnout risk. Assess your situation, and find resources for combating burnout.
The Assertiveness Quiz
Could you benefit from assertiveness training? Find out if you're creating more stress for yourself by being passive, aggressive, or passive aggressive, and get resources for being more assertive and learning healthy conflict resolution strategies, from Elizabeth Scott, About.com's Guide to Stress Management.
Sex and Stress
Sex can have great stress management benefits! Unfortunately, stress can hinder sexuality: people who are experiencing a lot of stress can feel a decrease in libido. Learn more about the tension-relieving benefits of sex, and find techniques to manage stress and improve your sex life at the same time!
Top Stress Relievers
These tension reducing stress management techniques have been proven stress relievers that effectively help millions of people reduce stress, relax, and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Learn about meditation, yoga, self-hypnosis and other important stress management exercises, and feel more relaxed right away!
The "Is Your Lifestyle Stressing You?" Quiz
Is your lifestyle causing you undue stress? This quiz looks at several areas of your life, helps you determine if certain areas of your life are creating excessive stress, and provides resources to help everyone from the slightly stressed to the seriously frazzled!
Type A Personality Traits
Most people now know that Type A personality characteristics have something to do with being competitive and work-obsessed, and can bring an increased risk of health problems, but it’s not always understood exactly what traits constitute “Type A Behavior”, or exactly how these Type A traits impact health and wellbeing. This article explains more about “Type A”, how it affects people, and how to deal with stress if you have a “Type A Personality”, or if you work closely with someone who does!
5 Ways to Calm Down Quickly
Sometimes builds up and we suddenly feel overwhelmed. Other times a series of stressful events occur to overwhelm us. However it happens, when overwhelmed, it's important to have some quick stress relievers to help us feel calm right away. Here are some quick and easy ways to calm down quickly when you're suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
How Stress Affects Your Body
Stress health and well-being are all connected. Learn about the different types of stress and how they can affect your body and health, plus find resources on stress health, how to reduce the level of stress in your life and manage the stress you experience.
Basics of Communication Skills
Communication Skills - As conflict is virutally inevitable in any relationship, here are ten important communication skills to help you manage conflict in a respectful way that yields positive results, rather than damaging your connection and causing additional relationship stress.
Worst Ways To Handle Conflict
Conflict is a virtually inevitable part of even the healthiest relationships. Just as healthy conflict resolution strategies can enhance intimacy and strengthen relationships, poor conflict resolution skills can cause lasting damage. Learn what to avoid in conflict resolution, and find resources for healthy communication.
How To Clear Your Mind
Do you find yourself obsessing about stressors in your relationships or problems at work? Learn how to clear your mind and ease your stress.
Health Benefits of Laughter
Research demonstrates the amazing health benefits of laughter. Laughing can relieve stress, increase pain tolerance and support the immune system, as well as serve several other healthy purposes. Learn more about the positive health benefits of laughter and how to use humor to relieve tension, manage stress and improve overall health and well-being.
Assert Yourself!
Assertiveness is a skill that not only helps with marriage and interpersonal relationships, but can reduce stress and help you attain more balance at home, at work and in life. Learn more about assertiveness, aggressiveness and passivity, and see how assertiveness training can improve your life.
Why Take a Power Nap?
Important benefits of sleep: You may have heard that you 'need' 7-8 hours of sleep to be at your best, but do you know why? And what happens if you don't get that sleep at night? Learn about the benefits of sleep and the power nap, and find out how power napping can help you manage stress, stay healthy, and be more productive at work and in your life! After reading this, you may find that a power nap is in store for you today!
Assertive Communication Skills
Assertiveness training can give you the skills to reduce stress in your relationships, your workplace, and your life with assertive communication. Here's a helpful guide on how to develop assertive communication skills to reduce stress in your life and improve your relationships.
Music Therapy and Your Health
Music therapy is a popular and growing field for good reason: music can reduce stress, aid health, and carry many health benefits, and those who practice music therapy can harness the power of music to help their clients relieve pain, reduce stress and anxiety, and see many other benefits. Learn about the effects of music on the body.
Epinephrine
The Definition Of Epinephrine, With Related Information—From The Stress Management Glossary at About.com
Stress and Weight Gain Test
Stress can contribute to weight gain in several ways. If you’re having trouble with your weight and wonder what role stress may be playing, or if you just want information and resources for healthy change, this is the quiz for you! The following 10 questions are each designed to help you assess a different aspect of your lifestyle, such as the role of emotional eating and cortisol, to determine if you may benefit from some simple changes that can help you keep your weight under control when you’re stressed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find resources that pertain to your specific situation.
Stress and Health Quiz
You may have already learned from this site or other sources that stress can affect your health in a negative way, but do you know exactly how? This quiz is designed to test your knowledge, pique your interest, and inform you on the connection between stress and your body.
The "Are You Overscheduled?" Quiz
Are you overscheduled? This quiz looks at several areas of your life, helps you determine if you've taken on too much, and provides resources to help everyone from the slightly busy to the seriously overscheduled!
Develop Positive Self Talk
Negative self talk can limit you, increase your stress level, and adversely affect your self concept. Here are some ways you can stop negative self talk from damaging you, and reduce stress and improve your life by developing the habit of positive self talk.
Type A Personality Quiz Results from The About's Stress Management Site
Thanks for taking our quiz about Type A Personality.
Resilience Self Test
Resilience affects how we handle daily hassles and major catastrophes. How resilient are you? This quiz can help you assess your strenghs and weaknesses in the realm of resilience, and develop a stronger ability to cope.
Stress Relief Music
Music can be a powerful tool for stress relief, and can be used for tension release, relaxation, motivation and more. Here’s a useful list of some of the best CDs to use for stress relief, with tips on how to use various forms of music in different ways.
Stress and Weight Gain
Stress and weight gain are linked in several ways. Cortisol, emotional eating, and lack of exercise are all factors. Learn how stress and weight gain are linked, and find resources for creating healthier lifestyle that reduces both your stress level and your weight.
Caffeine, Stress and Health
Caffeine is a drug, popularly consumed in coffee, tea, soft drinks and, in smaller doses, chocolate. While we seem to have a love affair with these products, there’s been quite a bit of confusion and even controversy surrounding caffeine lately. Is it good or bad for us? Here’s a brief tutorial on caffeine, and some surprising answers to these questions.
Stress Symptoms
Because so many of us face greater amounts of daily stress, we may not always know how much stress is too much. Here are some guidelines for recognizing your stress symptoms and knowing how much stress is too much stress.
A Healthy Life in 5 Steps!
You can experience a happier, less stressful and more healthy life! Learn about the five most effective lifestyle features that prevent and reduce stress from entering your life, and help you better manage the tension and stress you already experience. Start living a more healthy life today!
Adrenaline Self Test
Do you wonder if your life is more stressful than it needs to be? Could there be a chance that you keep things exciting and dramatic because you enjoy the adrenaline that comes with the stress? This test examines common and subtle adrenaline junkie clues and provides you with an assessment and resources for your situation.
The Optimism Quiz
Are you an optimist? Take this self-test and, with 10 questions, discover whether you have a positive (optimistic) or (pessimistic) negative explanatory style, and learn how this impacts your life. (Optimism and pessimism aren't as obvious as you may think!) You'll also find resources to help you become more optimistic!
Stress Relief Breathing
Breathing exercises are an ideal way to relieve stress in that they’re fast, simple, free, and can be performed by just about anyone. They can also be done anywhere and at virtually any time. This makes stress relief breathing exercises one of my most popular and convenient tension tamers. Learn how basic controlled breathing works.
Chronic Stress
What is chronic stress, how is it different from other types of stress, and how can it affect your health? Learn more about chronic stress, and find resources for dealing with chronic stress and promoting health and wellness from About's Stress Management site.
Exercise and Stress Relief
While exercise can help your overall health and longevity, and assist you with weight-loss goals, physical exercise and stress relief go hand in hand. Learn more about how and why exercise and stress relief go together so well.
Best Ways to Start Your Day
How you spend your morning can put a flavor on the rest of your day. From yoga to yogurt, these healthy lifestyle habits can reduce stress, improve health, and give you a great start! Start living a more healthy lifestyle today with some of these ideas; practice them for a few days and you'll be hooked.
Dealing With Difficult People
While dealing with difficult people and eliminating conflict can reduce stress and even improve your health, it's never easy. What to do? These tips on dealing with difficult people can help keep conflict at bay and reduce your stress level.
Meditation
Meditation can be a wonderful tool to counteract the effects of stress, restore the body to a calm state, help the body to repair itself, and prevent new damage due to the physical effects of stress. Learn more about meditation, the effects of meditation, and resources for meditation practice.
Letting Go
Letting go of anger and stresses from the past is easier said than done. Learn proven techniques for letting go and living in a freer place.
How To Be Happy
We all want to be happy. Most of our goals are meant to lead us to the elusive goal of being happy, but we don't always find it. This step by step guide to being happy can help you look at your lifestyle, your thought patterns, and other things so you can follow the goals that will make you happy, starting today!
Self Sabotage & Mental Stress
Are you the victim of self sabotage? Sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot by reacting to stress in ways that cause even more stress! The following are some of the most common ways that people unknowingly create mental and emotional stress in their own lives.
Learning PMR
Progressive Muscle Relaxation, or Deep Muscle Relaxation, is a valuable stress management tool that allows you to reduce the overall tension you carry in your body in a matter of minutes. Learn how to use PMR now, and feel better right away!
Using Positive Affirmations
Positive affirmations are a great way to develop positive self talk, a can-do attitude, relieve stress and more. Learn more about how positive affirmations can help reduce stress, find guidelines on how to create your own positive affirmations (tailored for your personal goals), and find creative ways to incorporate positive affirmations into your life.
25 MORE Stress Relievers
Many of us would like to take on new stress relievers, but can't find the right one, or don't have enough ideas on what to try. This list of 25 top stress relievers, complete with information and related resources on each, provides you with plenty of ideas on what to try. Combined with my previous list of 25 stress relievers, you ahve a combined total of 50 great stress relievers, which gives you a great selection for new favorite stress relievers.
Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution skills are vital to the health and longevity of a relationship and its participants. If you'd like to take some of the stress out of your relationship, here's an informative resource on conflict resolution! Try these simple and effective conflict resolution techniques.
Job Stress and Health
Recent studies have found a link between chronic job stress and metabolic syndrome, a cluster of health factors that increase the risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other health conditions. Learn what you can do to reduce work-related stress and stay healthier.
Yoga for Stress Management
Yoga is said to be a combination of many of the major stress management techniques, including meditation, mental imagery and exercise, and stress relief breathing. Learn why so many people are seeing the benefit of yoga for stress relief and overall health, and how you can use it to improve your life.
Stress and Hair Loss
Are you under stress and experiencing hair loss? Are you wondering if stress is to blame, and what you should do? Read more about the causes of hair loss, and find resources for dealing with stress.
The Health Benefits of Pets
There are many health benefits of pet ownership. Did you know that having a dog or cat can significantly reduce the amount of stress you feel in your body, lower your blood pressure, increase the exercise you get, reduce loneliness and depression, and offer other health benefits? Learn more about the stress management and health benefits of pet ownership, and see if owning a dog or cat is the right choice for you!
Non-Addictive Stress Relievers
Online games can be a great way to relieve stress. However, some online games can become addictive, draining time from your schedule and creating more stress. The following are some online games that are particularly good at relieving stress (included are explanations of why), and have the added bonus of being fun for a few minutes, after which you can get back to your day.
Free Positive Affirmations
Positive affirmations can help you manage stress and maintain a can-do, optimistic attitude. Here are some affirmations designed to help you relieve stress by maintaining a peaceful state of mind and increasing feelings of safety and self-efficacy.
Dealing With Anxiety
Do you experience too much stress and anxiety? And how much is too much? This article can help you better understand anxiety and stress, and provides four easy steps for dealing with anxiety and the stress it causes.
Optimism Quiz Results From About's Stress Management Site
Thanks for taking our quiz about optimism.
Music Therapy
Learn more about music therapy and how it can be used for health and stress relief, and find resources for additional information on how to use music in your life to relieve stress, and how to utilize music therapy to promote health and wellness.
Fight-Or-Flight Response
The Definition Of Fight-Or-Flight Response, With Related Information—From The Stress Management Glossary at About.com
Negative Self Talk and Stress
Self talk is the internal dialogue we use to view the world, expain situations and communicate to ourselves, and the type of self talk you use--negative self talk or positive self talk--can affect the level of stress you experience. Learn why, and find resources to change your self talk if need be.
Meditation Techniques
The benefits of meditation are numerous. This article discusses the basics of various meditation techniques and the benefits that these meditation techniques can carry for stress relief and personal growth.
Journaling and Stress
Journaling is an effective stress management tool that provides numerous emotional and health benefits. Discover the research behind the positive effects of journaling, how journaling can reduce stress and improve health and functioning, and find resources for getting started!
All About Hypnosis
Hypnotism and self-hypnosis can be valuable tools for the reduction of stress. Learn how it can be used to relax your body, help you acheive goals and improve your life.
Office Humor:What's Offensive?
Workplace humor can reduce stress and contribute to a more fun and enjoyable work environment. Unfortunately, it can also be a source of alienation and even litigation! Learn more about the offensive office humor people experience, and find tips on how to be funny at the office without causing offense with inappropriate office humor.
Stress Myth Quiz Results
Thanks for taking our quiz about stress myths.
How To Reduce School Stress
As educational requirements get more stringent in all levels of education, students everywhere experience considerable school stress. Here are some student stress relief tips and tools that students can use to learn study skills, prepare for exams and minimize their school stress levels to make learning easier, including an explanation of the importance of student stress management, and resources to help you reduce the school stress you experience.
Benefits of Guided Imagery
At the beginning level, guided imagery is a quickly learned, effective stress management and tension reduction tool. At a more advanced level, it can be a tool for inner guidance. Learn why this stress management technique is so effective that even hospitals are starting to use it to help patients through recovery from surgery.
Rumination and Stress
Runimation—that feeling many people get when they just can’t stop thinking about something that upsets them—can cause stress and other negative consequences in your life. Learn more about rumination, the effects of rumination, and how to stop ruminating and be free.
How To Be An Optimist
Optimists experience increased health and longevity, less stress and more success. Fortunately, an optimistic way of thinking can be learned and taught! Taking the time to change your thinking patterns and explanatory style can produce significant benefits in your overall quality of life. Take these five simple steps and learn to become more of an optimist today!
The Benefits of Optimism
Positive thinking and optimism have many proven benefits, including stress management, improved performance and productivity, and superior overall health and longevity. Learn more about the benefits of optimism.
Stress Personality Tests
The first step in changing your situation is understanding it. The following self assessment and personality tests can enable you to better understand yourself and your lifestyle so you can begin to make the best changes to reduce stress in your particular situation. Take these personality tests and assessment tools to start creating the lifestyle that best suits you--one without excess stress!
Stress & Sex: Save Your Libido
Sex can be a great stress reliever, with the physical and emotional release, social support, and release of endorphins. However, at times stress can affect one's libido. Here are ways to deal with stress and sex. Learn how to get in the mood, rom music and aromatherapy to diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes, here are some quick ideas and lifestyle changes that can help you get past excessive stress so you can enjoy the benefits of sex!
Stress Management
How much stress is too much? What can you do if your stress level is unhealthy? This resource explains the important basics of stress management, and offers effective resources to develop an individual stress management plan that will work for you!
Fun Stress Relievers
There are many great stress relievers available, but some of the easiest to actually stick with are the fun ones! Here's a list of fun stress relievers that can distract you out of your stressed frame of mind, and provide additional benefits. Try these fun stress relievers and see which ones can help you acheive a more relaxed, peaceful frame of mind.
Resiliencde Self Test Results From About.com Stress Management
Thanks for taking our resilience self-assessment.
Karate Breathing Meditation
This simple Karate meditation is fast, but powerful. It combines breathing, which has been shown to have significant effects on the mind, the body and one’s moods, with simple meditation, to reduce stress and help you become more physically relaxed and mentally centered.
Stress at Work
Because stress at work is so common, finding a low-stress job may be difficult or impossible for many people. A more realistic choice would be to simple adopt more effective strategies to reduce stress at work. Here are some stress management techniques to try.
The Healthy Lifestyle Quiz
Take the Healthy Lifestyle Quiz, examine ten important areas of your life, and see if you're getting enough sleep, stressing too much at work, getting adequate exercise, and more. You'll find tips for every area of your life that are tailored to your situation so you can live a more healthy lifestyle today!
Personal Stress Relief Plan
We all respond to stressful events in our own way, and our responses to stress affect us in ways that are unique as well. Because of this, your ideal stress relief plan should fit with your personality and lifestyle. Visit one of the most popular sites on the web and learn more about individualized stress relief, and find free resources to develop a stress relief plan that works for you right now!
Stress Relief for Health
We all experience stress differently, so it follows that stress relief may require a different approach for different people. Learn about the different types of stress, various ways that stress can affect your health, and find tools for lasting stress relief.
Overcoming Perfectionism
Perfectionism can rob you of your peace of mind, enjoyment of life, and self esteem. Though it’s a process that may take a little time, overcoming perfectionism can greatly decrease the level of stress you feel on a daily basis. Here are some important steps you can take to maintain a healthier attitude by overcoming perfectionism.
Listening Skills 101
Social support from friendships can have profound stress management and health benefits. Learn how to strengthen your relationships by practicing good listening skills, and strengthen your relationships.
Traits of a Perfectionist
If you’re wondering whether or not you’re a perfectionist, there’s a good chance you are one, at least to a degree. (And if you’re thinking that you have to fit the profile exactly to qualify, there’s another clue!) Perfectionists are a lot like high achievers, but with some key differences. The following are ten telltale traits. Do any of these sound familiar?
Mindfulness Exercises
Mindfulness is an amazing tool for stress management and overall wellness because it can be used at virtually any time and can quickly bring lasting results. The following mindfulness exercises are simple and convenient, and can lead you to a deeper experience of mindfulness in your daily life.
Increase Job Satisfaction
If you’re overstressed and at risk for job burnout, you may feel that a major life overhaul is necessary for you to be able to enjoy your job and avoid burnout. Before making major changes, this article can help you to better enjoy your situation with a few minor adjustments, and give you food for thought on whether major changes may be necessary. The following suggestions can help you increase job satisfaction.
The Effects of Stress
While there's a wealth of information available about the effects of stress, it can be stressful trying to wade through it all! Here are 10 important facts about the effects of stress that can go a long way in helping you understand stress and its role in your life. This can help you quickly and easily learn more about the effects of stress and find some effective stress management techniques to incorporate into your life right now.
Energy and a Positive Attitude
Developing a positive attidude is an important way to increase your energy level and become more productive. Find resources to develop a "Can Do Attitude" so you can make the most of your time.
Habits for Better Sleep
Sleep is vital for productivity, stress management and overall wellbeing. However, those of us who need better sleep the most--the busy and the stressed--tend to get less of it than they need! Here are some healthy habits for better sleep.
Letting Go of a Relationship
Letting go of a relationship is never easy, and we often hold onto relationships that are no longer good for us out of habit or loyalty. Read why negative relationships can actually harm you, and find a step-by-step plan to help you decide where to draw the line in letting go of a relationship that is no longer good for you.
"Type A" Personality Quiz
Do you have a Type A Personality? Take the Type A Personality Quiz from About's Stress Management Site and see if type a personality characteristics may be causing more stress in your life. Also, find more information about type a personality and resources for dealing with type a personality characteristics in yourself and others.
Ongoing Stress Reduction
Effective stress reduction requires some ongoing effort. Simple stress reduction steps, over time, add up to great rewards. The following stress reduction options are easy, convenient, supportive and FREE! Try them now.
How To Practice Guided Imagery
Guided Imagery has been an effective stress management tool used by thousands of people to reduce tension, manage stress, access inner wisdom and even manage health problems! Learn how to use guided imagery for relaxation; this quick and effective stress management technique to reduce stress in your body and calm your mind.
Finding Positive Energy
Negative self talk and negative energy can adversely affect you in many ways. However, you can reduce stress and increase wellbeing by surrounding yourself with positive energy and developing positive self talk. Here are some important ways to bring more positive energy into your life.
Burnout Symptoms and Causes
Stress and burnout are closely related; those experiencing high amounts of stress often risk burnout, which is becoming increasingly common among American workers. Learn about stress and burnout, burnout symptoms, and some common causes of burnout.
How To Forgive
Forgiveness brings many benefits to those who do the forgiving. While everyone may have a unique perspective on how to forgive, the following strategies have been proven effective for a variety of people.
Quiz: Are You Overscheduled?
Sometimes we tend to add so many activities to our schedules that our lives become imbalanced, overly stressful, and unhealthy. How can you tell if important areas of your life are suffering because you’ve taken on too much? This quiz can help you assess your lifestyle, see what might need changing, and find resources for change.
Stress and Nutrition
Stress and nutrition affect one another in several ways. Learn how stress can cause poor nutrition, and poor nutrition can cause additional stress, and find resources to combat the self-perpetuating downward spiral caused by too much stress and nutrition deficiencies.
Stress Symptom Quiz Results From About.com Stress Management
Thanks for taking our stress symptom self-assessment.
Practice Focused Meditation
This type of meditation involves focusing on something intently as a way of staying in the present moment and turning off your internal dialogue. Many people find this type of meditation easier to practice than classic meditation where you focus on nothing to quiet your mind. With focused meditation, you can choose to focus on almost anything that involves the senses, including sounds, visual pieces, tactile sensations, tastes and smells, and even the your own breathing! Here’s how:
Quiz: Are You A Perfectionist?
Do you sometimes wonder if your desire for excellence crosses the line into perfectionism? This fifteen-question quiz can help you to better understand yourself, see the distinction between perfectionism and high achievement, and find out where your tendencies lie.
FAQ on Psychosomatic Illness
It's pretty common knowledge that stress can make you sick. However, should psychosomatic illness due to stress be ignored, or treated just like other health problem? How can it be prevented? Get answers to frequently asked questions about stress and psychosomatic illness, and learn to be healthier and happier.
Maintaing Social Support
Studies on social support have shown that supportive friendships can provide emotional help during stressful times and even improve our health and increase longevity. Learn the numerous stress management and health benefits of social support, and discover how to gain more social support by expanding your number of supportive friendships.
Stress-Relieving Gifts
Can you go shopping for peace of mind? Well, in a manner of speaking, you can. Here are ten products from all price ranges that can help you relax, relieve tension, and manage stress. They would make great gifts for that stressed-out person in your life, even if that stressed-out person is you!
Why We Need Vacations
We tend to take too few vacations. And when we do take vacations, too many of us bring work with us these days! Learn the importance of vacations for stress relief, health, and productivity, and learn how you can reduce stress and stave off burnout by planning a vacation that suits your needs, from a stress management perspective.
Happiness Quiz Results
Thanks for taking our quiz about happiness.
Stress Relief Hobbies
With today's stressful lifestyles, it's important to have time that you take to do something just for the fun of it. While there are many great hobbies to choose from, this is a list of hobbies that are particularly useful in relieving stress. Learn about the benefits of each, and find resources to get started on a new great hobby for stress relief this week!
Test Your Communication Style
Communication skills have a significant impact on a relationship's stress level. Do you relate to others assertively, or do you cause unnecessary additional conflict and stress in your life with aggressive, passive or passive-aggressive styles of relating to others? Take the Communication Skills to find out!
Take The Anxiety Test
Test your anxiety level - Most of us experience anxiety and worry about things at times, but at what point does it become excessive? This quick 10-question anxiety test can help you assess your level of anxiety and tendency to worry, so you can see if you're experiencing excessive levels of stress and anxiety.
Job Burnout Quiz
This job burnout self test is designed to analyze features of your job that may put you at a greater risk of job burnout, and assess your emotional state and feelings about your job, to let you know more about your job burnout risk. Assess your situation, and find resources for combating burnout.
Cheap Vacations
Vacations carry important benefits for stress management, productivity and health. Unfortunately, many people don’t take vacations--even cheap vacations--because of time or money constraints. For those with limited time and budgets, try these ideas for cheap vacations.
Learn Self Hypnosis Now!
There are many reasons to learn self hypnosis, as it's an easy technique that provides emotional and health benefits. Here’s a helpful guide that can help you learn self hypnosis for relaxation, goal attainment, and to reduce stress. Learn in sex easy steps!
Cortislim and Your Health
You may have heard about the recent controversy over Cortislim, a popular new diet suppliment that claims to help people lose weight quickly. You may have heard that it’s effective. You may have heard it’s ineffective. You may have even heard about a lawsuit pending! Here are the facts on Cortislim, cortisol, and health.
Stress and the Importance of Exercise
Read about how exercise helps with stress management.
Creating a Home Spa Experience
Self care is important for stress management. Giving yourself a spa experience can be a wonderful tension tamer, and you can do it at home! Following these guidelines, you can relieve stress tonight--easily and inexpensively--with a home spa experience.
Reducing Noise Pollution
Noise pollution can have significant negative effects on your health and wellness. This article provides you with simple, effective and important strategies for lessening the impact of noise pollution in your home and workplace.
How To Simplify Life
If you’re looking for ideas on how to simplify life, you’re not alone—it’s a commonly searched topic! Here are some of the main ways you can cut down on the stress of a life that’s packed to the hilt while still maintaining the activities that are important to you.
Cognitive Distortions & Stress
Cognitive distortions -- those faulty thinking patterns we don't even realize we engage in --can contribute significantly to stress. Learn more about the 10 common cognitive distortions so you can recognize and free yourself of them.
What Are The Causes of Stress?
Chances are, many things in your life cause stress, and that stress affects your health and happiness. What are the main causes of stress in people's lives, and what can be done to cut down on the daily stress you experience?
Why Music Relieves Stress
Learn about music relaxation: how and why music affects the body and can be used as an effective stress reliever and stress management tool, and find resources on using music for relaxation and stress management for increased health.
Financial Stress
Financial stress is widespread and growing. Money worries are a leading cause of stress in Americans. Learn why financial stress can feel so threatening, how it can affect your health, and what you can do to improve your money situation and decrease the financial stress you feel.
The Happiness Assessment Test
Are you as happy as you could be? This test can assess your level of happiness, tell you how conducive to happiness your life is, and provide resources for specific changes to help you be more happy in your life. It's a quick and powerful tool for a better life.
Maintaining a Peaceful Place
Your home can be a sanctuary, or a place of stress, depending on how you maintain it. Here are some tips for decorating, simplifying and keeping house clean so you can enjoy peaceful surroundings at the end of a stressful day! Find tips on avoiding excess junk mail, enlisting help in keeping a clean house, and more.
Adopting Healthy Habits
Healthy lifestyle habits are a very important part of a stress management game plan. The following are health-promoting habits that can lead to a happy, relaxed, and overall healthy lifestyle.
Good Nutrition for Busy People
Good nutrition may be hard to maintain when you're stressed and busy. Ironically, as poor nutrition can contribute to stress, good nutrition is most important for stressed, busy people! Here are ten simple tips for good nutrition that can help you reduce your stress level and improve your health. (You may even lose weight!)
Stress and Sleep
Stress and sleep problems seem to go together. While sleep is important for handling stress effectively, being productive, and staying healthy, stressed and busy people--those who need sleep the most--tend to get too little or too poor quality sleep on a regular basis. Learn the reasons behind the correlation between stress and sleep problems, and find resources for healthy sleep.
Cognitive Restructuring
Much of our experience of stress is influenced by our thoughts; cognitive distortions, or faulty thinking, can make problems feel bigger than they are and increase our stress reactivity. Learn how cognitive restructuring -- changing our negative thought patterns -- can help.
Live a Low-Stress Lifestyle
Daily life stress can add up to chronic stress, which can lead to anxiety, depression and health problems. Learn what you can do to reduce stress in your life and help you stay healthy and happy. Stop stress-related health problems before they start!
Creating Supportive Friendship
All social support is not created equal. Here is what you need to know to create mutually supportive, enduring, truly healthy friendships that will bring you support, opportunity for personal growth, and stress management benefits.
Top 10 Self Care Strategies
You can’t always control the circumstances that life throws your way, but you can control how well you take care of yourself. Taking proper care of your body, soul and mind can keep you in optimum shape for handling stress. The following are some important basic self care strategies that can keep you functioning well and ready for life’s challenges.
Job Burnout: Causes
Some companies and industries have much higher rates of burnout than others. This article focuses on the job-related features that can cause or exacerbate job burnout, with resources for change.
Stress Management - Articles
An index of Articles for the Stress Management guide site.
Home Relaxation: How & Why
With all the stresses in the outside world, your home should be your sanctuary from stress. Unfortunately, home relaxation is difficult to attain when clutter and disorganization abound, as it does in many of our homes. Here is more information on why mess equals stress, as well as why and how to make home relaxation more of a reality.
Stress and Health Self Test Results from About Stress Management
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Stress and Effects of Caffeine
Read about caffeine and its effects on stress.
Multi-Tasking Stress Relievers
Multi-tasking stress relievers give you more 'bang for your buck'--they provide multiple benefits, so they're great for busy, stressed people. Try these multi-tasking stress relievers for the stressed and busy.
Stress and Emotional Eating
Emotional eating has many causes. Learn about the main reasons — besides hunger — that stressed people eat, and find resources to stop emotional eating.
Using Music for Stress Relief
Music brings great health and stress relief benefits. This article provides several ways you can use music to enhance your regular activities and relieve stress.
Wellness: Stress and The Flu
Learn more about how stress can affect your health, the link between stress and wellness, and what you can do to increase your odds of overall wellness.
Stress 101: Basics of Stress
The first step to conquering stress in your life is understanding the basics of stress. There are different types and levels of stress, and stress affects you in many ways. Here are some resources to help you better understand the stress you experience—and stress in general—so you’ll be in a better position to handle it. Learn about stress and weight gain, burnout, factors that increase stress, the role of stress in your health, and other stress basics.
How To Raise Optimistic Kids
Teaching children optimistic thinking patterns can set them up for a happier life. Optimists experience better health, increased longevity, more success in life, and less stress, among other benefits. Fortunately, though many personality traits are inborn, you can influence your child's tendency toward optimism or pessimism. Here are ten tips to raise the optimistic child: help your child develop optimistic thinking patterns for a healthier, happier life.
A Healthy Eating Plan
With our stressed, busy lives, we tend to eat out and ingest fast food more and more often. But healthy eating is easier than you might think--if you have a plan. Here's a healthy eating plan that can help even the most stressed and busy people maintain a more healthy diet.
Adrenaline Self Test Results From About.com Stress Management
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