I hope that you are feeling fine on this sunny Tuesday.

Just the other day I received an email stating that stress was a choice, naturally this got my attention. When you stop and think about it, you do choose whether you want to be stressed or not, you determine how you react or respond to any given situation. At this point you may be thinking well what if I have lots of challenges in my life, this is causing me stress.

That is true, if you keep trying to resist the situation. However, what if you looked at it from the perspective of the situation occurring in order to take you to another phase in your life, would that not alleviate some of the feeling of stress?

Most successful people state that their greatest success have come from their biggest challenges. Read any of their stories and you will find a similar theme occurring, they encounter a major stumbling block, almost to the point where they are ready to give up and then something great happens.

ACTION POINT

• The next time you find yourself starting to feel stressed, stop and pay attention to your breathing. You will probably find that you are taking short shallow breaths (if you are not in fact holding your breath).
• Allow yourself to take a least three slow deep breaths (that you feel right down in your stomach), remembering to exhale slowly.
• Refocus your mind towards the positive outcome that you want to achieve.