We all have that friend.

That friend who never seems to be effected to anything. You could cut her arm off. It wouldn't phase her in the least bit. Her response might sound like the Black Knight from Monty Python. "It's only a flesh wound."

Either she is completely indifferent with life, which is possible, or she views traditionally stressful events through a different set of lenses.

Stress is a choice.

You choose to let yourself become stressed.

Events happen in life around us and to us. The events themselves do not have a direct correlation to our stress level. How we respond to these events has a direct connection to our level of stress (or lack thereof).

To put it simply, stress is your reaction to outside forces.

I love the quote attributed to Lou Holtz. "Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it."

He is dead on.

Some things we cannot control. We can't stop the car from hitting us at the intersection. But we can control our attitude and how we will respond when we step out of the car.

If you adjust your attitude about stress, your stress level changes.

Every person has a different lens through which they view stress. The great thing about lenses is they can be changed if you want to see differently.

QUESTION:

Do you allow stress to overrun your life?