p.24 Stress is what you experience when you believe you cannot cope effectively with a threatening situation.
What this means is that you experience stress whenever you are faced with an event or situation
that you perceive as challenging to your ability to cope. If you see the event or situation as only mildly
challenging, you will probably feel only a little stress; however, if you perceive the situation or event as threatening
or overwhelming your coping abilities, you will probably feel a lot of stress... This difference between the demands
of the situation and your perception of how well you can cope with that situation is what determines how much stress you will
feel.
p.25,26,27 you have stress in your life for a good reason... stress can be a useful, adaptive response...
when you are experiencing stress, your entire body undergoes a dramatic series of physiological changes that readies
you for a life-threatening emergency. Clearly, stress has adaptive, survival potential. Stress, way back
when [in primitive times], was nature's way of keeping you alive... this incredibly important, life-preserving
stress reaction is still hard-wired into your system. And once in a while, it still can he highly adaptive... [in
an emergency situation] an aggressive stress response is nice to have.
p.99 Rather than coming up with more intricate strategies and systems to manage your overly complicated
life, it may be better to catch the problem at the source.
p.207 Your personal values and your overall philosophy of life play a major role in determining your stress
level. What you think is important and what you value act together in often subtle yet very important ways to either protect
you from stress or make your life more stressful. Rarely a day goes by without some decision, some opinion, or some
action being determined, or at least shaped, by your values and attitudes. Your values in large part determine your
goals, your needs, and your wants. And when you do not reach these goals, or fulfill these needs and wants, you feel
stressed.
p.208 Clarifying your values and attitudes is an important first step in moving toward developing
a stress-resilient philosophy of life. Think of your values and attitudes as your roadmap in life. The better the
map, the smaller the chance that you may make a wrong turn.
p.221 "The true value of a person is to be measured by the objects he pursues." -Anonymous
p.242 One of the keys to successful stress management is turning your stress-reducing skills into
habits... You repeat this behavior day in and day out, with little effort or resistance on your
part. This is what you need to do with your stress-management behaviors.
