Managing Stress

When you're experiencing stress you might feel a knot in your stomach, or your breathing might become fast. A stressful situation is always linked to an emotion - the emotion may be anger or anxiety. As soon as you have that experience, recognize that anything that happens in the mind has a consequence in the body. Wherever a thought goes, a molecule goes. Feel the sensation in your body, and instead of reacting immediately, put your attention on that sensation until it starts to dissipate. By doing this, you will break your reactive response, which is the state of being a bundle of condition reflexes that is constantly reacting to people and circumstances in predictable outcomes. By feeling your body, you can break that reactivity.

Deepak Chopra