As humans, we are wired to take quick actions by instinct We've often noticed it: Someone says something and we immediately have a snappy comeback

Its very name is appealing — comfort food What could be more wonderful than a food that helps us feel better

In addition to the way that stress becomes quite relentless and ever present in our lives, it also has a terrible habit of refusing to respect boundaries No matter how we might assume that everything's been taken care of, something always seems to come up to intrude into our few free moments and rob us of the rest we so desperately need

Sometimes the problem that we're dealing with isn't necessarily a matter of the stress itself, but rather the way we're approaching it After all, we can't lay all the blame on outside forces — we do make our own problems just as often

We've talked about stress and the elements that bring it into our lives, or stressors Identifying our stressors can be a powerful first step, for obvious reasons — if we know what's giving us grief, we can take steps to put it out of our way, resolve it or come to terms with it

It's very easy to take our perception as reality We see a wall six feet away, we say it's six feet away

So far, we've been focusing on using small steps and independent techniques to help deal with the stress which piles up in our lives We know about using the STOP method to interrupt difficult thoughts, or to get our attention where we need it instead of where it's trying to go

It’s hard to make a good choice instead of a bad one It can be even harder to go back and undo a bad choice that we made some time ago

Having confidence in your goal is important It's tough to stick to something we don't believe we can do, after all

The past can be a problematic albatross to carry around We'll forget where we left our keys 20 minutes ago, but ask us to remember an embarrassing moment from our childhood and it will come to mind like a flash

For creatures that supposedly only exist in the present, we sure do a lot of time traveling We worry about tomorrow, we fret over yesterday, and all the while our current status gets neglected

Everyone knows how important breathing is to the body In an emergency, we can go weeks without food and several days without water or sleep