Slowing the hectic pace of life.

So, you want to reduce the level of stress in your life. Welcome to the club that has multimillions of members, not just in the United State but around the world. Life, even from birth, we now know, is inherently stressful. Life is no fun when the amount of stress you experience on a daily basis is too high.

You're holding good news in your hands, because whatever level of stress you're currently experiencing need not be a long-term phenomenon. Scientific breakthroughs and a more basic understanding of human nature have led to new insights about what causes stress and what can be done about it.

You don't need a ton of data-supporting evidence to know that you're experiencing stress on a daily basis. It hits you in the face, or the gut or wherever you happen to experience it often enough. It's real for you and that's all that counts. If you learn to manage your stress now, the quality of each day for the rest of your life will be better. Sure, there will be new events and new stressors into which each life. However, armed with effective techniques for handling what you encounter, your future's going to look brighter.

How Did It All Get So Hectic?

Is there something indigenous to our cultural heritage that led to the development of a high-stress society? Or did we just luck out? I believe factors were at play that in retrospect make it now all so predictable. With each advance in transportation, communications, and technology in general, human capability increases, and then in the next picosecond, so do expectations. For example in 1803, Robert Fulton, disproving those who thought it folly, was able to propel a boat by steam power, thereby facilitating a revolution in transportation and commerce.

Sixty years later, the railroad hastened the development of migration to the Western US. In another 40 years, the Wright brothers successfully flew a powered plane at Kitty Hawk. By 1911, Charles F. Kettering developed the first practical electric self-starter for cars. In 1923, Henry Ford, already having established the Ford Motor Company ten years earlier, developed the assembly line to produce the affordable Ford Model-T car. Today, 170 million registered motorists in the US own, drive, or have responsibility for 400 million registered vehicles. In some sections of some cities, there are literally more vehicles than parking spaces. In all cities throughout the US, traffic has become a drag and a major source of stress.