There are many avenues and techniques used for coping with stress. Relaxation techniques, engaging in a creative activity, a good workout, or relaxing walk. Coping, however, isn't curing. If you want to deal with chronic stress in an effective manner it is necessary to get at the root cause.

Stress is generally a two pronged attack on you… external and internal… essentially the two colliding factors are what has happened and how you internalize the level of seriousness. The sum of these two products determines what your ability to cope is with any given situation.

Certainly life offers up many stressful events such as a lost job, a failed marriage, a serious illness, and on and on. But, even for these events to result in stress (especially long term stress) any individual has to evaluate the events and themselves in a particular way.

Self confidence and experience in handling stressful events go a long way toward any person being much more resilient to stress. If the person identifies situations realistically and internally knows that they have the capability to deal with and overcome life's inevitable inequities; they will certainly feel challenged (not incapacitated) - but this is a normal part of living and in fact is quite a healthy reaction… and is far from constituting chronic stress.

In order to deal with chronic stress it is vital to have an objective sense of the actual damage and the external factors that come into play. Many circumstances in life involve losses that are, at the very least, are temporarily out of our control… but situations change, wounds heal, relationships mend, and new friends and partners are found.

Even permanent losses should not result in loss of persistence and hope. We humans are a very resilient lot. This is not to say that 'time heals all wounds', but through thought and effort you can cover a great distance in doing so.

When a person focuses on what is valuable and what is possible and look beyond the stress agent then acute stress is mitigated and when thought and effort combine with a pragmatic attitude toward life's personal tests and challenges, a chronic stress invasion is all but impossible.

Unfortunate event's happen within everyone's life. Everything isn't always 'ok' - but having a sense of realism is a major tool for you to have. When bad situations occur it is this realism that keeps things in perspective in that; yes bad things happen and things truly may be 'as bad as they seem' - but rarely do they have to stay that way.

Objectivity is a key characteristic in either keeping chronic stress away or breaking the cycle. Long term stress many times partners with or leads to depression and is in fact many times self perpetuating… you feel bad - so everything looks bad - things look bad - so you feel even worse.

Recommitting to successes and achievement and overcoming life's daily challenges is essential to break the negative cycle. With every hurdle that you overcome, you grow stronger in your ability to get over the next one. But, getting to this in your life takes conscious thought and most of all… action. Rarely do life's answer come mailed special delivery right to your doorstep.