Stress.

Last night we watched a documentary, courtesy of netflix, about STRESS. It was very very interesting. The documentary was based on the studies on a professor (who's name I don't remember right now) who studies the human brain and what stress does to our bodies. He thought a great way to figure things out, was to look at wild baboons, since they are much like us. Every test result he got from the baboons, he got the same result for humans. Basically, stress is really bad for you. The wrong kind of stress, anyways. Stress clogs your arteries, stress limits the functioning of the part of your brain for learning and memory, raises your heart beat and your blood pressure, not to mention it makes you an uptight person. In that documentary, another professor mentioned that the world seems to, for some reason, look up to those who live a life full of stress, or admire them. For some reason we look at an extremely busy person who can multitask and have 20 things on their plate at once, and wish we could do the same. Why, exactly? So we can get sick? So we can be unhappy? People need to recognize when enough is enough and learn how to have and how to appreciate a balanced life style. Too much work (if it stresses you out) is actually NOT good for you. Another random tidbit I found interested was about mother's who raise children with some form of disability. A professor did a study on a group of mothers with a 'disabled' child, and what they found was that 1 year of taking care of that child, packed on 6 years of 'stress' related problems to their bodies. SIX years. Now, maybe you aren't in that type of situation, but maybe you still feel as stressed as you could be. You may not even realize it, but you are doing damage to your body by doing so! Of course, there are always going to be stressful situations in life, and difficult days, but the key is your attitude. That is really the only thing you can do about it! That is the one thing you have total control over, your attitude and how you react to situations, and that can be one of two ways - negatively or positively. You might not have control over what happens in life, or at work, school, with your family, but you have control over your reaction. React positively! Another key point is to try your best to be a good person - to focus on giving, rather than receiving, in any way possible.

ps. Did you know, when you get stuck in a traffic jam, or your child spills his cheerios all over the floor, you release the exact same stress hormone a Zebra does, when it's being cashed by an enemy and running for it's life? Calm down.