Stress comes in many forms, and too much stress, of any type, can feel overwhelming and all-consuming at times. It can even have us losing faith in ourselves and the world around us, because we all know that stress has a way of building to the point that even the simplest moments can become challenging and unmanageable, our health can be impacted, and it can even affect our relationships and our day-to-day happiness factor. 01:36 Kendra from Los Angeles, CA, wrote in and said, “Danielle, I’ve been dealing with unusually high stress since the middle of last year. I have trouble relaxing my mind, and sometimes I feel like the pressure is so overwhelming that it’s hard to sleep, causes headaches, and I’ve found myself avoiding things I need to do or even things I love because it’s hard to get everything in. Could you provide a handful of things that I can do to help deal with chronic stress? It’s negatively impacting my life, and I must handle it now!” So many are with you, Kendra, from feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities, relationship stressors, parenting, financial worries, health concerns, you name it, and yes, to answer your question, there are a few essential practices you can implement in your life today to help you manage stress both in the short term and over the long term. So, let’s jump right into three quick and easy-to-use tools to stop the overwhelm and deescalate the stress quickly. Like anything you do, these exercises and tools must be practiced consistently for them to work. Please know that each of these tools is simple to apply and can be done anywhere, at any time. EXERCISE 1: VISUALIZING STRESS REDUCTION 03:08 The first is to break the stress cycle by using visualization. Before you reject this idea, you use visualization all day long. For example, you visualize yourself taking a particular route when you leave the house. You think about and run through steps in your head when you are engaging with something that needs mental focus. You visualize daily, and you can use this to your benefit, especially to break stress. The goal is to restore peace to your mind, so we break the cycle of overwhelming thoughts. There is no single correct way to use visual imagery for stress relief, but there are some general steps to take. And those are: First, find a calm space and make yourself comfortable. This can even be your car during a lunch break. Moms, head to the bathroom and shut the door if that’s your only escape. Just get calm and comfortable. Then, take a few slow and deep breaths to center your attention and calm yourself. You can close your eyes if you feel comfortable. Imagine yourself in a place you love or in a beautiful location that brings a feeling of peace or excitement—whether that’s a beach, a mountain, wrapped in a favorite blanket reading a book somewhere. It doesn’t matter. You decide. Then, imagine yourself calm, relaxed, smiling, happy, or having a good time. Continue to breathe as the focus on different elements in the vision. Perhaps it’s the sun, the snow, the book—create a picture of peace. If you can invoke your senses, smell, sight, touch, and hearing, you will have a better time releasing the stress. Try to stay with the image for roughly five to ten minutes or until you feel relaxed. When you are, allow yourself to tune back into the space around you. This is an excellent practice because it trains the brain to find comfort instead of stress. Your brain works on patterns. It seeks what it knows will calm itself, but the most potent understanding is your brain does not know the difference between negative and positive—that’s the job of your emotions. So again, this is an excellent tool for highly visional people. However, this may not be for you if you are not one.    EXERCISE 2: REFRAMING THE SITUATION 06:52 When we are stressed, we tend to engage in pessimism and self-sabotaging behaviors, which drive our stress levels even higher because we involve our emotions and