Stress can be a good thing. It triggers alertness when we need it — for example, when we give a speech or perform for others. Stress also prepares us to react instantly to danger. During a healthy stress response, norepinephrine, an excitatory neurotransmitter that is necessary to create new memories, is released.

Everyone feels stress from time to time, but unrelenting stress, the kind you might experience in a high-pressure job, can wreak havoc on your health. According to several sources, 75 to 90 percent of all visits to the doctor may be attributed to stress-related ailments and cost the U.S. economy in excess of $300 billion annually.

Stress-Related Illnesses

Doctors refer to stress without relief as distress. Patients suffering distress have a chronic oversecretion of stress hormones that exerts an adverse cumulative effect on brain function and memory. When the brain is constantly flooded with those powerful hormones designed only for short-term release during emergency situations, the result can be damage and death to brain cells. Some patients suffering a lifetime of chronic stress experience impairment of long-term memory. Distress can trigger emotional disorders and contribute to a plethora of bodily ailments, including the following:

• Anxiety

• Arthritis

• Asthma

• Decreased brain function and memory loss

• Depression

• Diabetes

• Headaches

• Heart problems

• High blood pressure

• Insomnia and sleep problems

• Skin problems

It is not necessary to eliminate stress, but rather to effectively manage it in order to attract optimum health in alignment with the Law of Attraction. Do you feel totally stressed out and exhausted at the end of your day? Have you overscheduled yourself? Have you taken on more than any one person could reasonably expect to handle in a workday? One way to assess whether or not you're trying to do too much is to work with a list of daily tasks.

Make a list of all the things you do each day. Prioritize your list into things that only you can do and work you can delegate to others. Of the things only you can do, reorder the list so that the tasks you dread the most (and are likely most stressful) are spaced out with other tasks that you love to do. The point is to create balance between work you dread and work you love. Evaluate how you feel after a day of using the new list to see if you managed to reduce your high levels of anxiety and stress.

Set Boundaries and Resolve Conflicts

Highly successful athletes understand (either consciously or intuitively) how to work with the Law of Attraction. They understand the role that a positive attitude plays in goal achievement. They deal with a potentially stressful situation immediately (putting off resolution allows the stress to continue building) and set professional and personal boundaries and goals. Although they are competitive, they usually display good sportsmanship in competition. That means they learn how to engage in healthy conflict resolution. All of these things aid in stress reduction.

When you cannot establish firm boundaries or say no to others' demands, you may feel that people such as coaches, friends, business associates, or family members are treading all over you. As a result, you may harbor feelings of hostility and resentment. Use the following techniques to reduce your stress and anxiety while resolving conflicts with others.

• Stay focused on the present situation and be in tune with your mood and vibration. When your vibration is high and you feel good, you are in tune with the Law of Attraction and can more easily draw in a healthy solution to a conflict.

• Concentrate on regular, slow breathing to help you remain calm, clear-thinking, and able to make good choices.

• Attempt to truly understand the other person's point of view.

• Show restraint when accusations and criticism are leveled at you, and respond with empathy for how the speaker is feeling.

• Make it clear that you will work with him to find a solution.

• Actively listen and avoid the tendency to interrupt or anticipate what the other person might say next.

• Take responsibility for your words, attitude, and actions. If you are wrong, own up to it and release it.

• Avoid defensive posturing.

• Seek a compromise. If agreement cannot be reached, involve an impartial third party to help you resolve the conflict.

• Request a break if the discussion has become too heated and the communication is no longer constructive. Agree to resume it later at a specific time after you've both had time to allow any aggressive feelings and anger to dissipate.

Set aside a little time every day to release the cumulative stressful feelings you have taken on throughout your day. Release the tension. Put on some quiet music or sit or lie quietly and just be aware of your breath. Let go of tension with every outgoing breath. Feel appreciation and joy for the gift of life and for a functioning body that is your vehicle for this incarnation. Be grateful in the knowledge that it is in your power to create vibrant health.