It doesn’t matter where you live, who you are or what you’re doing, you’ll encounter stress – that’s life. And, it’s not all bad. We all perceive things differently; some people see things as more negative while others are more positive about things.

Why do some of us thrive on stress and some of us buckle? It’s in our perspective about stress. We do better when we choose to rise to challenges instead of fearing or fighting problems.

Positive stress helps you operate at your peak as it encompasses your ‘fight or flight response’ and gives you extra physical and emotional resources when you or someone you care about is in trouble.

Negative stress is simply stress that we perceive as ‘bad’ and this varies from person to person. Stress becomes bad when we react negatively and it affects our health and mental outlook. Over time it leads to immune disorders, strokes, heart problems, fatigue, hair loss and more.

In our fast-paced society that’s always on, negative stress is epidemic.

According to research, stress hardiness is a life skill we can learn, not one we know at birth. Individuals who weather stress have many mindsets that help them cope and thrive. Here are some ideas:

1. Accept change. There’s no getting around it, change is inevitable; it begins in the womb and continues as our bodies, minds and spirits change. The world around us does the same so if we accept change as a normal part of life, anxiety is reduced. When you know nothing stays the same, you can feel empowered and cope better.

2. Have strong bonds. Life can ’sock it to ya’ and you’ll thrive if you have strong relationships. Social support during stressful times is the key; women know this and are more likely to seek emotional help. It doesn’t take fancy research to tell us that we feel better during times of stress when we phone our friends, go out with someone or ‘vent.’ We’re not designed to bottle up our emotions – we need to know that our feelings are okay and that we can survive a situation and get help with our challenges.

3. Short-term goals. Although we say we hate stress, a certain amount is necessary to motivate us to get up in the morning, work, meet deadlines and more. This is good stress. We need a mission and when we don’t have one, we wander aimlessly and waste precious time. Setting small daily, weekly or monthly goals help us feel more focused and less stressed.

4. Long-term goals. Most of us have a mission to finish something in one day, one week, even one month but do we know what we want to accomplish within five or 10 years? For a lot of us, thinking ahead like this is a challenge; we’re lucky if we know what we’re doing next week. However, you need to know what your purpose is – having a successful career, financial independence, spirituality or a plan to change something in the world. Long term goals give us clarity and vision – something that can buffer us from day-to-day stresses; when we know what our long term vision is, we can set up short-term goals that point us towards the larger goal.

5. Let it go. When we begin life as babies, we see the world through our eyes and feel as though the planet revolves around us. Sometime around early adulthood (or maybe later for some of us) we get a rude awakening; we’re part of something much bigger that we can’t control. We often fight this feeling because we want to be in control, but in reality, we can only control ourselves. (If we have a mental health issue, we may not be able to control ourselves) Once you understand this law, life will seem less like a struggle; you’ll pay more attention to your reactions and stop controlling situations and people.

6. Silver linings. You’ve heard the quote, “Look on the bright side.” For most of us, we believe this but some of us who suffer from depression, sadness or tragedy, this can seem preposterous. Instead of thinking negative, find something positive in a situation; you may not like the whole situation but if you challenge your thinking to, “What can I learn from this situation? What is the silver lining in this tragic storm?” If you find it a challenge to be an optimist, act like one. When something bad occurs, visualize a positive outcome instead of a disaster.

7. Say No. People get overwhelmed when they take on too many projects and stretch themselves thin. You need to focus your energy; when you do too much multitasking, you diminish your power and effectiveness. You also get resentful, angry and impatient when you have too much to do and too little time. Analyze what you do in a week and see where you’re splitting your energy; if you eliminate a few things, you should feel less stressed.

8. Exercise. Nothing is better for stress reduction than exercise. We all know the benefits of being physical; exercise produces larger muscles, burns fat, adds to longevity and gives us more energy…the list is endless. If you think you’re too busy to get physical, exercise for 10 minutes a day. Even 10 minutes makes a difference and after four or five weeks, you may see enough of a difference that you want to make more time to exercise.

Stress can give you energy and vision or it can wreak havoc on your health and looks. Once you realize it’s an inevitable part of life, find ways to make it work for you.

About the AuthorLisa Rickwood, BFA, CTACC, is an artist, speaker, coach and author of the book, Escape The Pace and co-author of Power & Soul. Get your FREE report – 5 Critical Actions That Hurt Your Business and Add Stress to Your Life. Visit: http://www.escapethepace.com

Surfing the Internet can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone in the family but just as you would take steps to protect everyone and everything in your home by making sure you lock the door and by not leaving valuables within easy reach of an opportunist thief, you also need to protect your computer from outside influences otherwise you leave it wide open to attack.

Out there on the information superhighway it is inevitable that at some point you will come across something that could put your computer or your privacy at risk and the frightening thing is, you might not even know about it. However, by being aware and putting a few simple measures in place, you can protect both your computer and your family.

When downloading anything at all from the Internet, which can include things like software, screensavers, music, videos, or when opening files sent to you by email, or even by visiting certain websites, your computer can be exposed to undesirable elements like spyware and adware as well as malicious viruses that can at best seriously impair your internet experience and slow down your connection, and at its worst, can permanently damage your hard drive and your wallet, not to mention your confidence in surfing. So what can you do? First you need to protect your computer and limit the risk.

Protecting your computer

It is essential that you have some good anti-virus software installed on your computer. Viruses are becoming increasingly sophisticated and as new viruses come on the scene, the software has to be updated to make sure you are protected against the latest threats. The good news is that you can update most anti virus software automatically when you are online.

A firewall is excellent as it puts a barrier up between your computer and any opportunist hacker but you must remember that nothing by itself is totally safe, you need several lines of defence, which will make it much more difficult for anything to get in.

Whilst browsing the internet you can inadvertently download Spyware. Spyware does just what it says, it allows others to spy on what you are doing, what sites you visit, how long you are on for and can even record sensitive information like when you type passwords or your credit card information. This obviously invades your privacy and jeopardises the safety of your personal information. Sometimes companies use programmes to gather information on people’s surfing habits so that they can tailor their advertising to match people’s internet use. Although not always malicious, these types of programmes can slow you’re your connection and at the same time plague you with popup after popup and can even take over the way you access the Internet by changing the home page so that each time you open your browser it takes you to where they want you to go. You can prevent this with software that can detect and remove Spyware and Adware from your system.

Another way to protect your computer is to make sure the Internet security settings are set to “high” or “medium”. Sometimes it is necessary to download software so be careful when downloading anything and make sure you read all the supporting literature and privacy statements so that you can decide if their policies are ethical and whether you want to continue.

Children are particularly vulnerable when online as they may not understand the risks involved but as the Internet is now a major part of life in the 21st Century, it is important that they are able to surf without fear and taking the appropriate action can protect them too.

Protecting your family

One major concern these days is that children can be exposed to undesirable content as well as dubious characters that can lurk online in for example, chat rooms and online interactive games. You can protect your children by following a few simple rules:

* Make sure that when your child has access to the Internet there are other people around, so perhaps you could have the computer in a family room

* You could consider software that allows you to monitor your child’s internet use

* Encourage your child to discuss their Internet experience with you and take an active interest in what they are doing online

* You can also make use of filters and settings on your computer to limit what your child is able to do online and to restrict what information they can see and what can be passed on

* Most importantly, you need to educate your child about responsible Internet use, the risks involved and why they should never give out any personal information

A final word…

One thing that software and settings can’t protect you against is you and the choices you make. Complacency about Internet security can be costly and although nothing is 100% safe, because there are those out there who are constantly devising new and more sophisticated techniques to get past the defences, the good news is that by checking the security settings on your computer, keeping your anti virus software up to date, and by staying aware, you can drastically reduce the chance of anyone getting access to your files or invading your privacy and you and your family can carry on surfing with confidence. About the Author

for more information about safe internet surfing please come and visit our site http://www.computerpreston.co.uk