Self Help

You return from a much-needed week’s vacation in the tropics where you didn’t take your laptop. You are relaxed, suntanned, and your wife’s hero for making a hat out of palm fronds and ordering dinner in broken Tahitian. There is no way this serene and blissful feeling is going to wear off, even after going back to the grind at the office next week. You vow to rise above it, remember the tranquil waves of paradise, no matter how stressful the situation around you. And you do, until about noon your first day back at work.

The greatest hidden enemy of memory and quality longevity is chronic stress. High anxiety and stress levels often creep up on us without our awareness. Many of us lead tense and hurried lives, where even the mental and physical benefits of occasional rest and recreation disappear quickly and leave us as stressed out as before. Everyone has a different baseline stress level, depending on personality style, coping skills, degree of self-awareness, and other factors.