1. Introduction

The man was berserk. He drove his car through the front doors of an office building, and then leapt out with a shotgun in his hands. He took aim at the picture of the company president in the building lobby, and shot it full of holes before he was wrestled away by the police.

The man was an ex-employee of the company. He had been fired that morning by the man whose picture he blasted away that afternoon. The man was a victim of stress, and he was reacting in a way that let off the anger, frustration, and helplessness he felt.

Stress—it affects us all, and it can kill us as surely as any illness or disease.

We all experience stress every day of our lives. How we handle stress depends upon our current state of health. If we are healthy, we can manage stressful situations in a positive, productive way. If we are sick, depressed, or simply "out of sorts," then stress can trigger the berserk reaction of the man above, or it can send us into a helpless, destructive state of fear.

Stress, however, can be effectively managed by applying the principles of Life Science and Natural Hygiene in these areas: diet, exercise, relaxation, and sleep.

Before we learn how to deal with stress, we need to recognize it in our own lives. If we can identify stressful situations, we can either learn to avoid them or to handle them so that they do not trigger a more serious and harmful reaction.