You don't have to be a doctor to understand how stress impacts your health and well-being—or how it gets in the way of getting things done, whether at the office or home.

Slowing your heart rate, easing your breathing, lowering your blood pressure and body metabolism, and relaxing muscle [...]]]> You don't have to be a doctor to understand how stress impacts your health and well-being—or how it gets in the way of getting things done, whether at the office or home.

Slowing your heart rate, easing your breathing, lowering your blood pressure and body metabolism, and relaxing muscle groups will lower your stress. Follow each of the five steps listed below whenever you're stressed out, and you will be able to relax and get on with life's daily challenges:

• Determine exactly what's bothering you.
• Place your head down on a desk or table and close your eyes for 5 minutes. Then shake your hands and arms for 10 seconds.
• While aware of what's stressing you out, repeat to yourself "alert mind, calm body" for six seconds. Smile inwardly—don't wear a fearful or angry expression. Inhale slowly while counting to three, then exhale.
• Sit comfortably and concentrate on a single object or activity like breathing steadily, focusing on each breath you inhale and exhale, for five minutes. Acknowledge but don't analyze any thoughts that interrupt your focus on breathing.
• Relax your muscles by tensing up each muscle group for five seconds and concentrating on what this feels like. Breathe deeply and exhale while releasing all tension in each muscle group.

If you're really stressed out, these few minutes could be the best investment in your day and will make the kind of difference you need to keep up with the tasks ahead.

Learn how to cope with criticism.

Reducing tension should be an important health objective for anyone. Use this podcast to learn how to sit, breathe, and focus in ways that chase away stress and help you relax.

It also contains soothing music and guided imagery exercises to make it easier to manage stress.

Because you don’t always have a lot of time to cope with daily tensions, learning to handle stress quickly and immediately can be a bonus for your health. Our six-second mini-relaxation technique offers an effective response to emergency stress reactions.

Knowing the difference between feeling relaxed and feeling tense is important to good health. But people often become so accustomed to the tension that they consider it “normal.” Let these progressive relaxation techniques teach you how to ease your muscles and your mind.

Being able to bounce back from tense situations is vital to maintaining good health. This interactive tool gauges your ability to recover from stress.

Sure, we all know that stress isn’t healthy — but do you know how big a toll stress is taking on you personally? Find out by using our interactive stress level tool, which also estimates the likelihood that you will face stress-related health problems in the next 12 [...]]]> Sure, we all know that stress isn’t healthy — but do you know how big a toll stress is taking on you personally? Find out by using our interactive stress level tool, which also estimates the likelihood that you will face stress-related health problems in the next 12 to 18 months.