Your stress affects you. That is a given. It not only keeps you up at night and anxious during the day, but also weakens your immune system and makes you more vulnerable to illness. However, that’s where it stops; it doesn’t extend beyond you. And so your motivation to take a deep breath, step back and calm down is fairly limited. Unfortunately, so is your understanding of stress.

When you had children, everything that used to apply solely to you - your paycheck, your habits, your wellbeing - stopped applying solely to you. Everything you did, and now do, began affecting them and that includes your stress. A study of 169 children and their parents found that the kids with the most emotionally anxious parents were more likely to become ill and more likely to have an increased number of immune cells in their blood. They were made less healthy by the anxiety teeming within their parents.

How’s the motivation to de-stress now? Are you ready, for the sake of your kids, to find better management methods and a sense of serenity? If you do, it’s likely that the toll your stress has already taken on them will dissipate, as children are extraordinarily resilient. And as they get healthier, so will you.

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Have you ever noticed that the perky, peppy people of the world are rarely ill? They never seem to suffer from common, everyday ailments such as colds or allergies, let alone the more severe conditions like heart attacks or chronic inflammation. It’s possible that they hide away when illness strikes them, shielding the world from the darker side of their personalities, but you can’t recall a significant span of time when they weren’t present. In fact, they’re always around, smiling and bubbling their way through the day. Does this mean that they really are healthier?

Yes. People with chronic good moods have chronic good health. They have lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that contributes to high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, weakened immune systems and a host of other complications. Happy women also have lower levels of two of the proteins that cause inflammation. Meanwhile, the only thing angry, hostile people have less of is antioxidants. They’re lacking in several carotenoids, which are vital in protecting the body from oxidative stress. So maybe it’s time you turned your mood around.

Happiness is not a matter of heredity. You weren’t born to be miserable. You can make yourself more positive. Discover the things that bring you pleasure and satisfaction. Surround yourself with people who make you smile and feel good about yourself. Dwell on the positive rather than the negative. Keep your heart happy, and it will keep you healthy.

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In December of 2004, a tsunami struck the islands of the Indian Ocean. It is safe to say that those who survived were traumatized. Their lives were transformed from normal to anything but. Stress, fear and anxiety filled their days and nights. Many outsiders tried to help, including a few yogis who one month after the tsunami, conducted a stress-management program. Forty-seven survivors from varying cultures spent one hour every day for a week practicing yoga. At the end, all reported significantly reduced levels of sadness, fear, anxiety, sleep disturbances and respiratory rates. They had been restored, albeit partially, by the discipline.

Here at home, similar things are occurring every day. In Boston, for example, YogaHope teaches yoga at women’s homeless shelters, domestic-violence safe houses and substance-abuse treatment programs. Across the nation, yoga classes are appearing in prisons, juvenile detention centers and various shelters. Yogis, aware that not everyone can afford a class at a fancy gym, are taking the discipline to the needy, because they know that yoga helps. It reduces stress, brings a sense of peace and allows for inner meditation.

If yoga can help these people, people whose lives have been turned upside down by a natural disaster, an addiction, an abusive spouse or a wrong turn, why can’t it help you? You may not have the amount of stress that they do, but you still have stress and you still need a way to work through it. Unroll your yoga mat; then, bend, pose and breathe your way to a calmer, happier you. 

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The neurotics among us are those that are driven by anxiety. They worry incessantly, fretting over minor mishaps and forgettable faux pas. They are constantly on edge, mentally pacing, biting their nails and giving themselves ulcers. They have enough tension for ten people, so the last thing they need is another concern. But they have one.

Researchers have found that neurotics are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than any other personality type. While some of this may be due to genetics, much is due to behavior. The high-anxiety, stressed out, kill-me-now lifestyle weighs heavily on the heart, making it more susceptible to disease and the individual more susceptible to death. Meanwhile, extroverts - the social butterflies of society - are protected. They are less likely to die from respiratory disease. They, as they flit from situation to situation, do not have to worry about worst-case scenarios and taxing their hearts with never-ending tension. They have it easy. If only the neurotics could find some way to balance the imbalance.

Sadly, it’s not an easy task. There’s no magic pill. And as someone who leans precariously toward neurotic, I can say that completely eradicating the worry is next to impossible. There is always another reason to be nervous, another event that could go wrong and another way to compile a laundry list of “uh-ohs”. So don’t attempt to erase the tension; attempt to lessen it. Try to give your body a break. Your constant worry is wearing you down. It’s hurting your heart. It’s doing nothing but adding to your worries. 

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Don’t walk under a ladder, don’t step on a crack, avoid black cats. These are all some good superstitious practices to avoid bad luck. But what possible means does a superstitious person have to avoid Friday the 13th? Is it bad for your luck and even your health to just get up and face the day?

Paraskavedekatriaphobia rizza, phobia of Friday the 13th, is definitely bad for the health of those who are traumatized by it. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute located in Asheville, NC estimates that nearly 21 million people fear the date. Succumbing to a phobia, such as the one associated with Friday the 13th, can create a tremendous amount of panic and anxiety. It’s estimated that upwards of $800 million is lost on this business day because many people experiencing the phobia refuse to travel or conduct any form of business (including their own lives) on this day.

So is Friday the 13th bad for your luck and your healthy? Yes, but only because allowing fear to rule daily life leaves room for an individual to create his/her own misfortune. Despite studies by several research centers searching for a link between increased rates of accident and the unlucky day, no conclusive evidence has been found to prove this day any worse off than the rest of the year. So let phobia and superstition fall to the wayside. I’ve been stepping on cracks for years, and my mother’s back is still working just fine.

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