This is Optimal Living Daily. Secrets to a Less Stressful Life, Part 1, by Dr. Lisa Firestone of Psycholive.org, and I'm Justin Molek.

Happy Thursday and welcome to one of the only podcasts in the world where articles are narrated to you for free

with permission from the authors. It's an award-winning podcast thanks to you.

And today have a bit of a longer post I'll read read the first half, but then finish the rest for you tomorrow.

So with that, let's get right to part one and start optimizing your life.

Secrets to a less stressful life part one by Dr Lisa Firestone of Psych Alive.

You're at your desk about to log off for your lunch break when you hear the ding of an incoming text.

You read the message from your partner saying,

Meeting got moved, can't get kids from school today.

By the time you glance back up at your screen an email has come in from your boss

asking about the progress of a lagging project.

As you craft your reply, your phone beeps again, and you eagerly check for the

life-saving words of your best friend saying she can pick up your kids, but instead you're greeted

by a news alert about some unspeakable thing happening

in what seems to be an increasingly insane world. Fill in the blanks of your own

latest text, email and news alert, and most of you can probably relate to this scenario.

In fact, the American Psychological Association or APA recently reported that the constant checking of devices is contributing to high levels

of stress for the majority of Americans.

This year, results from an APA survey also showed a statistically significant increase in stress for the first time since the survey was first conducted in 2007.

Stress is on the rise for myriad reasons that are worth examining, but here I want to

explore how to best handle the new waves of stress that have entered our lives.

No matter what it is that's making each of us anxious, we can all

...