Review: Let Go of Stress
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2012
I have been planning a wedding for the better part of two years now. With only six months to go, we've finally hit the home stretch and the stress is starting to hit maximum capacity. What with having to handle the flowers, the food, the decorations, the complex politics of family seating and last-minute wedding band replacement, all while going to work and graduate school, our life has basically mutated into one dense wall of constant stress. Concerned for me and the level of stress I was having to deal with on a non-stop basis, my loving soon-to-be husband decided he'd try to help me lessen my stress. In addition to taking on some of the wedding responsibilities and giving me a couple of nights a week off to myself, he also bought me Stephen Williams' "How to Relieve Stress." We've read half a dozen of Williams' other books and we have always found him helpful, so my fiancé thought this book by him would be a safe bet for being able to help me in this very stressful time. Thank god for my husband-to-be and Stephen Williams because, just a week later, and I'm already starting to feel the difference in my life and the way I handle stress.As always, Mr. Williams' writing is clear and un-condescending - he never makes you feel bad for needing to seek someone's advice for how to improve your life. On the contrary, Williams always makes you feel like taking your life into your own hands by seeking to improve it is a major accomplishment in and of itself - like other things in life, admitting you need help is the first step to a better life. My favorite thing about Williams' approach to dealing with stress is that, not only does he give you the tools you need to deal with the stress we all encounter every day, but he also shows you how to avoid some kinds of stress altogether - prevention is half the battle. Williams helps you identify those situations and people in your life that may be causing you undue stress and shows you that you have to weigh your own happiness against what you're getting in return for your effort. If there's something or someone in your life that is a negative force, causing you more stress than they alleviate, then maybe you need to remove that person or thing from your life. Avoiding or dealing with stress is about building a better life for yourself and sometimes you're better off leaving parts of your life behind in order to the rest of your life better. I read this book during a time in my life when I was letting a lot of outside, frivolous things govern me and make my life stressful. Once I realized that there were some things that just weren't worth stressing yourself over, I finally started to feel like everything else in my life was manageable and even worthwhile. Thanks to Williams' book, I find myself excited to face the day, secure in the knowledge that I have the tools I need to deal with anything that comes my way.