It is a beautiful summer’s day. I’m sitting on a bench, and I’m feeling at peace, which is a rarity for me, and I’m sure for you as well. Do you ever feel stressed? I do, and I’m sure you do too. So what does a person do about this in the modern world?

That is really the question, isn’t it? Because if we continue to feel stress as we age, our organs will respond accordingly. Happy people seem to live a much more fulfilled and curiously a longer life. There’s something in this, isn’t there? So what does one do to alleviate this stress that is such a part of our lives?

Well, little story. Recently, I had to get on an airplane, and as you know, that already is a tremendously stressful experience. Because what do you have? Luggage. And what is luggage?

Too heavy. Always. Because perhaps you’ve bought too many gifts or people have given you presents. Gosh. Whatever it is.

So I arrived at the airport in Krakow, and I was 4 kilos overweight. Four kilos. Not bad. So the young woman was very kind. She said, take it away and reduce the weight.

So I did, and I brought it back. She said, I’m sorry. You’re still 2 kilos overweight, so I removed some other items. Now what are you removing? Well, you’re removing a suit bag and a lot of these gifts we’ve talked about.

And you somehow have to carry all of this. You have to manage all of this on an airplane, and inevitably, if you leave Poland, there are no direct flights, so you’re going someplace. In my case, I was going to Frankfurt about an hour and a half, 2 hours, easy flight. Everything should be fine. The cabin crew comment that I have a lot of luggage, a lot of items, but I explained it was just an oversight, problems with my ticket, etcetera, etcetera.

So we get everything stored nicely. We fly. We arrive. And in Frankfurt, similar to Shanghai, you have to get on a bus, and the bus is going to take you to the main terminal. So I get on a bus, and just as I’m about to get on the bus, the clothes hanger which holds up my suit, this expensive wooden hanger breaks.

So now I must carry my suit by hand. And this is on top of, of course, extra luggage, etcetera, etcetera. So my stress level rises to a level that I don’t quite recognize. Intense. And then, of course, there’s the requisite security that we have to deal with, and then finally, we walk along and we navigate.

It’s quite late at night. We navigate on an overpass. We arrive at the hotel, etcetera, etcetera, but it doesn’t stop. I’m hungry. Everything’s closed.

But wait a moment. There’s a kiosk downstairs that you can use a card. So I go downstairs. Now this is getting funny. I go downstairs.

I get my sandwich and my chips and my drink together, and I go to the kiosk. And the kiosk is a man in front of me and he has some problems. And whatever he’s doing, the kiosk stops working, shuts down. So now we have 4 kilos overweight. We have the broken hanger, and we have no food during the entire day.

So at that moment, I remembered 2 things. So this is my secret I’d like to share. The first is the question that was given to me many, many years ago. Who gives you stress? You do.

That situation does. Not true. The person that gives me stress is myself. Number 1. Number 2, how am I going to calm myself down?

How am I possibly going to do this? And I had a friend. His name was doctor Joe. And he suggested years ago, whatever you’re doing, however busy you are, if you feel really, really stressed, just stop. Stop for a moment and view the world around you, the flowers, the bugs, the bees, everything else.

Have a good look at the world around you and calm yourself. Because in reality, nothing matters but this moment, this beautiful moment. So those two things, who gives me stress, I do and grasp the moment grasp the moment. So then I found some peanuts which satiated my hunger, and I went to sleep. I got up early, and then I went through the airport, and I shared this before.

They found some bomb making chemicals that somehow in my suitcase, But by then, the stress was already low, so it didn’t really matter. So the next time you get stressed, try to remember those two things. Firstly, I give myself the stress. Secondly, just stop and view the beauty of life. Gratitude.

Right? And you know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary if I’m going to control my levels of stress and live a long and flourishing life, which we all deserve. And critical thinking is great, really great. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.

Episode 31: How do I control my stress if I want to lead a long and fulfilling life?