It helps to appreciate that work is not an evil plague. It is physically and mentally good for you to be active and productive, such as in earning a living and the means to enjoy play. (Eccl. 3:12, 13) In “Stress Without Distress,” Dr. Hans Selye comments: “Your most important aim should not be to work [or be occupied] as little as possible. . . . For the full enjoyment of leisure, you have to be tired first, as for the full enjoyment of food the best cook is hunger.”

Even when you are working, take a few moments regularly to “play” by stretching. That can relieve the muscles of your face, neck, shoulders and back, lessening any buildup of stress.

But just as you make time for work, make time for relaxation. Yes, schedule some recreation, perhaps a hobby that will absorb you and divert you from the physical or emotional causes of your stress. Dr. Selye adds: “In most instances, diversion from one activity to another is more relaxing than complete rest.”

Similarly, after decades of research in stress, Dr. Hans Selye wrote: “Rather than relying on drugs or other techniques, I think there’s another, a better way to handle stress, which involves taking a different attitude toward the various events in our lives.”

Dr. Hans Selye, one of the giants in the study of stress, wrote: “No sensitive person can look at the sky on a cloudless night without asking himself where the stars came from, where they go, and what keeps the universe in order. The same questions arise when we look at the internal universe within the human body.”​—The Stress of Life.

Have you taken the time to reflect on the marvels of the human body or thoughtfully to gaze at the stars? Doing so can be an important step in your coping with present stresses. Selye adds: “The capacity to contemplate . . . the harmonious elegance in Nature’s manifestations, is one of the most satisfactory experiences of which man is capable. . . . Looking at something infinitely greater than our conscious selves makes all our daily troubles appear to shrink by comparison. There is an equanimity and a peace of mind which can be achieved only through contact with the sublime.”

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LOVE, HATE AND STRESS

In a “Reader’s Digest” interview, Dr. Hans Selye remarked: “The two great emotions that cause the absence or presence of stress are love and hate. The Bible makes this point over and over again. The message is that if we don’t somehow modify our built-in selfishness, we arouse fear and hostility in other people​—not a very favorable environment in which to exist! Conversely, the more we modify that self-centeredness, the more we can persuade people to love us rather than hate us, the safer we are, and the less stress we have to endure.”