I recently had a life-changing conversation about managing stress.

One of the more disturbing features of stress is that we often don’t notice it. But others do.

The sources of this stress today feel existential, thanks to the growing instability of our financial, social and political futures.

Maybe you’re struggling with a painful, chronic injury or disease. Maybe you’re managing a parent in the grip of dementia. Or trying not to panic about money and being able to afford life as you know it. Maybe our government’s willingness to act less as a public steward and more like a vaccine-skeptical kleptocracy is forcing you to think about your future in ways you never imagined.

Let me tell you about that life-changing conversation — with my 10-year-old daughter.

As my daughter and I talked, it suddenly dawned on me: the SOURCES of my stress — finances, career, relationships, the state of the United States, and so on — hadn’t changed so much as my ability to regularly purge them. Through exercise.

The other lesson I learned from that conversation was what I needed to do every morning, before anything else....

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