Stress is too dangerous to be ignored. Nervous breakdowns, clinical depressions, heart attacks are only a few examples of what awaits you if you try to avoid thinking about the stress you are experiencing. The only way to defend against it is to make yourself more resistant to the problems that haunts you.

What can you do to cope with stress? First, make sure that your home is a stress-free environment. When you’re at home, try to worry only about those situations that you are 100% sure affect you in a negative way. Being worried about lots of issues at the same time is a short way to serious stress and depression related problems.

The first thing you have to do is to keep remembering that no one is perfect. You have to forgive yourself your past mistakes - as well as forgive other people’s past mistakes. They are past - you have to make sure they will not happen again, but casting blame will only increase your stress level without making any real difference to your present situation.

While you may want to lay on the couch all the evening, try to spend some time with your children instead. Go out, eat ice creams, go for a walk to the park or watch some cartoons - anything that would make both you and your kids happy and relaxed. Such activities bring a lot of joy home and minimize the stress levels at home.

The same is true for situations when you have no kids. Get your loved one and your friends and go out to do something. One iron rule: no talking and think about your problems while you are enjoying your time together. This will let you relax and return to your problems later with fresh mind.

In situations when stress is inevitable (death in a family, serious work problems etc.), never let yourself concentrate only on the problem that haunts you. While it may be tempting, such concentration will cause extreme weariness and make your mind unable to find solutions you crave. Always have something else you can concentrate your mind on. For example, playing in some MMORPG or reading books may be an excellent hideout where your mind may rest peacefully and after a few hours’ rest get back to your problems.