Many people talk about stress. People have stress at work. People have stress at school. People have stress at home. Everywhere people have stress. Stress is making you unhappy. Stress is making you sick. Maybe you have too much stress. Maybe you do not have enough stress.

What is stress? Where does it come from? Why do we have stress?

Science can teach us many things about stress. First of all, where does stress come from?

Scientists tell us that stress comes from a few areas in life. For example, if you are unhappy in your school life or job, you will have stress. If you have too much work or homework you will have stress. If you have a bad teacher or boss you will have stress. If you must give a speech in front of many people you might have stress (Well, for some people giving a speech makes stress but for me it is okay. I am very happy to talk with you this morning!). If you have trouble at work because of racism, power harassment or sexual harassment you will have a lot of stress.

These are the kinds of stresses we have outside our homes. We can also have stress at home. Stress at home can be about things like money trouble, or if someone dies, or getting married or becoming sick. There can be bad relationships between parents and kids. All of these things make stress too.

There can be stress that comes from inside your own heart. Maybe the news makes you feel so nervous. Maybe you worry about North Korea, global warming, tsunami and earthquake, violence, a bad economy, or trouble with America. All of these things can give you stress too.

Too much stress can give us medical trouble. Too much stress can damage your heart and your brain. Too much stress makes you too tired and gives stomach trouble. Too much stress gives us skin trouble too.

But not all stress is bad. Sometimes some stress can make us stronger. Stress can make us study hard and to push us to a new challenge. Stress can make you fight harder. Stress can give us a good result.

The most important thing is to make harmony with stress. We have stress every day. How do we respond to our stress. We can learn from science that an important way to handle our stress is to remember that we can choose how to respond to trouble. We can choose to be angry or unhappy and full of nervous feelings. Or we can choose to not respond so quickly. We can choose to move more slowly and then to make a good choice for our next step.

Stress can give you energy. But stress can give you trouble. When you think you have too much stress please talk to a friend or talk to your teacher. Sometimes to talk about the things that give you negative stress can be a good help.

Stress is bad, but stress can also be good!