If you feel stress has been getting the best of you, you've chosen the perfect guide. When your body feels stressed, it triggers your fight-or-flight response—which helps protect you from immediate threats by releasing hormones that raise your heart rate and dilate blood vessels. Short-term stress is manageable: It doesn’t cause lasting damage and eventually subsides once you’ve dealt with whatever is causing it. But long-term stress triggers chemical changes in your body, making it more vulnerable to disease—including heart disease, anxiety disorders, depression, dementia, and sleep problems. Making small changes that work within your budget and lifestyle can prevent stress from negatively impacting your health and productivity levels. Therefore, we've created this guide to help you understand stress and how to manage it appropriately.