Stress is a B#&!H, with a capital B#&!H

STRESS -- noun, a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.

That is one of many definitions of the word, but I think we all carry our own meaning of the term: Stress. It's a nasty little bugger, and I fear that it may be the trigger for so many of the ailments we see and hear about in the medical world today. We have all felt it, some more, some less. 

I am currently dealing with more than a fair amount of it right now, for reasons that I shall leave to myself and possibly a select few that I trust with my life. While bearing physical symptoms, stress is not a medical condition that can be diagnosed with a scan or doctor examination. It acts as a disease, meaning their is no cure, only maintenance to keep it from showing it's nasty face. So how do we deal with it? That's a question on we as individuals can answer. It depends mostly on what we can do for ourselves to keep our head above the water; keep smiles, real smiles, on our faces and laughter in our hearts. There's love. There's laughter. There's having meaningful relationships that fill the voids, where stress has eaten away at us. 

We each have our own remedies, but we have to remind ourselves each day of how important it is to march forward, reaching for the light and holding it higher for those around us in search of the same thing. We have to be less selfish and acknowledge that while we each have our own pain, there are so many experiencing either the same and in some cases much more. We must emanate positivity at all times in order to get it back from others. A smile can change a life.