Personal view:- Stress can be caused by both external and internal (ie self inflicted) factors. Eg, 1)stress can be caused by a Manager that acts like a muppet because there's little you can do about it (external influence) or 2) stress can be caused by allowing internal influence to have too much priority such as not having done something you know you should have done (paying the phone bill and realising you're about to be cut off or not reading your SI's when you know you should have). Coping with stress is about understanding what you can and can't fix or influence and switching off (or deploying other methods of engagement) from those you can't influence. In the case of Mr Muppet Manager, there are always routes open for review (whether they work or not is another factor) but you can reduce the stress by following the procedure. In the case of the phone bill, you simply need to look at the little things in your life that can cause stress and manage them better. By the way, many years ago I was sent on a course by my employer at the time called "Recognising Stress" - we all recognised it after the one day course, unfortnately we all then had to identify our own ways of "Coping with Stress" as the employer hadn't booked us on that one! Twitch, twitch...who said that?
Bye!