Stress is a major culprit in almost every chronic disease. One may have diabetes, but were emotional eating and the compounding effects of daily stress root causes? Stress can absolutely lead to fatalities and yet rarely do we learn how to manage it in childhood.

In fact, a panel of medical experts on Tuesday recommended for the first time that primary care doctors screen all children ages 8 to 18 for anxiety, new guidance that highlights the ongoing mental health crisis among American youth. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 5.8 million children have been diagnosed with anxiety, while 2.7 million have been diagnosed with depression — though some children may be missed or misdiagnosed.

99% of all stress management techniques are designed to be healthy bandages to cover up a poor operating system. Yes, they are natural techniques and that’s a start, but it's also important that we work to not get there in the first place. In medicine, there are trillions of dollars spent fixing diseases that could have been prevented in the first place.

The same thing is happening with stress, so let’s look at a new view of this. The way you manage your energy, time, commitments and attention has everything to do with your stress levels. If you let your fuse run short, you’re only one negative event away from a full meltdown.

If you stack too many appointments in a given day, there’s no way you can “be here now” when you’ve given your word to be elsewhere soon. You simply can’t meditate that off. This calls for better boundaries and better time management. Why? Because will help you build resilience into your day.

We recommend people take five minutes to breathe and take care of themselves every half hour. If this sounds like too much, then you may need it more than ever.