This one is about a word I invented called Microstress. Today we create new compound words all the time, so I figured I’d make one too. I find myself worrying about the smallest, most ridiculous things on the planet. Did I screw my license plate cover on tight enough? How do cows stay warm in the winter if they don’t move around? How does Brian Johnson from AC/DC sing like that every day without losing his voice? Tiny things. Silly things. Ever do that? You might call these microstresses. I do. And autocorrect clearly disagrees with me—there’s another microstress right there. These are the little thoughts that pop in and out of our minds all day, barely noticeable, but they accumulate. It’s like going to clean out your computer and realizing there are 10 million one-line emails taking up space. We think all day long. Our life is made of thoughts. So if our thoughts determine our life, it becomes pretty important to manage them. We can’t eliminate microstress completely, but we can start to limit it. The first step is noticing it. Most of these tiny negative thoughts go by without us ever realizing they happened. Once we learn to notice them, we can create space—then choose something more useful to fill that space with: the work we’re doing in the moment, the scenery while we’re driving, something we’re grateful for. In other words, we come back to the present. The more present we are, the more microstress fades. Over time, awareness turns into routine, and routine becomes a calmer, lighter way of thinking.