The Key to Reaching Personal Goals in 2014: Conquer Stress First

The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living helps tackle new year’s resolutions and find joy and contentment in the new year

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Jan. 2, 2014 — Americans will start the New Year with resolutions that are doomed to fail if they don’t deal with the underlying issue of stress before they join a gym, start a diet or throw the cigarettes away. Research shows that stress negatively impacts our ability to lose weight, quit smoking and stick with a new healthy lifestyle change.

In The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living, Mayo Clinic stress management and resiliency expert Amit Sood, M.D., draws on decades of groundbreaking research to offer readers a scientifically proven, structured and practical approach to reducing stress. He explains the brain’s two modes — focused mode and default mode — and how an imbalance between the two produces unwanted stress, and he shares new insights about how the mind works, including its natural tendency to wander. In this easy-to-follow guide, Dr. Sood provides actionable steps to cultivate emotional and mental strength, find greater fulfillment and nurture a kind disposition.

The book answers:

• What is unique about stress in the 21st century?
• How is stress linked to the wandering nature of our mind?
• Why do the most-commonly-taught practices for stress management help only a small proportion of people?
• What real-world skills work to decrease our stress levels and enhance our resiliency?
• How can we apply these skills to goals for weight loss, smoking cessation and other behavior changes?

The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living encapsulates these concepts, techniques and personal stories into a way that will bring you closer to a state of personal fulfillment and a stress-free existence — and much more likely to stick to those resolutions this year. The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living will be available wherever books are sold Jan. 1, 2014 ($19.99, Paperback Original, 288 Pages, ISBN: 978-0-7382-1712-3).