Brian King > Quotes

“The traffic was real, but it was your own beliefs, values, and expectations that made the situation into one that you found stressful.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“The simplest description I have ever come across is that stress is our brain’s reaction to a perception of threat.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Worrying is nothing more than internally generated stress—stress we impose on ourselves thanks to some particularly troublesome thoughts.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Before you allow yourself to react, ask yourself if this situation represents an actual threat to you. Chances are, it does not and you will start to calm down.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh.” Happiness is a great emotion, and really preferable to the alternative, but for many people it is a difficult thing to experience because of stress.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Learning to keep our brain active can help us avoid excessive worrying.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“One of the first pieces of advice I will offer is this: Learn to assess your stress. Learn to tell the difference between bears and traffic. The first thing we should do when we start to feel agitated or stressed is stop and ask ourselves, “Is this situation actually threatening?” If it is, then Houston, we have a probl—uh I mean, bear! It is a simple question really, and it requires clarity of mind that we often do not have when we are enraged or frightened or whatever, but if we can take a moment to assess our stress it will help us calm down. Imagine again that you are sitting in traffic and you start to feel your blood boil a bit. Before you allow yourself to react, ask yourself if this situation represents an actual threat to you. Chances are, it does not and you will start to calm down.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Ultimately overcoming stress and managing its impact on our lives depends on this basic realization: most of our stress is from percieved threats, not clear and present threats. If you are going to get all worked up over traffic, consciously or unconsciously, living in the world of what could happen rather than what is happening, you might as well watch out for unicorns.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Besides being a new source of stress, my daughter is also a source of unbelievable happiness for both Sarah and me.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Well, our brain creates these things called beliefs, values, and expectations, and they influence how we perceive the world.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Learn to assess your stress. Learn to tell the difference between bears and traffic. The first thing we should do when we start to feel agitated or stressed is stop and ask ourselves, “Is this situation actually threatening?”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Despite the distance, we felt a connection so strong that we decided to take our relationship to the next level: sell most of our belongings, get rid of our homes, and travel the world together as nomads. You know, like everyone does when they fall in love.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“we are facing an actual threat and we can do something about it, our stress response is there to help us out.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Nothing is our most common stressor, and it is neither traffic nor bears. It is literally nothing.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“I used to live in Los Angeles, a city famous for its traffic and absolutely nothing else.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Can I do anything about it?”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“What is interesting to me is that social media is whatever we make it: we control the content we are exposed to.19 And yet, I often hear from people who quit it because of “all the drama.” Which is a shame, because there are so many positive messages being shared on a regular basis. We just have to learn how to filter the nuggets from the dirt.20”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“The problem is that more often than not, there is no bear. Remember, stress is not our reaction to threat, it is our reaction to the perception of threat.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Our stress response should be engaged only when it can help us.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“When stressed we should ask ourselves, is this an actual threat? If it is an actual threat, then can I do anything about it?”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Your prefrontal cortex can alter or completely reverse decisions made by other areas of the brain and all you need are your own thoughts.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“believe that if neither option looks appealing, the brain will choose to freeze or do nothing. In the case of a”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“I know there is a chance that some of you may have been attacked by bears, and if this is bringing back horrible memories for you, I’m sorry, but you should have come to terms with that before reading this book.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“And that’s the thing about worrying, it does nothing to prevent bad things from happening. Worrying does not affect the outcome of a situation, it doesn’t make adverse events less likely to occur, it just makes our life less great.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“teaching audiences about happiness, the benefits of humor, and how to manage stress for nearly a decade. These subjects are very interrelated, as managing stress is key to happiness, and humor contributes to them both.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Bad things happen all the time, but what ultimately makes the difference in our lives is how we deal with those situations.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“Researchers also suggest that one of the primary drivers of happiness is having a sense of purpose.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“As it turns out, worry provides relief to the brain for a very uncomfortable condition it sometimes experiences called “inactivity.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

“So you are happy . . . are you married?” to which I replied, “Of course not, I said I was happy.”
― Brian King, The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors