Your muscles are so tense, it would take an army of massage therapists to work them out. You have a headache the size of Texas; you’re forgetting to breathe, and just so you feel better you have a major deadline, the boss has asked about his reports for the fifth time in an hour, and your son has troubles at school.

You’ve got stress — you and everyone else on the planet who has anything to do with the business of life.

Stress is such a major factor in our lives that a project at Cornell University was compelled to have an anti-stress celebration of sorts: Take Bake Your Time day was proclaimed in October by an initiative recognizing overwork and over-scheduling as a big threat to emotional and physical well-being not only for individuals but also for families and communities.

The problem, however, is not getting stressed. That part can’t be avoided, it’s just the way human beings are wired, a physiological response. You can’t avoid stress, and that’s the final answer. In response to stressful situation, the body releases chemicals that increase the breathing and heart rates, increase sweating, dilate the pupils, and slow digestion — psychologists call it the “fight or flight” response, which makes the body alert and prepared to react.

The challenge is recognizing that stress is and will be, and preparing yourself to deal with it when it rolls downhill. And that’s not a lesson you can cram in the day before.

“Any one of us can become much worse off because of stress, it’s just a matter of whether you have good skills for dealing with it,” says Dr. Leyla Welkin, LMHC with Olympic Mental Health in Bremerton. “There is no such thing as a non-stressful life. We have a culture that expects us to achieve and accomplish a lot with minimum support — and that’s stressful.”

Unfortunately, because stress is such a constant, many people simply disregard it, and overtime create bigger problems. Hidden stress is even worse — how can you fight something you don’t know exists?

A recent study by U.S. researchers showed that people whose blood pressure elevates during stress are six times more likely to have a heart attack or another major heart event within six years than those who can handle stress calmly. Just what you needed: more stress from knowing that stress can kill you.

“There is nothing ‘just stress’ about it,” Welkin says. “We are less adapted and less skilled at dealing with the stresses we have today.” The fight or flight response, for example, has worked well for our ancestors because it was part of their survival, and we’ve inherited that reaction although our situation has evolved.

Technology, that lifesaver that’s supposed to make everything easier and better, isn’t helping either. E-mail by itself, the tech marvel of the last century, causes mild to moderate stress for about 60 percent of workers, an Australian study shows.

Shrugging your shoulders and waiting for the stress to pass may work one time – but stress has a way of feeding off itself. There are several common responses, Welkin points out. Women, for example, tend to connect and cooperate — which is actually not a bad idea. Connecting with friends, staying tuned in to your needs and tapping into your network is one ways to ease the pressure.

Different people find different things that help them relax. But don’t count on having only one stress buster, Welkin says. “If you rely on just one thing, you’re in trouble. If you have a good list of relievers, you’re in better shape because then at least one will be accessible.”

What could you have on that list? You could follow actress Ashley Judd’s example and bake cookies. Or you could take a short walk; listen to relaxing music; meditate; pray; talk to friends; do deep breathing; light up some candles — anything that will rock your boat a little gentler.

“Give yourself mini-vacations during the day,” Welkin says. “We often think we need a big vacation, when actually 10 to 15 minutes of talking a walk, breathing deeply and taking your mind off it will greatly increase your productivity. When we are stressed, our thinking is altered, we’re less creative.”

While those on-the-spot techniques will help you when you are in the middle of getting stressed, preparing an effective response to stress is part of the lifestyle. Those things we hear every day like exercising and eating healthy are not luxuries but basic needs. Building healthy social relationships, volunteering and staying involved in the community have also shown to reduce stress factors.

“If you take care of yourself on a daily basis, when stress comes along you’ll be able to better handle it,” Welkin says.