Like most people, I wanted a solution to these symptoms of extreme stress that was drug-free, therapy-free, and did not require me to change my lifestyle in unrealistic ways. I wanted a solution that WORKED. One that worked FAST. And I eventually found that solution in what seemed like the most unlikely of places …

Like many young men, from an early age I was fascinated by traditional martial arts and I devoured every ounce of information I could find about karate, kung fu, judo, jujitsu, silat, arnis, you name it. I also sank my teeth into modern military combat methodology and psychology, literally anything I could get my hands on. At the end of the day it wasn't so much the physical "fighting" aspect of these disciplines that intrigued me, but the unique mental training which set them apart from conventional athletics.

At the time I had no clue how important this knowledge and experience would become in my future struggle with extreme stress and stress-related injury.

Then one day in the summer of 2002, at the height of my own personal struggle with stress, I met a man whose knowledge would change my life. A highly-decorated retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Special Forces (“The Green Berets”), and a lifetime student of traditional martial arts, “Colonel Bruce” showed me the simple but deeply profound method he had developed for dealing with the extreme stress of combat. His was a method informed both by his modern understanding of combat psychology and the physiology of stress, and by the equally sophisticated but more traditional meditation methods of the martial arts masters with whom he had spent many decades studying.

That was the moment when everything “clicked” for me.

When you sit down and think about it, it really makes a great deal of sense. The kinds of psychological techniques adopted by veteran soldiers and martial artists were designed to prepare people to deal with the most stressful event a human being can experience: life-and-death combat.

Once I had my breakthrough and I began to apply this same method, with Colonel Bruce’s help, to the extreme stress and stress-related injuries in my own life (which often felt like a battlefield!) the results were simply astounding.

Experiencing the speed and effectiveness of this solution first-hand revolutionized my perspective regarding what genuine stress management could and should be. Gone was the need for mind-numbing “anti-depressants”, gone was the need for expensive counseling sessions, gone was the compulsion to splurge on a vacation just to “get away from it all”. Not only did my stress-related injuries begin to disappear, but I found that these techniques could be used to enhance my performance in practically every activity in which I applied them!

I am not a doctor, a psychiatrist, a counselor or a therapist. I am an educated and successful professional who struggled with my own stress-related issues (with very little relief provided by the above-mentioned medical types, I might add) until I literally stumbled upon the solution. A solution which gave me the tools to take my life back into my own hands, and to improve the quality of my life beyond anything I thought was possible.

You don’t have to endure the insane side-effects of the drugs. You don’t have to subject yourself to hours of pointless talk therapy. And we all know how expensive those two options can be!

This website, my book THE STRESS VACCINE™ and my HARDCORE STRESS MANAGEMENT™ MASTERCOURSE exist to bring to you these powerful, tried-and-true, no-frills techniques from behind the veil of obscurity, translated into a practical modern context that is as applicable to the corporate gladiator as the soccer-mom."