So, it’s not really about the coffee.

You know by now that taking responsibility for keeping your side of the street clean is a key component of healthy relationships.

This isn’t always easy. We have days where we didn’t sleep well, are under extra stress, or are just in a bad mood. If circumstances like this have primed us to be irritable or have a short fuse, it’s likely we’re not going to do the best job at managing our emotions.

There are, however, things within our control that have an influence over how effectively we can self-regulate. Consuming excessive amounts of caffeine, sugar, or other stimulants will send your central nervous system into overdrive and create a shorter distance to being emotionally flooded. Focusing on negative thoughts, consuming stressful or negative content, or holding onto negative emotions for an extended period of time will set ourselves up for flooding.

Part of taking responsibility is managing your physiological and emotional stress loads in an effective way. For us, we started by cutting out caffeine. What’s one change you could make to reduce your stress level and set yourself up for success?