Everyone I know is experiencing stress this month. A cancer diagnosis, fear for a spouse’s deportation, ceilings fail and fall into a room, basements flooding, groceries are swiped from the front door after delivery, crooks break into bank accounts, and much more. People are simply grumpy. In a time of oligarch hegemony, society offers little to assuage our worries.

People smarter than me point to a number of causes.

The American Psychological Association identifies interpersonal conflict, family responsibilities, and emotional isolation among the leading sources of stress for U.S. adults. Financial strain, economic uncertainty, political polarization, inadequate employment, healthcare, and family pressures compound that stress, often without a clear path toward resolution. As a society, we are not well.

What can we do about it?

We need ways to deal with stress. If someone steals our delivered groceries from the front porch, the retailer may or may not be able to help. Steal from me once, shame on you, Steal from me a second time, shame on me. A way to deal with stress is to develop the presence of mind to deal with issues like food theft by changing how our pantry and refrigerator are stocked, by finding ways to buy groceries in person, and by reducing the number of retailers, and items purchased. Feeling we are in control of our lives seems important to stress reduction.

Someone recently asked me how I deal with stress. I said I didn’t feel much stress, so it wasn’t an issue. The key for me is to have routines that provide perspective on my days, including taking walks on the nearby state park trail to breathe fresh air and get my heart rate elevated. That basic preventative system works, at least for me.

Sometimes I even encounter a rainbow.