There are two types of stress, natural stress that comes from the process of being alive. Things like aging, disease and death, this type of stress happens gradually over long periods of time and at large intervals of time in between.
For example someone close to you will die and before someone else that is close to you is going to die there will be a substantial amount of time.
You have time to grief and recover, generally speaking natural stress is not chronic.
In order for stress to become chronic it needs to be induce by the people that are around you. If I am going to be stressful to you I can induce stress multiple times per day. Not giving you time to recover, I can keep you in a constant state of stress.
If the source of chronic stress is other people, then stress management is learning how to have boundaries, learn to say no and distance yourself from those people. You can do all the breathing exercises in the world and meditation, I doubt that they are going to have any substantial effects on your stress.
Even the stress that comes from being sick, or economical crisis, war etc. is generally caused by other people since most diseases and crises these days are just symptoms of a sick culture.
There are still some isolated places in the world where most people are generally healthy, they eat a simple diet of mostly plants that they get locally, spend time in the sun doing mostly what they want etc. In those society almost everybody reaches the age of ninety is disease free and generally happy.
The source of your chronic stress is always external, we are design to be healthy and happy. The good news is that there is nothing wrong with you, like your genetics or mind, and the bad news is that you live in a sick culture and by association to it you are sick.
You can't change others as human beings have autonomy and free will, your won't find your power in what can you make others do, if you try to do that you are just going to become a source of stress to them. Your true power is in what can you do!
Being well adjusted to a sick and dysfunctional culture is not something to brag about. If you are going to have any chance at being happy and healthy you have to be "weird". Stress management is learning to reject the right people and the right ideas!
