We cannot avoid stress. But we should manage it in such a way that while the positive stress keeps helping us in our endeavour for survival, its negative effects do not cause us any harm. For this, we have to break the vicious cycle of stress. It is necessary to understand the four components of human personality.

Living beings first came up as physical beings, that is, living beings with a body. Development of the brain, or the intellect, came later. With the intellect came emotions, and humans finally developed a spiritual aspect. We all have these four components in our psychosomatic system; that is to say, body, intellect, emotions and spirituality are the four components of human personality. Stress is related to all the four, and when we want to control stress we have to deal with it in all the four aspects. Hence our discussion of these components can also be called the 4-Lane Road to Stress Management. I term this four-lane road because the road is one and all four components are integral to the road. They go together. However, each one leads to the same destination. This does not mean that if you follow any of these four roads you’ll be able to control stress.

This implies that if you take care of only one or two, stress should take the other lane to affect you. Thus, stress has to be dealt in all four components. There are many who overemphasise one dimension. But stress has to be dealt with in all its dimensions.

— The 4-Lane Expressway to Stress Management