How to cope with stress?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Acharya Ji, how to cope with stress? I get disappointed easily. Why is it so?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Is there disappointment without a specific expectation?

Listeners (L): No.

AP: And when you expect, then obviously you never expect bad things for yourself. Or do you?

L: No.

AP: So when you expect, you expect good things to happen to you — “Good things will happen to me.” Now, just think of the good things that really happen to you or have happened to you; the really good things, not the small ones. I repeat, the really good ones. Have they happened to you because of your expectation and imagination?

Alright, let’s look at those good things. The first thing you probably like about yourself is — that you are, your being, the fact that you exist. Did that happen out of your expectation?

L: No.

AP: It didn’t, right? Now, these essentials that you need for living, do they come to you because you expect them to come? And could you ever have expected them to come?

L: Some things in my life come when I expect them to come, and some things come when I don’t.