In times of stress and anxiety your mind becomes overactive. Your thoughts race around inside your head, they get confused and unsettled and even rattled at times. This is a sign that stress and anxiety have increased and it is affecting your mind and body.

So how do you know if this is happening? Well a simple test will demonstrate if your mind is calm and relaxed ? or has too much activity, stress or anxiety going on.

It only takes two minutes, so get an alarm clock, your cell phone or watch. Set the timer to two minutes and then follow the instructions below.

Yes I am waiting until you go and get it. Now set the timer and follow the instruction as stated below.

Okay the timer is set, I want you to sit there close your eyes and think of an egg. That is it. Think of an egg. Now go to it ?

Don't read any more ? just do it ? I will wait for two minutes for you to do it.

Are you back ? what happened? Firstly for those who didn't do this I now know you are just too full of stress and anxiety to even attempt this exercise. So put yourself into Group A.

For those who did the exercise, if you had hundreds of thoughts of many different kinds. You may have thought of things such as ? why an egg ? in a shell ? poached or fried ? how long do I picture the egg for ? etc.

If you are in this group, call yourself Group B.

For those who had to physical drive your mind to picture an egg, if it took a huge effort to even picture and egg even for a second or two. And then you wound yourself up because you couldn't complete the test or you had to peak at the time ? put yourself into Group C.

If you are someone who pictured an egg. Just for a fleeting moment, and then you had two minutes of peace and calm in your mind. You sat there relaxed and just waited for to minutes to finish. You didn't care whether it was a brown or white egg, poached, in a shell or fired. You created a picture you wanted, held it here for as long as you felt necessary and then just relaxed.

If you are in this group, two questions ? why are you reading this, you are stress and anxiety free. The other question is this ? why are you not teaching your friends and family to be the same. You are in Group D.

If you are in Group D ? your stress and anxiety levels are great. Keep it up.

If you are in Groups A, B or C ? you are stressed. No matter which way you look at it your stress and anxiety levels need to change. Group A and C are actually worse off than Group B.

But those in Group B, don't be smug, you are only a fraction better and light years away from Group A.

So all of you, including those in Group D should use some anxiety and stress relief tools. You need to actively reduce stress in your mind so that your stress and anxiety levels disappear. Stress and anxiety will eat away at your mental and physical health unless you do something about it. Remember, you should have pictured an egg and only an egg ? practice this until your anxiety and stress are gone ? and all you see is an egg ? for just two minutes.