Whereas the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, and Health Resource Network have declared the month of April 2017 as National Stress Awareness Month; Whereas three-fourths of employees believe the worker has more on-the-job stress than a generation ago; Whereas stress can be brought about by a sudden negative change such as losing a job, divorce, illness, or traumatic event in which one may be seriously hurt or in danger of being killed; Whereas the Secretary of Veterans Affairs reports that of veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn who are receiving health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 570,000 have received a diagnosis for at least 1 mental health disorder; Whereas a recent survey by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA, found that incoming students in 2014 possessed the lowest self-rated emotional health in 49 years since the survey began; Whereas the physical effects of stress can start out as a simple headache or digestive problem, evidence gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that it can escalate to serious cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders; Whereas research shows that long-term exposure to stress creates an imbalance in grey and white matter in the brain, leading to decreased cognitive function; Whereas among workers who report higher levels of stress, on average they miss 20 days of work and necessitate 50-percent higher health care costs compared with other workers; Whereas separate studies done through UCLA and the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation, and the University of Oregon have showed that 12 minutes a day of meditation can have strong positive effects on reducing stress and lowering cortisol levels that affect memory function