Over at a facebook group I'm a part of, someone asked the question "How do you keep stress at bay?" My answer is somewhat condensed, and can be applied numerous ways.

I replied "You are not that which is stressed. It is your mind which is stressed and affecting your emotional and material bodies."

By changing how we view a given thing, we are able to disconnect from unhelpful thoughts and feelings which then helps our bodies relax. By focusing our mind on the parts of our body which are holding the stress, we can relieve that physical tension through simply relaxing and breathing and loving and remembering we don't have to hold on to "being stressed."

I continued "Stress is a natural reaction, but unhelpful. As we remember that "being stressed" is not helping us relieve our stress, and examine the cause of the stress, we learn to view that source from a more helpful angle."

This is where we deal with one of the four afflictions of the mind hardwired into us all. That affliction is "the mind suffering over its own suffering." Once we have established a pattern of "being stressed over being stressed" then we must undo that pattern. If we are stressed and do not want to feel that way, then we have to break whatever in us is attached to "being stressed." That requires a plan to deal with the source of the stress.

I offered "If we can change the source to decrease the stress, then do that. If we cannot change the source to decrease the stress, then we must ask ourselves why we are unable to effect positive change. That opens ten thousand possible doors of understanding why we are where we are and why we respond to everything in the ways we do."

This challenges us to rise to the occasion of our own relief. This is when "physician, heal thyself" is the dictum guiding the care plan. First we examine the cause of the stress. The cause of almost everything which stresses us can be addressed and if not totally "healed," then at least we can find coping skills to deal with what we have to do to decrease the stress (which isn't helping us get the job done in any case!) We can usually effect more change than we think before we actually try to effect change. Finding the "right action" to relieve our stress is a worthy change to pursue!

However, there are countless situations where we are unable to effect changes which can relieve our stress. Those are times when we confront our inability or resistance to change. If we are in a situation which is stressing us, why can't we effect positive change? No one is supposed to live enslaved to sources of suffering. If we can't decrease our stress, we have to ask why we have given up our power over our own stress. As offered above, that opens countless doors of understanding and self-awareness about why we have chosen what we've chosen and why we want to remain in a stressful situation we seem unable to change or improve. Of course we come to painful revelations, but they are the gateway to personal power and the ability to transcend limitations we no longer need.

I explain many things about how we can take command of our personalities and become our highest, best Self in my work Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Once we understand the wisdom we have and the wisdom we are learning, then we can greet each challenge with a degree of detachment, dispassion, discernment, and a genuine "will to good" to bring the best out of each circumstance. We may not be able to decrease all of the stress of being human, but we certainly can learn skills to detach from stress and have the best time we can with the time we have on Earth! And that's a very good thing....

If you're feeling stress, breathe into that part of your body, remembering you are an eternally loving wise intelligence learning how to be a Soul/Spirit having a human experience. Let go of the stress, and you'll learn how to let go of the stress. You are not that which "is stressed."

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

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