The Emphasis on Stress is Stressing Us Out:
Find The Ease and Answers You are Looking For
Stress. When just seeing the word, I sense the stress and panic jumping out of it. Why is that?
Maybe because stress is blamed for hypertension, heart attacks, and arrhythmia. It is blamed for inflammation in the blood vessels, shocking the nerves, and for a zillion other problems in the body. Stress is blamed for disturbing our peace of mind and for breaking up relationships. Work stress is blamed for making us tired and emotionally worn out. Life stress is held responsible for making us unhappy and giving us panic attacks. When it comes down to it, I cannot think of something problematic for which stress is not blamed.
Is stress really the cause of so many problems such that we take as many potshots at it as we can to blame it for all our troubles? Is stress the bane of our existence? Or are we misaiming our attention when it comes to discovering how we might live in our natural states of joy and relaxation?
Stress is not the real problem. It is the blaming that is. Blaming makes us powerless because we are holding something outside of our Selves accountable for difficulties with our well-being. As soon as we give the power away to stress, we are stuck with it. It has us in its grip. It becomes more powerful than us, something to dread, something we will never ever get over, something that will never let us go. Doomed.
When we get into blaming the stress itself for our problems, we are telling ourselves that we cannot do anything to respond to our life situations. “Stress” then becomes an almighty big-toothed monster that will chase us down and eat us alive and our loved ones with it. The more we blame stress, the bigger the monster grows, until it is as enormous as as a balloon figure that we see at the Macy’s Day Parade, looming over us, filling our eyes and ears, haunting us.
To shift out of stress, first simply discontinue blaming it. This stops the stress balloon in its tracks. Done. Then take a full deep breath and let it go. This lets the wind out of the overwhelming tension balloon.
Then take the issue that is before you and put it on your dining room table. Sit with it. Take a really good look at it. Get up from the table and look at from all angles, from this way and that way, even from under the table. Yes, get on your hands and knees and see what’s under it all. Nothing to be ashamed of here.
Ask the issue questions. Listen. Expand your sense of it. Have some nice food with it. Light a candle with it. Craft it into a box and draw and color on it. Play music to it. Make love with it. Turn it into a rubber duck and jump into the bath with it. Show it who you are in all your innocence, like a little kid. This is something we are all capable of doing.
If fear and stress creep in again, breath and just let them go. Allow them to move on, rather than trying to push them away or war with them. See them go up in the flames of the candle. Shake your booty at them. Crank the tunes up and shake it again. See the dread and tension go down the drain of the tub. They will leave because you let them and were no longer addicted to hanging on to them. You gave them the space they needed to leave. They are not bad, they are just not serving you.
In giving time to observe the issue that has stressed you, new awareness will come to you about it. Even new possibilities about it. Rather than fixate on the issue, let it become ever part of a larger and larger and larger picture. This gives it context and gives you a much vaster perspective of things. The problem becomes something seen in its perfection because something wonderfully big is happening. Resolution comes in creative ways. Be ready for surprises. You might find them under the table.
You’ve got your power back now. The issue is resolved. Celebrate and dance! Decorate your head with whip cream. Hang ten over the edge of that dining room table and let yourself sing, “Bring on the next issue. I don’t want to miss another good time!”
Copyrighted 2011 by Ken Robinson. All rights reserved.
www.eraoftheheart.com
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