Stress and Gravity - How to Approach them Wisely ?

Many times people who become interested in mindfulness and meditation are looking for to find a cure for stress in their lives. Some even think that sitting quiet for 10 minutes will be the "newly found solution" for daily stress. Later, seeing no results, they get upset and stressed how could they have believed another 'magical cure'?

Would it work if you were looking for a cure for gravity, and hold tight to rope on an icy mountain pass? Maybe for some time, but simultaneously you could have dropped your mitt into the snow, gravity won again.

Stress is a part of daily life. Our body receives stressors from outside (cold, smell, etc) and from inside, our mind. These from "inside" come in the form of a nagging thought, rethinking our responses, or worrying about our future situation, or our children or relatives. Whether we like it or not, internal stressors will be there for as long as we are around. There will always be people worrying about raining tomorrow, or having to talk to some they dislike.

Our body is equipped with a powerful stress response, it has been with us for a long time.

We go through three stages, alarm, resistance and finally exhaustion. To arm us with tools we receive "injection" of adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine, and they add fuel to the fire.

If we are constantly stressed, a period of "chronic elevated stress levels", increased level of the above hormones is very dangerous to your health, so you can "really worry yourself sick". The worst thing is, it still rained and the things we were worrying about did not materialize.

So, what can you do, telling yourself, "do not worry, it will be OK" will not really solve the problem. Our minds have a mind of our own. They do not listen to wise advice.

They bring you the worst-case scenarios of your thoughts over, and over again. Here the stress acts very much like gravity, you cannot tell gravity to go away and not slip on an icy road. You need to have techniques and be aware of the slippery ground. You have no choice, but to accept the gravity as a part of your life.

The same response to stress is very helpful. At first, you need to recognize the signs of stress. Then you need to accept the situation as a part of your daily life. You need to reach into the tools you have to deal with stress and continue with your life. You learn those, you sometimes fail, and then you repeat and fall less. It resembles a situation of a baby learning to walk, with stretched arms and wobbly body. And when the baby falls, you encourage the little being by saying, "just try again, you can do it ".

There is a special mindfulness tool (procedure) that allows you to "start walking" and work on your stress. In my mindfulness session entitled RAIN I will share it with you.