Stress. The most common word we use to express our difficult state of mind. But do we ever stop and think that maybe the situation is not as stressful as my mind is making it to be. Do we ever try to go to the root of that stressful feeling?
Most likely, no! Not because we don’t want to, but because we are too caught up in the loop of life that it doesn’t occur to us to calm down and fix the stress.
Reasons of stress
So let’s take a look at why we feel stressed almost most of the time. Please find the one which you relate to the most:
1. We are stuck in our painful past and can’t seem to let go of it.
2. We are worrying about the future and getting anxious about making it perfect.
3. We are interpreting a situation through the lens of our experience and personality and realizing that it’s a hurtful/negative/stressful/difficult situation.
4. We can’t make sense of how we feel or why do we feel sad/empty/angry/anxious most of the time for a reason we can’t seem to figure out.
5. We are going through financial troubles and see no way to get out of them.
6. We went through a heartbreak/divorce or having difficulty maintaining cordial happy equation with family or any of friends.
7. We have suffered the loss of a loved one and we don’t know how to cope up with it.
8. It could be any other personal/professional reason which is not listed here.
So, after identifying your reason and looking at the list, I am sure you can observe that most of the reasons (except financial troubles) relate to our own mind and way of dealing with things. Right?
So do you see any possibility that if we work on our mindset and go deeper into exploring our feelings, maybe we can eliminate some amount of stress?
Claim the power within you
The reason why I am probing you with these questions is to tell you that we all have that ability/power within us to transform our lives and make it better. We are not a victim of our circumstances, at least in most cases. It’s the mind which keeps us in a constant state of stress with its endless chatter. The mind, which we are supposed to use to make our life better, has started using us to make it worse.
Now you might wonder “but I am my mind”. And that’s the lie which has plagued the world and filled our lives with this dreaded ‘stress’.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR MIND. Your mind is a tool given to you to survive on this earth and handle your existential needs. WHO YOU REALLY ARE IS THE ENERGY WHICH CAN OBSERVE YOUR MIND IF YOU STOP TO LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE THINKING.
Some of you can see the spiritual angle. But for those of you who can’t, who we really are is OUR SOUL. And that soul is a part/piece of the bigger energy which surrounds all of us. You may call the bigger energy Universe/God/Source or anything else. And that energy is already filled with all the love, abundance & joy we go on seeking. Which means that YOU ARE all the love, abundance and joy you seek outside of yourself. In simpler words, you don’t need anything outside of you to make you happy. That “next thing” which will make you happy is an illusion.
Of course we are supposed to have loving relationships in life, live a rich comfortable life and serve others in some way to make a living and fulfill ourselves. But if you are always chasing these things to feel happy, you will never be truly happy. Because real happiness comes with being at peace with yourself.
Let’s come back to how the mind creates the stress. The mind keeps us in the past or the future while THE ULTIMATE TRUTH IS THE PRESENT MOMENT.
The present moment is all we ever have. The present moment is life. And though it’s not an easy thing to do, but once we embrace this truth and learn the art of mindfulness i.e. staying present, life becomes a lot easier.
Secondly, the mind is gripped with a lot of fears, limiting beliefs, insecurities and perceptions which shape our reality and experiences. The mind generates thoughts and feelings based on these, which ultimately affects our actions and results in life.
But like I said, we do have the power to not let our mind rules our lives in a negative way. Once we learn to understand ourselves at a deeper level and start aligning with our soul, our life turns around to fill us with love, abundance and happiness.
And the stress? It starts coming and going, because we learn to manage it better and learn the lessons it came to teach us. And we no longer stay constantly stressed 🙂