Anyone Stressed?

Well, I have been asking this very question in some of my recent events…

“Who is stressed”? Pretty much everyone present has smiled, with an “of course” bemused look, who isn’t? But, I ask “What do we mean?” Generally we reel off a whole list of reasons for our current state.

As the conversation progresses and we dig deeper into the ‘condition’, we find that, actually, we are anxious, angry, frustrated, jealous, tired, sad… So I ask again, what is ‘stress’?

My thinking on the matter has gone from “stress doesn’t exist” to “stress is one of our biggest killer diseases” to my current stance being, once again, that “stress does not exist”. ‘Stress’ has become a ‘disease’ in my lifetime. As I see it, it is a name that we have given to a whole variety of symptoms that don’t fit neatly into a more readily identifiable condition of say flu, mumps, measles, thrush or whatever. Yes, we are pretty good at naming things. One of the first things of course that happens when are born. Oh, you are Barbara, for instance, and Barbara soon gets labelled with a list of attributes – good at maths and sports, cannot sing or draw. And then, ultimately, we get attached to our labels. Still I say, “oh I’m useless at art”.

So again I say, for me the label ‘stress’ actually should not exist. Rather, I believe, people are suffering a variety of symptoms, or different ‘emotions’. Most of us, however, have decoupled our minds and bodies to the extent that we no longer feel the effects of energy in motion within us creating all sorts of waves and ripples to course around our bodies. Many of us live in a perplexed, paradoxical state, unsure if we are feeling lonely, for example, or rather that we just need to be alone. Clearly, whether it is the former or the latter that is true, requires us to take a quite different remedial action.

If I were forced to label humanity’s current condition, I would not name it ‘stress’. Rather, I would say that so many of us are suffering, in reality, from a broken heart. I’ll be expanding on this, and how to deal with it, in  a  future post.

Yes, I am optimistic. Many of us are waking up to our present condition and saying “Enough”. I believe that we are truly beginning to tune back into our bodies’ innate intelligence. And with these shifts going on inside of us, I can imagine a world where we don’t bombard our kids with definitive labels, where we all together sit down and mindfully tune in to what is actually happening within us. A world where we are all compassionate, with ourselves – important to begin with, until we are in a state to be truly compassionate towards others. I imagine a world where we are all safe and free, a world where people do not need to escape horrific conditions from some of the most naturally beautiful countries in the world. I imagine a world where we respect the amazing beings that we all are, that we respect our environment and take care of the limited resources that we have at our disposal.

To follow more of Barbara’s thoughts and travels try                                       Zanzibar                         Eid Mubarak               The Orange Walk                    Incredible India                            Compassion and Peace in Malta