Self Improvement

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Dealing With Stress and Anxiety   By R.E. Darby


Stress and anxiety have become a major problem that effects us all. Can the solution actually be simple? It is only recently that we have begun to realize the extent of the threat that stress and anxiety represent to all of us. Ironically, the very powers that make us great, if uncontrolled, can destroy us.


Understanding the Problem


Sometimes understanding the problem reveals a great deal about possible solutions. Whether we believe that stress and anxiety are two different things or two parts of one thing, it appears that the sourceof both is the same. As difficult as it may be to accept, our own minds are the culprit.

This is both good news and bad news. Good news to the extent that if the problem stems from our own minds, then we should be able to fix it. Bad news because few Humans have the awareness and or the ability to control the thoughts produced by their own mind. The reason is that this is not now, nor has it ever been a high priority item on any educational agenda.

But regardless of why, the fact remains, that our own thoughts are the wellspring from which all that we experience arises. They are the tools that we as the architects of our lives use to create ourselves each moment in time. Tools however can be used to build or destroy depending on the level of knowledge, understanding and awareness of the architect.

Symptoms


We are a society obsessed with symptoms, and one big reason for this of course, is that treating symptoms is big business, whereas solving the underlying causes is like shooting oneself in the foot, at least from a business standpoint. It is in the best interest of business to overcomplicate things and stress and anxiety are good examples of this strategy.

Think about the impact on the medical and pharmaceutical industries if suddenly people got the idea that stress and anxiety could be solved easily. Those industries would waste no time or spare no expense in discrediting the source of such an idea and we all know it, yet we still go about acting as if we don't know it, why?


I Love My Stress and Anxiety


Although few of us will come right out and admit it, we use our stress and anxiety as our excuses and justifications for avoiding our personal responsibilities. Not the least of which might be the responsibility to achieve and maintain an appropriate level of self awareness and self discipline. Which of course, would preclude the use of stress and anxiety as an avoidance strategy, as well as many other strategies designed to help us avoid facing the truths about ourselves.

Judging and or criticizing ourselves for this is not constructive, especially in view of the fact that so few of us have had any training or education that might help us in matters involving our core beliefs and the scripts and stories that determine much of our behavior, and indeed, sometimes how we live our whole lives.


The Nuts and Bolts


The fact remains that our thoughts create our conditions. If our dominant thoughts are about meeting standards or deadlines, or they are about expectations, reasonable or not, or they are judgmental or critical thoughts, then our bodies respond in physical ways that set up muscle tensions in certain muscle groups that correspond to the emotional responses to those thoughts.

Many of these thoughts are habitual thought patterns that we have been thinking for so long that we simply are no longer aware of them at all. We are no longer aware of the emotions, or the muscle tension.

Ironically, it is that very muscle tension that provides us with a kind of back door into recovering our awareness of those thoughts and emotions. There is a certain way of meditating that allows us to become aware of the muscle tensions, and once we become aware of them, the thoughts that created them begin to emerge also.

Since we create our stress and anxiety with the thoughts of our undisciplined mind, it stands to reason that we can eliminate them by developing disciplined thinking habits such as those you will find if you look into learning critical thinking skills.

Of course, this is not the easy solution, but it is the best if you want long term results and acquire some useful skills that can be used in other areas of life.

Medication or Meditation


As always, the truth for each of us, will depend on the amount of strength we have to achieve a level of awareness that reveals the true nature of reality. And the truth here is that stress, anxiety, depression and other so called illnesses are only effects caused by our own undisciplined minds. Depression has already been revealed to be the result of a habitual focus on the negative pessimistic interpretation of events in our lives. A simple problem of perspective.

If you just can't believe in anything unless it costs a fortune, then you will go with the illness paradigm and end up paying that fortune for medications. But if you're willing to break out of your socially conditioned reflexive mindset, you might want to go with the difficult but lasting solution, the foundation of which is meditation along with a few other techniques.

While these are far more difficult to achieve than shelling out our money for meds, the benefits go far beyond the simple act of ridding us of stress and anxiety. These have the potential to set us free from all the chains with which we have enslaved ourselves. Not the least of which might be fear, the child of ignorance or the inability to understand the knowledge we possess.


Talking To The Self


The basic problem underlying stress, anxiety and other conditions is the uncontrolled mind. If we don't manage our thoughts, our thoughts will manage us. We are either the master of our power or the victim of our power. And choice is the only difference.

Meditation is the entrance, the key to self awareness, which will open up door after door to realities undreamed of. Self awareness requires mental discipline, and mental discipline is the result of learning how to meditate, and this is the beginning of the journey.

However, the Human life form has a secret mystery power available to us, and it is an awesome resource! This power is generally known by the symbol 'subconscious mind', and has traditionally been associated exclusively with the monitoring and maintenance of our autonomic systems, that is; breathing, heartbeat, balance etc.

But recently science has been exploring the idea that this capability represents far more than we originally believed. But science is sometimes a little behind current reality and this is one of those times. People have been developing ways to use the subconscious mind as a tool for decades.

The most powerful tools used today for self change and personal development are affirmations, visualization, suggestion and meditation. When these are used in conjunction with our work with the subconscious mind, the potential is absolutely unlimited.

Learning how to work with our subconscious mind is like learning how to talk to ourselves in extremely meaningful ways. This means that when we give our subconscious mind an instruction through thought, those thoughts must have the power and intensity of our emotions behind them. This is not like using our rational mind where emotions are not appropriate, the subconscious mind only responds to intensely powerful thoughts.

We are not even sure if there is any limit to the power that these tools and capabilities represent. Currently our vision is limited by our lack of knowledge and understanding, we are still standing at the entrance looking with wonder, at infinite possibilities.


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