All of us have experienced stress at some point in our lives. Actually, stress visits everyone, independent of their age, gender, environment, nationality or religious background.
When we understand the ways in which stress manifests, we can boost and protect ourselves from it in the same way that we protect our physical health from different diseases.
Stress is merely a sign of pain, a symptom to notice right from the beginning if we wish to progress spiritually. We can cultivate spiritual antibodies and remove the seeds of stress as long as we maintain the understanding that stress is not something natural or normal.
We have come to consider it as normal, simply because as time passed by, we became exposed to more and more pain and so trained the self to accept the presence of stress and thus compromise our original peace. And now, we spend time wishing it away and planning how to remove it. We try to relax, go on holiday or as this usually does not take the pain away for long, we try ever more complicated means of reducing the stress. By thinking that the solution lies somewhere outside of us, and finding that whatever we try does not work, the soul becomes disoriented and dispirited.
When we deal with our physical health, we acquire knowledge for an effective treatment or solution, and then apply it. It is vital to understand what is causing the prob-lem, to be able prescribe the proper medicine. In the same way, internally, we need to acquire knowledge of our true identity, how the self operates and find the way back to optimum spiritual health.
The soul works on thoughts. If we have negative, critical thoughts of the self or others, we must find a way to change them, or we will continue to feel distressed. Or worse, we will try to justify our negativity and not recognise what our unhelpful thought patterns are causing. We will consider our worry to be just caring, or our anx-iety as only enquiry, our doubt as though it were simply exploration, or that the stress we are feeling is necessary in order to succeed in the world.
However, when we understand that the soul is intrinsically peaceful, full of love and joy, we can, by meditation and changing our attitude towards the self and others, begin to reduce and eliminate stress in a radical way. When we give instead of taking, and when we build up a reservoir of powerful mental energy, we become focused and filled with clarity about what to say and what to do. The time we spend in silence is a valuable investment which pays dividends in so many untold and unimagined ways. For a life well lived, free of stress and anxiety, it is an essential prerequisite.
BK Maria is an Olympian, and works as an architect. She is a member of the National Coordinating Team of the Brahma Kumaris in Greece.