Stress & The Human Condition
In this article I seek to raise awareness about stress as the underlying cause for many of the problems faced by almost every human being today and how we can individually dispel stress from our lives and collectively bring balance back into the world.
Before I talk about stress I want to talk about the human condition from the mind,body spirit perspective. If you see yourself as a brain and feel that neuroscience adequately explains the human condition or if you subscribe to the notion that you are a physical entity or that you are your thoughts then this article is not for you.
The human being is much more than his brain, his thoughts or his body. The human being is a complex of various aspects which I broadly label as physical,emotional,intellectual and spiritual. For any human being to feel fulfilled and be fully expressed then all aspects need to be allowed expression. In today’s world not all aspects are given the same status. Intelligence has been given special status and as a result the physical,emotion and spiritual aspects of our being have been relegated to positions of lesser and in some cases no importance.
The World places its Trust in Intelligence
The world today reflects society’s obsession with intelligence and though the evidence continues to point toward
a more balanced human expression the intellect continues to be hailed as God. There have never been more advances in medicine and still there have never been more people suffering with physical ill health. More people than ever before are suffering from psychosomatic illnesses and disease.
The family unit, which was once the foundation and blueprint for all our relationships, is under more strain now than ever before. People are choosing to leave relationships rather than seeing difficulties in relationships as the means by which we grow and develop emotionally and spiritually.
There is a marked rise in the feeling of apathy among people who are faced on a daily basis with images that no longer shock or touch our numbed emotions. We are like those inhabitants of Easter Island who had to have watched as they cut the last tree down and condemned their once rich society to oblivion. We too are standing by in a trance like state busying ourselves with routines that merely serve to distract us from our own contribution to the destruction of ourselves and our world.
Emotional & Spiritual Aspects are needed to Restore Balance
Stress, seen against the backdrop of the human condition I have described, takes on a more relevant meaning and one we can collectively claim responsibility for. Stress seen in these terms is an enormous problem that we each face everyday of our lives and it is so great a problem now that we are emotionally and spiritually unable to deal with it without some help.
The idea of taking responsibility for the destructive conditions we have collectively created for ourselves is a particularly hard pill to swallow but unless we can accept this responsibility for our part in this mess nothing will change. Our parents and their parents and their parents before them contributed to the notion that the way forward for humanity was to place all our trust in the intellect believing that man’s intelligence would get us happiness and even still as our world crumbles around us there those who still maintain that man’s intelligence will save the day.
The world is in the mess it is in today because we believed and continue to believe that our emotional and spiritual aspects are inferior to our intellect and we fail to nurture all aspects of ourselves in equal proportions.
As parents and teachers we continue to support an education system that is geared toward developing the intellect and preparing our children to make a living. As a result of this blatant disregard for the development of all aspects of the individual our children’s emotional intelligence is lacking. Without the necessary emotional and spiritual strength our children are ever increasingly turning to alcohol and drugs at a far earlier age to cope with the stresses of today’s life. These are the same children who are the future leaders of the world and the cycle continues.
Having gone to such lengths to explain the gravity of the problem facing us today I will now go on to explain the remedy because by each drop taking responsibility for its place in the ocean the tides naturally behave as they should. By each of us taking responsibility and acting in the now we can change everything.
Intellect
The intellect is as important as any other aspect of the human being no more or no less. Your intellect is a tool for you to use when appropriate. If you are not master in the house of your own mind then your mind behaves like a spoilt child who always wants his way. By taking charge and using the power of your mind as a tool rather than allowing yourself to be led by the nose by thoughts that are creating how you feel you are acting as opposed to reacting.
By dwelling on sad thoughts you will eventually make yourself feel sad. Sadness can easily become a habit if you allow your thoughts to lead you. Deliberately choosing to remember happy memories and dwelling on thoughts that make you feel happy is the way to dis-create sadness. Wouldn’t it be more intelligent to dwell on happy thoughts if you wish to feel happier?
We know more about the laws that govern the universe than we do about the laws that govern our own happiness. One of the basic laws of thought is that our thought affects our feeling and we attract into our world everything and everyone to attract more of these same feelings. So the happier you feel the more happiness you attract and the more happy thoughts you think to create even more happy feelings and the cycle continues until we start thinking the opposite.
The universe wants to give you everything you desire and the way the universe gauges what you want is by watching your thoughts and listening to your feelings. You have free will so why don’t you exercise it instead of allowing your mind to think what it likes or has grown used to thinking? It is you and you alone responsible for the way you feel and only you can change how you feel according to the law as I have described.
Body
Our bodies are a physical manifestation of how we feel about ourselves. If you feel good about yourself your body will tell that story by your state of health. The way you hold yourself, the way you stand and walk are messages being sent out about you and how you feel . Your physical aspect is constantly broadcasting your state of being to the world and the signals being broadcast are being received by people and circumstances on the same frequency as you.
Your body is constantly talking in a language subconsciously understood by everyone around you. By feeding your body balanced healthy food and drink it respond positively by looking and feeling well. If you abuse your body then it will look abused. Another law that is repeatedly ignored is the
connection between mind and body. When the mind commands and the body obeys so no matter how balanced your diet or how much you exercise if you see your self as unattractive, over weight, then that is what you will get.
Emotions
Many of us have been taught that it is weak to show our emotions. Hysteria has been associated with women who express emotions and men who show any emotion are seen as wimps. People feel uncomfortable around the expression of emotions. Everything is done to prevent someone from expressing emotion and not because of our concern for the upset person but more because of how uncomfortable we are made to feel.
We learn at a very early age what is socially acceptable and that is one of the main reasons why we bury feelings and develop neuroses that account for almost all of the psychosomatic illnesses in our world today. Dis-ease is our inability to maintain a state of inner balance for more than 50% of our waking life.
Spiritual
“That”
We are in perfect health when mind and body are in harmony and this is the most conducive condition for a human being to look within and find the answers to all of our questions. When we put the thinker of our thoughts, the I we think we are, under scrutiny we create space between our thoughts.
Eventually we experience the indescribable. There are no words to describe “that” as it is beyond knowledge, and the emotions. It is the experience of “that” which all religion and which all the sacred ancient texts points to. When you can raise your conscious awareness high enough and for long enough each day of your life then you are using the laws of your nature to create your happiness, dispelling stress not just for yourself but for all of humanity enabling yourself to be in a space to ask the most important question of all “Who am I?”.
Self-Hypnosis is a very effective way to learn how to direct our thoughts. By learning how to choose the thoughts to dwell upon we in effect are deciding how we want to feel. The feelings we create will in turn attract to us all the people and circumstances to create more of these feelings. I have created a very powerful audio file that you can download from our website to teach yourself the art of Self-Hypnosis.
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The audio is called “ How to Hypnotise Yourself ” and can be purchased and downloaded from our Setanta Clinic website Shop it is in MP3 format and can be burnt to CD or copied to your iPod or MP3 player. Regularly playing the audio allows you to reclaim your freedom to choose what to think and feel.
