Blessed to be stressed.

You're stressed. I can tell. I can tell in the tone of your voice and the way you hold your body. You carry it on your shoulders and in your posture. Don't worry, you still look marvelous, but there is no escaping the stress I see. But why are you stressed? 

Is your schedule overwhelming? 

Are you trying to put out fires left and right? 

Are you trying to juggle the lifestyle you want with the lifestyle you have? 

Hey, it's all understandable. 

The drive and strength that possess is rather admirable, but your lack of effienciency is yet to be desired. 

Stress is created in our mind. Our cortisol levels rise and we reach for things that ease us. Short and pleasurable things. Sugary substances. Small screen distractions. It's the constant escape from ( you guessed it ) the present moment. 

It's there. Oh it's there. Always there. You may visit it couple times of day, and retreat to the monkey mind that so consumes your perception of existence. We are running a primitive software on our brains that is trying to cope with the modern rat race. How can we upgrade? 

Well, that's not really the point.

The point is is that you let yourself he stressed. You confuse it for working hard don't you? You confuse it with things like "being busy" " achieving goals" and "hustling". You think by disciplining yourself into a rigid mindset, you can achieve new heights and reward your pleasure and accomplishment centers. 

Sure, some stress can be good. Let's flip the coin. Create a new way of integrating the stress into our life. Not the hamster on caffeine on the wheel stress, but the stress that has made you ( whether you are conscious or not ) who you are today. 

Humans adapt quite well to challenging environments. They thrive with cooperation, competition and the challenge to overcome physical and mental hurdles. A majority of stress comes from the irritability of the Amygdala ( flight or fight response) and the pre frontal cortex ( the ability to reason/ empathy). All in all it is literally chemical reactions in our heads that are felt through our entire bodies. Our stress bodies. Those stress bodies will take any chance they get to use us as hosts. As flesh suits to accomplish their manic and unconscious actions and ramblings. It's really quite amazing.

When you say you are stressed, what are you really saying? You are describing how you feel in a sense, but you are really clinging to a sense of identity. It is not you who is stressed. It is the ego taking over your consciousness. You simply feel stress and embody it. It is almost a surrendering and yielding to a rather obnoxious scapegoat. Do you get what I am saying? 

Stress doesn't happen to you. It happens for you. Let us elaborate. 

Stress is there to make you more conscious yet we see it as a hindrance. We try to drown it with drink, block it with food, distract it with sex and so on. It becomes more stressful for us when we try to resist stress! Don't you see it?  It is the pain/ pleasure paradigm! It is the vicious cycle of us repeating compulsive behaviors in order to get into a desired state. It is the yin and yang so to speak. 

We say to ourselves.

" I hate being stressed. I want to escape it. I want to release it. I do not want to experience this stress for it is such a burden and inconvenience ." 

Sound familiar ?

We never let us consciously experience stress. Feel it for its all. Feel the power it has over us. When we resist it, it persists. We swat at it as if it is a fly and then hours later, 2 or 3 more flies come. Then we try to reach for a bigger swatter and become more irritated. See the compulsive cycle ? See the insanity? 

It matters when we see it and how we see it. Once we become conscious of stress arising, we can simply appreciate it. We can see it as a valuable teacher. Welcoming it and not pushing it away. We can say "hello!". We can offer it tea and biscuits in our prefrontal cortex. It is that welcoming of our stress demons that makes us grow. Makes us be kind to ourselves. We can simply say..

"I am feeling stressed and I am ok with that." 

Thank you stress for allowing me to reawaken in the moment. Thank you stress for allowing me to return back to my center. To breathe. To accept with ease. To simply relax. 

What at amazing opportunity, stress offers us. We can still turn to healthy alternatives. We can offer our physiology instead of thinking ourselves out of

Stress. ( that never works ). Get movin!  Even for a minute, then reflect back inward and feel what your stress feels like now. Is it less intense? Is it more intense? Don't be so quick to try to get rid of it. Just recognize and be present. 

When you are present for yourself, you can radiate that presence to the people around you. They will jive with your vibe. Then you can see the stress levels melt and the bodies relax. All in all. When it benefits you, it benefits others. 

Although it may be hard to realize and say at the end of the day, but you are so Blessed to be Stressed. 

DG