Stress Management

Now-a-days everybody is in stress, and tension. Those who have less money ,they have their problems,
struggle and stress. Those who have more money they have their own problems and stress, probably
more .In today’s competitive world everybody is in tremendous problems and stress including school
going and college going students. The problem is more severe in the professional and the corporate
world. Many people have achieved a lot in life, but remain in stress and different types of mental pain.
When there is no peace of mind and happiness in life, there is no meaning for other achievements .
In short we can say, almost all are living in state of severe mental stress . Stress means absence of
mental peace and happiness. Higher level of education or position does not help. Medical science has
concluded that, most of the illnesses are result of mental stress. At the same time everyone has deep
urge for achieving peace, happiness and good health in life. To achieve this goal ,most of us resort to
activities like exercises, yoga, pranayams, …. seeking guidance of gurus, read self help books, visiting
religious places, observing penance.etc..etc…and the list goes on…
Many people are will willing to spend any amount of money or time to achieve this goal of stress free
life ,thereby peace of mind and happiness.
Still we remain not fully satisfied and stress free …..what to do ?
Let us have a closer look .
What do we really want to achieve ?
Can we sum up our goal in life like this ?
The goal of our life is stress free , healthy , peaceful , happy life , without worries of the past, without
anxieties of the future life.
I am sure everybody will agree , and ask , BUT HOW TO ACHIEVE IT ? .

Relevant question.
Have you seen anybody in the world with all these qualities ?,
Think about it. Some will say , yes some spiritual gurus, some enlightened persons…etc.
Correct,there may be very few people in the world .But you forget one important truth ….when you
were a child you had all these qualities, of course!
When we were children we all had a Stress free , healthy , peaceful , playful, without worries of the past,
without anxieties of the future when our basic needs were met.
You will not accept it fully and different apprehensions rise , like it was childhood , there was no
problem in childhood etc…etc. This is nothing but resistance of the mind to accept change or something
new……..
Let us see how did we complicate our life and create stress in life ??…..
Let us understand what the stress is all about ?
Stress is a negative and harmful mental state due to our inability to cope up with a situation.
Why it happens?
Because the situation is not as per our expectation, means there is a conflict between your expectation
and the given situation. It means that the problem is your expectation which most of us are not aware
of. It shows that your mind has strong expectation from every situation. In other words stress is due to
resistance or non acceptance of situation which you do not like. Given situation is reality. Resisting or
non acceptance of reality is nothing but unconsciousness or foolishness.
If the unfavourable situation can be avoid , do it. If not, the only option available is to accept it and face
it and face it rationally. This higher awareness will help us to face situations rationally without creating
stress.
Let us see some examples.
An employed person may say…Stress is due to work pressure .A student may say stress is due to exams.
We always attribute reason of stress to a particular situation.
Is it correct ? Most of us think it is correct, but the truth is attributing reason is wrong. We will see the
truth closely.
For example , whether all the 50 students in a class having the exams will have same level of stress ?Or
All executives having same situation will have same level of stress ?The answer is no, the stress level
varies. I have seen certain students going for movie ,the day before exam and perform well in exams.
Similarly the stress level varies among adults in the same situation- some people like even challenging
assignments in life. Now we become aware of the truth that the stress is not due to any reason or
situation but because of our nature . Same situation may be stressful one , and not stressful for another.
This fundamental awareness is the first level of awareness we should have to come out of stress in life.
Now what is our nature ?

Our nature depends on our perceptions. Our perceptions are developed from the way we interpreted
life situations from our childhood onwards. In the absence of proper awareness, we learned to perceive
different life situations as threatening and to face it with emotional reaction like fear, anxiety and stress.
The sum total of these perceptions become a major portion of our self image or personality and
therefore, stressful pattern of life becomes common and a routine experience in life.
For example , most of our stress is due to wrong perception about past and future .ie., we have lot of
worries of the past and anxiety of the future.
This again, is due to the absence of proper awareness. We are not stressful about the present moment
or situation which is only reality. Worry or stress is about past experience or future anxiety.With a
higher level of awareness you will realise that the past and future are not existing and unreal . The only
option available is to do whatever is best possible now. Our emotional reaction to something not
existing and unreal is only creating stress which is nothing but again unconsciousness or foolishness.
Again take the example of the exam of a stressed student . Exam is a future event ……may be he had bad
past experience of poor result which is past. Of course, past information or result we can use for future
planning .What is real is the present moment and we can do planning now and use the present moment
in a best possible way which is the one and only thing he can do. The fact is stress reduces the
performance and result and worsen the situation and future result.
Again, due to wrong perception about self, life ,world, others, goals of life ,in other wards, in the
absence of proper awareness , people follow wrong approaches in facing life situations.
For the sake of easy understanding let me put in simple example.
Some want to bite something bigger than their mouth. Some wants to carry more weight than his
capacity .Somebody who is here and now wants to in another place at the same time !
Somebody wants to do more than one thing at a time , that too without priority.
We know all these types of activities are due to lack of awareness or foolishness. Many people are in
stress only due to negative thoughts and feelings of the mind like jealousy with others, need for
projection or show off before others etc.,
In short we are creating stress in our life due to unconsciousness or lack of proper awareness.
Neuroscience says we are naturally wired to be in bliss, meaning our original nature of our brain, and its
synaptical connections are structured to experience happiness in life. We have seen that if necessities
are available children are in a happy and playful mood always. Everybody has the birth right to be stress
free and happy in life.
What happened when grew up ? we complicated the life, with wrong perceptions, gradually lost our
natural qualities and developed a false image and emotional mind which block our original positive and
natural qualities.
Neuroscience also tells us about a unique quality of our brain called neuroplasticity which means the
brain and its synapses can change its structure as per our experiences. Due to repeated practice and
experience of emotional reactions, corresponding changes happened in the structure of our brain. This
creates a tendency to repeat or perpetuate the same cycle stress in life situations .

But there is a ray of hope .Recent researches show that higher levels of awareness we can change the
perception and positive experiences and it can effect changes in the brain . This will pave way for
positive and permanent transformation.
This will help us to regain our original qualities to lead a happy and a peaceful life, to regain the paradise
lost and lead a happy and healthy life -a stress free life.