Being clear about the reason why we are doing what we are doing is the secret to living a stress free life.
Searching in the wrong place
“How to stop stressing” has been a quest for human beings for ages. If one drops a key in one place and searches for it in another place, they will never find it. Modern methods offering solutions to stop stress are similar to this. They have us looking in one direction, when what we’re looking for is somewhere else.
Stressing on anything including meditation leads to stress
Because it doesn’t address the root problem, the solution that is offered can become one more stressor. For example, in any given day, thousands of people are stressed about not having done their meditation routine for the day. Why does one do meditation? To be stress free. And if they meditated they would be. But, is that the case here? No.
A human being is many layered
A human being has many bodies. The “physical” body just being one of them. The others are:
- “pranic” body in which the air circulation happens,
- “mental” body where inner chatter takes place,
- “emotional” body that stores emotions,
- “causal” body in which we rest when we are in deep sleep,
- “joy” body where we experience joy once in awhile in our lives and
- “bliss” body that is untouched and uncorrupted by any of the other layers.
The physical body stores patterns of tiredness; the pranic body stores desires; the mental body stores patterns such as judgement etc; and emotions such as fear and worry get stored in the emotional layer.
The Root of Stress
Stress is experienced during the waking state and is a function of lack of alignment between the physical, pranic, mental and emotional bodies. No stress is experienced in deep sleep because these bodies are not active in the deep sleep layer of the causal body. The secret to stress free living is to align these four bodies in the waking state as it happens during the deep sleep state.
What can help me align the different bodies?
The technique that can help us align the different bodies is to find out and be clear about the reason behind why we are doing what we are doing for each day to day activity in our lives. Let us take a very simple example of brushing one’s teeth. The technique to be clear is found out by asking questions such as “Why is brushing my teeth important?”, “What will happen if I don’t brush my teeth?”. Answer could be, ‘this impacts my health and bad breath will cause discomfort to me and people around me’. This shows that “health” and “relationships” are important concerns in life. Being clear that brushing teeth fulfils the concerns of health and relationships will help settle the physical body, other desires will not show up, the mental body will not ask “why are you doing this?”, and there is no reason to have a worry about doing that task at that point in time.
Choicelessness is the Key
Having clarity about every task that is done in a day or required to be performed in a day, creates the inner space of being aware and restful. We can term this – “choicelessness”.
In such a space, the will of the cosmos operates. Any action done from the space of “choicelessness” even if it is as simple as moving a hand is a technique for stress free living.
Practice
Develop more clarity in your own life. Ask yourself, “Is each thing I’m doing directly leading me to my goal in life”. Start with even the very basic tasks like:
1. Brushing teeth
2. Taking bath
3. Having food
4. Lying down
5. Going to sleep
If it is not directly leading to your goal, can anything be done to bring it into alignment with your purpose? Slowly, increase the set of tasks for which you are clear about, and live stress free through the day. Do everything consciously, with a clear understanding and commitment of how to align the activities with your purpose.
It is not the action that makes us stress free. It is our clear understanding of the reason for what we are doing and aligning ourselves with that reason. Conflicting and contradictory desires add to our stress. When we sit and analyze what we want and why, then we can get clarity about what is really important to us. This helps us to take action with purpose. This relieves our stress.
Make a list of all the activities you do in a day. Iron out your reasons and then mindfully do each task in a celebratory way, knowing that you have chosen the activity as part of your larger vision for your life. Celebrate life! Be blissful!
See other Satsangs at http://youtube.com/lifeblissfoundation
