There are many useful techniques that you can do to free yourself of stress while making your life more fulfilling, but first I would like to introduce an idea that I think will help you to free yourself from a great of unnecessary burden that you may be carrying around.
Stress is not your fault.
Human beings are built to get up with the sun, hunt or farm all day, and eat food that comes DIRECTLY from the Earth, forest or water, and when the sun goes down either fall directly to sleep, be intimate with their mates or listen to an elder recite the same old stories around the bonfire, and go to sleep knowing that the tools that worked last year are the same tools that are going to work next year. This is what the human body and mind has adapted to over millions of years.
Humans have not adapted to the modern lifestyle. The human lifestyle has changed more in the last decade that it had over a prehistoric millienium. All this massive change in our environment and what we need to know and buy in order to keep up in this world is something that humans have never had to deal with before on such a scale.
Of course we’re stressed. Of course our backs ache! Our bodies were built to climb trees and scurry around on the ground for edible bugs! But instead we sit inside all day in chairs… Our sense evolved out of the need to sense danger and weather and the coming of new seasons, but we drug our senses with whatever images and noises can distract us.
No wonder our kids have ADD. No wonder we’re rude to each other as we drive home from work. We are not living in a natural world! We are fish out of water!
My point is not that we need to do whatever it takes to recover a more natural lifestyle (though that IS a good idea). My point is:
There is no reason at all for you to take your stress personally. You are not to blame for the things you do to cope. The stress in your life is, from this perspective, not your fault.
And on the other hand… your mind and your imagination and your body are truly amazing. While tension and discomfort are quite normal responses to the world we live in, you the ability, the response-ability, the ability to respond in a way that is better for your body, mind, family, community…
The stress and moments where you were less-than-graceful in the past are not your fault. But you have the power to rise yourself above it and live your life with a tranquil, generous and happy heart.
In the next article, we’ll get started with some specific techniques on how… for now, just enjoy knowing that you have the power to transcend what the environment has given to all of us.