Stress
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Stress
What's the best way to handle stress, in your experience?
Re: Stress
Attention to the breath.
Analyse the cause of stress - often it occurs because of a less helpful mindset.
Accept it simply. Sometimes it's time for stress, another time there will be boredom.
Analyse the cause of stress - often it occurs because of a less helpful mindset.
Accept it simply. Sometimes it's time for stress, another time there will be boredom.
- Kim O'Hara
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Re: Stress
Kim
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Re: Stress
Excellent suggestions... This is not a handy hold but- I must say- the body succumbs, and we are exhausted and often renewed. That said, take heart in coping measures where necessary.
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Re: Stress
Seriously, don't frustrate (Buddhas) who are trying to help you. how entertainig is that?
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Re: Stress
From the spiritual standpoints there are a few things which help me cope with stress:
1. Emptiness: everything in our life is tainted with conceptuality, that is, we give label to things which are ultimately devoid or 'empty' of any concept. Our experience of the world is guided by the culture we live in and which influences us. For eg, all relations and even our name is provided by the society! Secondly, one person may call a job loss 'a great miserable event' while another may give it the label of 'a new opportunity to pursue ones hobby'. Since, the world as we know it, is empty of concepts, and is guided by the man made culture, it doesn't make any sense to get stressed at things. REALISING that the things as we perceive them are just concepts and not the reality, the mind is automatically prevented from living in the 'past' or the 'future' and automatically brings itself to the present awareness.
2. Still there are a few things which can make us feel stressed, such as illness, finances etc. in that case as a follower of oriental philosophy esp. Buddhism we know that, every event in our life is guided by the past karma. So, when I feel stressed with such things, I remain witness to (not suppress it!). Through this process the previous karma get transmuted and the new ones are not generated (since we didn't react to it!)
3. I also follow Advaita Vedanta and Karma Yoga, they also provide the spiritual framework for living the daily life and thus get us rid of stress ultimately.
Above things have to be understood properly and practiced.
PS. These are my personal ways of dealing with things. If there is something wrong in the concepts, experts are welcome to suggest.
1. Emptiness: everything in our life is tainted with conceptuality, that is, we give label to things which are ultimately devoid or 'empty' of any concept. Our experience of the world is guided by the culture we live in and which influences us. For eg, all relations and even our name is provided by the society! Secondly, one person may call a job loss 'a great miserable event' while another may give it the label of 'a new opportunity to pursue ones hobby'. Since, the world as we know it, is empty of concepts, and is guided by the man made culture, it doesn't make any sense to get stressed at things. REALISING that the things as we perceive them are just concepts and not the reality, the mind is automatically prevented from living in the 'past' or the 'future' and automatically brings itself to the present awareness.
2. Still there are a few things which can make us feel stressed, such as illness, finances etc. in that case as a follower of oriental philosophy esp. Buddhism we know that, every event in our life is guided by the past karma. So, when I feel stressed with such things, I remain witness to (not suppress it!). Through this process the previous karma get transmuted and the new ones are not generated (since we didn't react to it!)
3. I also follow Advaita Vedanta and Karma Yoga, they also provide the spiritual framework for living the daily life and thus get us rid of stress ultimately.
Above things have to be understood properly and practiced.
PS. These are my personal ways of dealing with things. If there is something wrong in the concepts, experts are welcome to suggest.
- PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Stress
The term, dukkha, which is often translated as “suffering” is really more akin to the notion of what we call “stress” than it is to, say, an agonizing toothache or unbearable grief.
When the Buddha says that existence is dukkha, this refers to both good and bad conditions which are unsatisfactory.
Stress is caused by conditions which are outside of one’s control (otherwise, if you could control the situations, they wouldn’t be stressful!). Holidays are a time of joy, for example, but they are also a source of stress.
We can’t control the world, but what we can control is how we respond to being in such situations, and also how we respond to stress itself.
In other words, you can even watch stress arise in the mind, and observe it arising and dissolving.
Through keeping a routine practice of simple sitting & breathing meditation, you train your attention to arise as the observing mind, the mind that is watching the stress, rather than as the mind mired in the stress itself.
Of course, it’s the same mind. But the point is, where is the focus of awareness.
So, start with sitting meditation (shamatha) and practice studying focused on the breath even as thoughts and emotions come and go. That’s a good place to start.
When the Buddha says that existence is dukkha, this refers to both good and bad conditions which are unsatisfactory.
Stress is caused by conditions which are outside of one’s control (otherwise, if you could control the situations, they wouldn’t be stressful!). Holidays are a time of joy, for example, but they are also a source of stress.
We can’t control the world, but what we can control is how we respond to being in such situations, and also how we respond to stress itself.
In other words, you can even watch stress arise in the mind, and observe it arising and dissolving.
Through keeping a routine practice of simple sitting & breathing meditation, you train your attention to arise as the observing mind, the mind that is watching the stress, rather than as the mind mired in the stress itself.
Of course, it’s the same mind. But the point is, where is the focus of awareness.
So, start with sitting meditation (shamatha) and practice studying focused on the breath even as thoughts and emotions come and go. That’s a good place to start.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
- Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Stress
Hard exercise and breath stuff.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared
-Khunu Lama
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared
-Khunu Lama
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Re: Stress
Good idea.Above things have to be understood properly and practiced.
Exercise definitely.Hard exercise and breath stuff.