Thursday, October 18, 2012

Setting Down the Hammer of Stress


A good friend of mine was talking to me about a problem at work.  He was thinking about the problem, the role other people were playing, and his experience dealing with this problem.  As he shifted from subject to subject I could see his feelings change accordingly.  He was disheartened. As he talked he went from feeling bother to frustration, to confusion, to anger, all of which are forms of stress.

The Principles are simple.  Understanding them reveals what is true in each moment.  For example, whatever we are thinking right now, we will feel.  We are free thinkers. We are free to think about any subject in the world.  But we will always feel the thoughts we are having about our subject. 

At any moment you could say that one of two things is going on for any of us.  Either we are aware of the Principles, e.g. right now I am feeling my thinking, or we are not aware of the Principles, e.g. right now I am so engrossed in the subject that I am thinking about that I am not aware that what I am thinking is creating a feeling.  In each moment we understand the Principles or we don’t.  This is true for me, for you, and for every one of us. 

As my friend talked to me about his problem, he was so engrossed in the subject that he was completely unaware that he was thinking up his own stress.  Consequently, he thought that his discomfort was because of what was happening at work.  He believed that whatever he was feeling was justified by the problem.  As he was analyzing he was unaware of the Principles and didn’t realize the way in which this thinking was creating more and more stress. 

Thinking up stress is like picking up a hammer and repeatedly hitting yourself on the head while talking about a problem.  You are in pain but you are oblivious to the hammer.  Thought recognition is seeing yourself hammering your head, realizing the connection between hammering and your pain, and then setting the hammer down.  Setting the hammer down is not a technique.  It is a built-in human response to realizing the true source of your present moment stress.

There are many times when I am thinking about a subject or an idea and I am so engrossed in the idea that I don’t see the fact of Thought creating my experience in that moment.  As I became  more aware of the Thought-feeling connection, my focus shifted from the subjects in my mind to the effect my thinking was having on me.  I was shocked to see how much of my thinking was creating stress, e.g. seriousness, discomfort, anxiety, uncertainty, and subtle tension.  When I see that I am thinking up this stress I don't tend to continue to think about the subject at hand.  With awareness it drops away.  More and more of my thinking has been dropping away leaving my head open and clear.

Being aware of the fact of Thought allows me to see the pain- inducing hammering I am doing.  This understanding allows the hammering to subside or stop.  I start to feel better and think better.  A mind free of stressful thoughts is the gateway for the automatic arising of fresh thinking. This creates feelings of well-being, higher level perspectives, and solutions to our problems.  This kind of thinking does not create stress. 

I reminded my friend of the role Thought was playing in his current stress and of the in-built potential for new thinking.  As he realized this, his stressful thinking fell away.  I saw him lighten up considerably.  Right away he started having his own insights into his problem.  He continued to have more insights the next day as well.

Stress is an invitation to wake up to the Thought-feeling connection.  Realizing the Principle-based foundation of our feelings results in more of our stress-producing thoughts dropping away.  And how rewarding it is when our well-being fills in the space left as this thinking clears away.  Every one of us can begin to wake up from the enchantment with the subjects we think about. As we do, we see and set down the hammer of our stressful thinking!