Stress

Stress is the greatest single cause of illness inhibiting our immune system and taxing all of our organs. Continued stress will wreck our body and poison our mind. Many of us have become so accustomed to stress that we have formed an addiction to it. At such times we come to believe if we are not overwhelmed by anxiety we are not productive. Also we may come to believe our deteriorated physical condition is the result of outside forces. 

For many of us stress is linked directly to the uncertainty of the outcome of whatever it is in which we have invested our emotions. We may be concerned with the quality, quantity, permanence, how it will be received, how we will be perceived and a variety of other issues. No matter what concerns us it is all tied to our fixation on the results. 

Fear of the outcome can be avoided when we are not wedded to the results. This may sound counter intuitive but it is more the natural order of things than is our fixation on the result. Ideals give us a direction in which to live and our goals are a means of incrementally measuring our progress. However when the uncertainty of reaching the goal threatens to suffocate the activity itself we have moved our attention from the process to the result.  It is true that we must have the material means of expressing our ideals and goals supply this. But it is in the activity itself and not in the result that we soar like an eagle. 

When we move our attention from the process to the outcome we are confusing the order of things. If the activity lacks integrity, if a dedication to excellence is absent from our efforts then the result is empty and fear will rise up to fill the void. Where we lose our self in the joy of doing, of investing our heart, our mind and our skills in our activities then the outcome is assured. 

Let us each combat stress by giving it no place to take hold in our life. Where the devotion to the process is present there will be no fear of the result. At those times we will have rid our self of stress and our life will be filled with the joy of just doing. Habits are formed over time and have a strong hold upon us. But they can be changed - one effort at a time; patiently and persistently. Our life is what we have made it - one step at a time and what it will become - one step at a time. Patience and persistence are the keys to the kingdom where we may rid our self of the debilitating weight of stress - one act at a time.