What Is Stress?
Good Day Everyone!
After all the news today about the economy, I thought I might talk about stress as a timely issue.
Then this evening I saw this article about how stress in the work place can do nasty things for you.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080123/hl_nm/heart_stress_dc
Stress is when we tense up. We hold our breath. We resist what we are seeing, hearing, perceiving. I think Jesus taught us to "resist not" evil? Hmmm
The key factor here is our internal response. It is always a fear response. We name it many things: overwhelm, panic, worry, indecision, but it is always a fear. We do this instantaneously as an automatic response to our operating beliefs. (I think Jesus also said, "Fear Not"?)
We believe we cannot rise to the situation. We may believe that there is not enough: time, money, love, opportunity, or we are not enough. We may believe that what we are seeing or hearing is "bad" news. The doctor delivers a diagnosis. The judge returns a verdict. The boss delivers a deadline or ultimatum. The bank account says we can't afford it. You child's teacher calls. You child doesn't call. Ad infinitum.
Obviously the work place is not the only place we have experiences that we respond to with stress: again, tensing up, shallow breathing, resistance, as a result of a fearful, lackful response. It happens to us many times within a day.
When I was in Hawaii learning Huna, the Ancient Hawaiian Religion, I was told this story:
When the first explorers found the Hawaiian Islands, they didn't know where they were geographically. That is to say, they had no idea the name of these islands. So they went from island to island asking this question of the natives, "Where do you live?" The native Hawaiians all responded with the same answer, "Hawaii". So the explorers assumed that the name of the islands was Hawaii. However, the Hawaiin language is an encoded language. Each syllable means an entire phrase. What the Hawaiians were really saying was, "I live on the Life Force that is carried on my breath." "Ha" meaning breath. So it follows that when the white man established himself on the Hawaiian Island, they became known to the natives as "hale", which means, "he without breath". Even back then, we weren't breathing much.
You see the Hawaiians performed deep "haka" breathing before they did anything. They breathed before play, before fishing, before making love. If you have every watched rugby, you can see a form of haka breathing done by the New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks. It's amazing. (www.allblacks.com). The Hawaiians could so summon their Life Force that they could flow the tides. (I have seen it done.)
Now depending on who you talk to, they are raising their adrenalin levels, they are focusing their energy, they are getting centered. And all would be correct. This is where applied spirituality is literally demonstrated. They are deliberately focusing their Life Force. By breathing IN and opening their internal state, they laser focus their Spirit, their Energy, their Godchips. The All Blacks win a lot.
The point is that they breathe, they do not stop breathing. The relax, not tense up. They do all this deliberately.
A tensing reaction to anything causes you to shallow your breathing. This restricts the flow of Life Force, the vital energies that define you as alive. Like in any situation of "restriction," friction is the result, and when friction takes place, heat is created (oxidation) and inflammation results. This is why we are being told the benefits of antioxidants, to counteract the damage of free radicals which is sort of like rust, the free radicals are the result of all this tensing up. All this, because we are automatically afraid because we believe we are not enough, not able to meet the demand. We believe, we are alone and separated from our Good.
During the past 6 years Americans have been fed a steady diet of fear via the medial and news makers. We are now told many times a day all the things we have to be afraid of: terrorism, oil shortages, the economy; global warming, even my stupid weather alerts are of a tone that makes me think I should have put in a storm cellar. We are always on red alert for something. The food we eat. The people we date. The air we breathe. The love we have or don't have. Ahoogah! Dive! Dive!
What to do?
Breathe.
Why breathe? Because as the ancient Hawaiians knew, we LIVE on the Life Force that's carried on our breath. This is the vehicle that carries us back Home to Well Being (our natural state) when we've stepped out of the flow of Life.
The news makers and tellers would have us believe the ultimate worst at any given time. It's hype. It's the tone. It's dire. It's only to sell today's paper. Tomorrow it will be something else.
Haven't we learned by now that "this too shall pass"? The idea is to not get "hooked" on it as it's passing. I used to do some white water rafting when I lived in Montana. My friend would point out to me huge logs or trees that were downed in the river by beavers (who by the way are always in well being). These were called sweepers. Sweepers hook a lot of debris as it floats down the river and are very dangerous. We were to avoid sweepers at all costs.
Avoid the sweepers. They are logs in the Flow of Life. They are temptations to get pulled off your course of Well Being and into chaos and fear. There are infinite number of sweepers waiting to hook you. Jesus, it is said, spent 40 days in the desert confronting all manner of temptations. This is exactly what this "human mind stuff" is. Just that. Temptation to derail you from your focused path of Well Being , which is joyously creating.
"Look over here, here's a problem". When you refocus onto "that problem" you are no longer focusing on your creation. And sorry folks, we are single focus beings, despite what they tell you about multi-tasking. If we truly want to create, we need to be in the Zone with pure positive focus.
Ok. So back to your ordinary day. You have a plan. You have a focus. And then - TEMPTATION STRIKES. A troubling story, a bad boss, a lousy thought. You could go there, which most of us do, and do the whole "stress" response.
Or - you could say to yourself, "That feels rotten. I'm going to breathe. I'm refocusing on what I chose to focus on, and that which makes me feel good." It's free will. That's where it's practiced; right in that very moment. Right Now.
You can choose "human mind" fearful, lackful, distracting thoughts - or - you can breathe IN, connect to your Godchip and get back to creating.....or co-creating...
Practice. Practice. Practice.
It takes being aware of how you are feeling at any given moment. This is self mastery.
This is, simply put, what Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and Mohammad achieved while in the body, and so can you, as well.
You'll feel better. You'll function better. You'll enjoy the day more. And best of all, you'll be creating your own reality and good health as well. Happiness is your birthright. Wellness is your natural state. The only thing separating you from all your Good (that being a noun) is your choice to be sidetracked by the temptation out of well being.
Thanks for reading!
Kath
After all the news today about the economy, I thought I might talk about stress as a timely issue.
Then this evening I saw this article about how stress in the work place can do nasty things for you.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080123/hl_nm/heart_stress_dc
Stress is when we tense up. We hold our breath. We resist what we are seeing, hearing, perceiving. I think Jesus taught us to "resist not" evil? Hmmm
The key factor here is our internal response. It is always a fear response. We name it many things: overwhelm, panic, worry, indecision, but it is always a fear. We do this instantaneously as an automatic response to our operating beliefs. (I think Jesus also said, "Fear Not"?)
We believe we cannot rise to the situation. We may believe that there is not enough: time, money, love, opportunity, or we are not enough. We may believe that what we are seeing or hearing is "bad" news. The doctor delivers a diagnosis. The judge returns a verdict. The boss delivers a deadline or ultimatum. The bank account says we can't afford it. You child's teacher calls. You child doesn't call. Ad infinitum.
Obviously the work place is not the only place we have experiences that we respond to with stress: again, tensing up, shallow breathing, resistance, as a result of a fearful, lackful response. It happens to us many times within a day.
When I was in Hawaii learning Huna, the Ancient Hawaiian Religion, I was told this story:
When the first explorers found the Hawaiian Islands, they didn't know where they were geographically. That is to say, they had no idea the name of these islands. So they went from island to island asking this question of the natives, "Where do you live?" The native Hawaiians all responded with the same answer, "Hawaii". So the explorers assumed that the name of the islands was Hawaii. However, the Hawaiin language is an encoded language. Each syllable means an entire phrase. What the Hawaiians were really saying was, "I live on the Life Force that is carried on my breath." "Ha" meaning breath. So it follows that when the white man established himself on the Hawaiian Island, they became known to the natives as "hale", which means, "he without breath". Even back then, we weren't breathing much.
You see the Hawaiians performed deep "haka" breathing before they did anything. They breathed before play, before fishing, before making love. If you have every watched rugby, you can see a form of haka breathing done by the New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks. It's amazing. (www.allblacks.com). The Hawaiians could so summon their Life Force that they could flow the tides. (I have seen it done.)
Now depending on who you talk to, they are raising their adrenalin levels, they are focusing their energy, they are getting centered. And all would be correct. This is where applied spirituality is literally demonstrated. They are deliberately focusing their Life Force. By breathing IN and opening their internal state, they laser focus their Spirit, their Energy, their Godchips. The All Blacks win a lot.
The point is that they breathe, they do not stop breathing. The relax, not tense up. They do all this deliberately.
A tensing reaction to anything causes you to shallow your breathing. This restricts the flow of Life Force, the vital energies that define you as alive. Like in any situation of "restriction," friction is the result, and when friction takes place, heat is created (oxidation) and inflammation results. This is why we are being told the benefits of antioxidants, to counteract the damage of free radicals which is sort of like rust, the free radicals are the result of all this tensing up. All this, because we are automatically afraid because we believe we are not enough, not able to meet the demand. We believe, we are alone and separated from our Good.
During the past 6 years Americans have been fed a steady diet of fear via the medial and news makers. We are now told many times a day all the things we have to be afraid of: terrorism, oil shortages, the economy; global warming, even my stupid weather alerts are of a tone that makes me think I should have put in a storm cellar. We are always on red alert for something. The food we eat. The people we date. The air we breathe. The love we have or don't have. Ahoogah! Dive! Dive!
What to do?
Breathe.
Why breathe? Because as the ancient Hawaiians knew, we LIVE on the Life Force that's carried on our breath. This is the vehicle that carries us back Home to Well Being (our natural state) when we've stepped out of the flow of Life.
The news makers and tellers would have us believe the ultimate worst at any given time. It's hype. It's the tone. It's dire. It's only to sell today's paper. Tomorrow it will be something else.
Haven't we learned by now that "this too shall pass"? The idea is to not get "hooked" on it as it's passing. I used to do some white water rafting when I lived in Montana. My friend would point out to me huge logs or trees that were downed in the river by beavers (who by the way are always in well being). These were called sweepers. Sweepers hook a lot of debris as it floats down the river and are very dangerous. We were to avoid sweepers at all costs.
Avoid the sweepers. They are logs in the Flow of Life. They are temptations to get pulled off your course of Well Being and into chaos and fear. There are infinite number of sweepers waiting to hook you. Jesus, it is said, spent 40 days in the desert confronting all manner of temptations. This is exactly what this "human mind stuff" is. Just that. Temptation to derail you from your focused path of Well Being , which is joyously creating.
"Look over here, here's a problem". When you refocus onto "that problem" you are no longer focusing on your creation. And sorry folks, we are single focus beings, despite what they tell you about multi-tasking. If we truly want to create, we need to be in the Zone with pure positive focus.
Ok. So back to your ordinary day. You have a plan. You have a focus. And then - TEMPTATION STRIKES. A troubling story, a bad boss, a lousy thought. You could go there, which most of us do, and do the whole "stress" response.
Or - you could say to yourself, "That feels rotten. I'm going to breathe. I'm refocusing on what I chose to focus on, and that which makes me feel good." It's free will. That's where it's practiced; right in that very moment. Right Now.
You can choose "human mind" fearful, lackful, distracting thoughts - or - you can breathe IN, connect to your Godchip and get back to creating.....or co-creating...
Practice. Practice. Practice.
It takes being aware of how you are feeling at any given moment. This is self mastery.
This is, simply put, what Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and Mohammad achieved while in the body, and so can you, as well.
You'll feel better. You'll function better. You'll enjoy the day more. And best of all, you'll be creating your own reality and good health as well. Happiness is your birthright. Wellness is your natural state. The only thing separating you from all your Good (that being a noun) is your choice to be sidetracked by the temptation out of well being.
Invictus
by William E Henley
by William E Henley
"I AM the master of my fate. I AM the captain of my soul."
(check out the I AM.....)
(check out the I AM.....)
Thanks for reading!
Kath
Labels: ancient Hawaiians, applied spirituality, health, Huna, stress, well being, William E Henley
posted by Kath at
11:38 PM
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