Get the Stress Outta Here

"Just relax man," ever hear that, or, "hey, lighten up- your too stressed," and you wonder, "Wow - maybe they're right?" In our fast paced world of doing more than one thing at a time, with no change in the pay for that; we encounter the wonder of stress, and we define that as the distance between your fingers that you would love to put around someone's neck who you would dearly love to choke- that distance is the stress!

Some people don't feel it- and they're not in an asylum, they're out amongst us, and maybe you and I can agree to wonder that they don't feel stress. If you're like me, we feel it. This piece is about a way to get rid of it.

If we look at stress, brought on us, usually, by our own inner reflections, things thrust upon us that we don't quite get, or, we do get them, but just not now, and the person bringing them to us, wants us to get it, "right now!" Stress can also be of a self-created kind, you might call it, guilty procrastination, putting off what you know you will eventually have to do anyway, but you just don't want to do it, "right now!"

The chemicals we consume can even bring on stress, certain foods are stress inducers, and those are usually the foods we like the most. Monosodium Glutamate can bring on stress, Chinese food served in America is said to be "loaded" with it, now ask me if I care about that? So the stress is there, we want to ditch it, be rid of it, read on.

It's as ancient as times when a person had a moment to sit down, in the moment of pausing, especially in the country, suddenly they are there. They are around us all the time, but we don't see them, and as we pause, we do see them. Mystery of mysteries, we are somehow in some fashion relaxed by observing them- they are - birds.

"Oh please man, don't tell me your solution to stress is going to be bird watching?" No I won't tell you that, because that would be - too simple, but what I am going to suggest to you is that a time of moment with nothing in it, does. What I'm further pitching at you is that in such a moment, especially if you are in the country, or a park, or just about anywhere- could even be in downtown New York or Chicago, you are going to be able to suddenly see, where you couldn't see them before, birds. That my friend is when it will dawn on you- "wow, they were here all along and I didn't see them." Which will bring on the next realization, "if it's that way with birds, I wonder what else might be like that?" Indeed, you are now on the verge of the wonder of the moment of stillness.

In a world that is moving forward at an ever increasingly frenetic pace, the teachings of contemplative moments is nearly non-existent. Those who don't see the clarity that can come from such insightful practices make fun of those who do- but don't listen to those voices, instead find a place of some quiet, inside of you. Find a place of peace inside of you, and go there- and learn of the moment of stillness- if you are outside, and you pause for this moment for just a few seconds of stillness- as your focus changes, look around, don't be surprised if you see, birds.

As we look more deeply into this, in pursuant articles; it is my hope that you will try moments of stillness, my trial of this has proven to be an ever-expanding sense of peace in a world that goes past at faster and faster speeds. Stand still and it will blow right past you, leaving in its wake - free breath, free thought, and creatures of immense beauty.