Stress Relief: How Good is Your Belief System

By Goodpal, 10th Dec 2010 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/26whbwke/
Posted in Wikinut>Health>Mind & Spirit>Mental Health

A lot of stress in the modern lifestyle is due to faulty belief system and incorrect attitude towards life. The practice of mindfulness offers a good way to manage stress through correcting the lifestyle.

Stress in High Tech Society
Beware of Your Out-of-Control Mental Chatter
What Makes Thoughts so Powerful?
How to Fix the Belief System

Stress in High Tech Society

Stress is the most faithful companion we have today in the high paced and high tech society. Global economic slow down only underscores this statement. Due to our parochial understanding of life and its meaning, we have come to accept stress as a constant follower, just like a shadow. While the workplace has certainly become more demanding than it was, say 10 – 15 years ago. Waves of IT revolution and globalization have suddenly changed everything, particularly the business dynamics. As a result, business owners ceased to feel assured of longevity their businesses as they did earlier; and ordinary employees like you and me became something like a log of wood in the ocean, being thrashed by waves never seen before.

Despite all the unpredictability of the outside world, there are things that can be done to reduce stress and worries, even if one can not make a positive prediction for tomorrow. Because the real solution lies inside us – in our attitudes, belief system and our understanding of life, which shape our thinking and expectations. If we don’t think too much or expect too much, we are unlikely to get hurt badly. Just think about it for a minute.

Beware of Your Out-of-Control Mental Chatter

How stress can blow away our sanity, can be seen in this not-so-uncommon tale of a ordinary guy.

Paul is quite miserable for last few weeks. Two things happened in a short span of time. He lost his eight year old job that was bad enough, but then his girl friend walked away making it worst. The double blow left him deeply wounded. However, he soon landed into another peculiar problem – his out of control mental talk, spinning only around one theme – life is so unfair and he is totally useless.

Just weeks ago he was normal like any other man; but now? He is an emotionally shattered man. He tried everything he knew to cope with the hurt – he drank a lot, slept a lot, roamed around the lake aimlessly for hours, and spent hours in movie theatres. He badly wishes to forget what has happened, but the talking machine in his head does not allow him to. Thoughts of self pity have almost grabbed his mind, giving it no chance to think of anything else.

Paul is a smart man, but feels helpless tackling his own out-of-control and obsessive mental chatter. He might be an extreme example of a common problem we all face — an out of control mental car that follows no traffic rule and an inability to focus attention on things that we know we should be occupied with. This mental broadcast can often possess you like a spirit and leave you with constant restlessness, headaches and sleepless nights.

We all know that the world is largely ruled by negative forces. Anyone who wants to lead a positive life has to first learn to protect himself from the negative onslaught of people, society, and the media.

You might find it interesting to read Are You a Victim of Your Mental Chatter?

What Makes Thoughts so Powerful?

Paul is hurting badly because his sense of self worth and self-esteem is badly bruised. His belief system is shaken. His thoughts found no other anchor apart from the negative feelings. Thoughts of self pity reinforced by ill feelings trapped him in a vicious cycle.

Losing job or unreliable girlfriend only exposed the fact that Paul’s life was never founded on sound wisdom or rational thinking. In his understanding making money and spending it on fun is the only meaning of life. He had never bothered to save or even thought on that line; he never developed his relationship with his girl friend who was no more than a tool for fun for him. He never learned that bad things do happen in life and one has to be ready for it. No one ever taught him that life is not always fair.

Had he learned these things about life earlier, he would not have been so miserable. Why? Because his sound belief system would not have supported or fed his self pity and the mental chatter would not have become so oppressive. When the health of your belief system is good, thoughts can never overwhelm you, at least not for long.

So, it is important to fix the belief system and attitude towards life. Find out How Healthy is Your Belief System?

How to Fix the Belief System

Tranquility

Mindful living offers a healthy way of living one’s life. In what we call “normal” lifestyle, we are merely chasing things: goals, money, success, and happiness. It is an endless chase; we want to achieve something and then live happily thereafter! Mind is always tempted for more, no matter what it has got. So, we have to go beyond the mind and its idiosyncrasies. Else, we are, and remain, an ignorant slave to our mind. we need to develop wisdom that is insulated from our thoughts or feelings.

The practice of mindfulness can train us to lead a balanced life. By nature, mindfulness is training in developing neutrality towards whatever we feel. It is an art of living in the present moment with an attitude of non-judgmental watchfulness. It is an intrinsic part of human nature, but remains undeveloped in the current lifestyle that is dominantly materialistic and target driven. In contrast, mindfulness is a continuum – living moment to moment staying beyond thinking and emotions. Rather than rolling in thoughts and feelings, we try maintaining a distance and neutrality and operating from there. We live consciously taking note of everything without getting lost chasing anything.

This allows us to conserve energy that we lose through habitual reactions to every incidence. In fact, over 90% situations would correct themselves only if we don’t react and stay neutral. It would be tremendously rewarding if we can include mindfulness meditation in our daily routine. It helps in washing away the bombardment of negativity and stay positively charged. Mindfulness is like light that drives away the darkness of ignorance. You might like to read: Mindfulness – Let There be LIFE in Your Life.

Meet the author

Goodpal
I am a researcher by training and a keen practitioner of mindfulness meditation for last fifteen years. I regularly write on personal growth and social topics.