BY SUBJECT
©2006 - D Turner
ANXIETY
There is a secret to dealing with stress ...
Master this secret and you will be in control of your mind and your life. Disregard this principle and the chaos of life will control YOU. Imagine this ... You're getting ready for work in the morning. You have a number of unresolved problems you need to solve
1) You have to make your breakfast.
2) You have to polish your shoes.
3) You have to brush your teeth. You're already running late when...
4) You realize you cant find your keys. Now you have another problem to solve. And just when you thought things were getting out of hand...
5) You realize that someone else is in the bathroom and you can't get in to clean your teeth.
6) The phone rings.
7) You realize you need to go to the bank. Stress and overwhelm arise when we have too many unresolved problems to do deal with. As each new unsolved problem is added to your plate, you start to lose the feeling of certainty and control. The more unresolved problems, the more stressed you feel. Unfortunately, life rarely presents us with a single problem to deal with at once.
Normally life requires us to deal with a handful of problems at the same time. That's why our minds are in the habit of jumping around from one thing to another. Guess what, at any given time, your mind is simultaneously trying to solve all kinds of unresolved problems. In fact, a lot of this is going on outside of our conscious awareness. Over time the mind looses its sharpness.
The world doesn't look as bright as it used to. You're not enjoying things and having fun in the same way anymore. This is how we lose touch with ourselves. So what can we do about this? The answer is to focus on resolving one problem at once. We only ever feel stressed when the mind is trying to solve too many unresolved problems. Restrict your focus to one single problem and suddenly the situation becomes less stressful and confusing. If you're getting ready in the morning, you may decide the first thing to focus on is eating breakfast.
As long as you focus on only one unresolved problem at once, you feel more in control. That's exactly what we're doing in meditation. We're giving the mind a single object to pay attention to. As we do this, we feel the stress beginning to dissipate. The jumble of thoughts and unresolved problems swimming around in our minds begins to slow. We feel happier and more in control.
You wouldn't go out to an important meeting or social occasion without clean clothes, brushing your teeth and taking care of your appearance, would you? What about the mind - the instrument through which we perceive reality? Doesn't it make sense to take the time to clean up our attitude and the way we feel as well?
By Matt Clarkson visit his site for mor great info
www.SecretsofMeditation.com
