You must have a room,or a certain hour or so a day,where you don't know what was in the newspaper that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owes you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.
~Joseph Campbell
We become stressed because take in too much information or we take on too many projects, it could be that life on life's terms is just too overwhelming when it's moving at a snails pace. It is not important for this moment to identify what's causing the stress. What is important is that there is a solution!
Meditation is my solution for stress. Dr. Benson at Harvard Medical has been studying stress since the 60's. He has come us with a stress reducing technique called the Relaxation Response. It is in the same vein as meditation except that it specifically targets stress. Dr. Benson and his team have studied thousands of patients who are dealing with unidentifiable stress and have scientifically proven that the relaxation response reduces stress. Here is a relaxation response meditation:
1.Sit quietly in a comfortable position.
2.Close your eyes.
3.Deeply relax all your muscles, beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face. Keep them relaxed.
4.Breathe through your nose. Become aware of your breathing. As you breathe out, say the word, "ONE", silently to yourself. For example, breathe IN ... OUT, "ONE",- IN .. OUT, "ONE", etc. Breathe easily and naturally.
5.Continue for 10 to 20 minutes. You may open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm. When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes, at first with your eyes closed and later with your eyes opened. Do not stand up for a few minutes.. .
6.Do not worry about whether you are successful in achieving a deep level of relaxation. Maintain a passive attitude and permit relaxation to occur at its own pace. When distracting thoughts occur, try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them and return to repeating "ONE." With practice, the response should come with little effort. practice the technique once or twice daily, but not within two hours after any meal, since the digestive processes seem to interfere with the elicitation of the Relaxation Response.
