De-stress today

“Our entire life consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.” ~ Jean Anouilh

Here is a wonderful message about stress from the Chopra Center in today's email I received...Also, please check out Their free 21 day meditation challenge!!! It is so wonderful!!

 

Someone once said that there are only two times when we feel stress – daytime and nighttime. Let’s face it. Stress is part of our everyday life. We experience some level of stress every time our needs are not met. In today’s meditation, we are going to transform our relationship with stress, learning to let it go and cultivate more peace, joy, and calm in its place.

What Is Stress?

Stress has been part of human life since our earliest days on the planet. Although we no longer experience the stress of living in cold, dark caves and fighting off saber tooth cats, we do experience emotional turmoil in our relationships, challenges balancing our daily lives, and a multitude of physical health concerns. When we encounter situations that we interpret as stressful, our body has the same reactions our ancestors had tens of thousands of years ago. Our blood pressure rises, we begin to perspire, our breath becomes shallow, and our blood platelets become sticky. Our body activates its fight-or-flight response, and it takes at least twenty-four hours for the body to recover its equilibrium. Many people live in a state of chronic stress and imbalance, which contributes to emotional and physical dis-ease.

Through the practice of meditation, we can activate a different response, one of restful awareness, intuitiveness, and creativity. Meditation takes our body and our mind from a place of hyperactivity, fear, unrest, and uneasiness to a state of inner calm, peace, and silence.

In meditation, as we cultivate the ability to witness the activity of the mind, we spontaneously make more conscious choices. We’re able to access the response that best supports our own health and well being. Stress then becomes something that we can observe and release.