Stress … Take the Sting out of it and Watch it Shrivel Up

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We hear all the time about stress, and how it’s at the root of so many of our problems. When you stop and think about it you realise it’s true, it’s the root cause of so many ailments. In fact, life would be deliciously simple if we could just cut it out completely. But hey, let’s not try anything so drastic … that’s just the kind of attitude that could cause more stress! If we could just deal with it on an individual level, that would do, right?

The first thing to do to change the situation is to realise what stress is. We have to see the enemy. It’s almost impossible to fight a phantom effectively. It might actually be right in front of us, but if we don’t see it, and recognise it for what it is, it will persist. Why would it just go away?

What is stress?

anxietySo what is it? It’s basically an uncomfortable feeling. And one that gets more uncomfortable over time. It’s a feeling that there’s something wrong with the world. There’s something tilted a bit, or just out of focus, or not quite as it should be. It’s not a hugely bad thing, in itself, but it’s like a little speck of grit in your eye – until you can dislodge it, it will continue to cause you pain and discomfort.

So what causes it? Maybe it’s the political situation. There, right there, in a simple and very short phrase, we can contain a huge amount of the cause of stress. We see politicians not fixing things, doing things badly, awkwardly, or just plain stupidly, and we think we’d do better ourselves. In many cases we’d be right. As George Burns used to say, “Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair”. But running the country’s not our job, unless we have chosen the path of politics.

Protest … but don’t get stressed

time travel signWe can still protest. In fact, it’s our duty. As Henry David Thoreau commented, “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” If we don’t protest, they’ll just carry on ruining the country, trashing the economy, undermining human rights, and leading us into unnecessary wars. They’ll just keep doing it as though we’re all in favour of it. But don’t get carried away trying to fix the country, or the world. It all comes down to the tiniest of tiny minorities, and that’s your own individual self. Focus most of all on fixing yourself. If we all did that, the world would be a much happier place.