We currently live in a world that encourages "hard" work, rewards everyone based on outcome/output, and dismisses stress as a by product of circumstances. In fact, you're encouraged to take stress on if you want to reach the top in any field.
An example of this would be if you're not quite getting the result you want, or working out the solution to a problem. Western conditioning tells you to keep working at it, and this is substantiated by leaders, peers and the media. The result of this is an experience of stress that appears to be circumstantial and situational, and this is how stress relief and stress management have come to exist and be major industries in the world today.
The problem
The problem is like that of baker who doesn't understand ovens.
The baker goes to work every morning, and bakes bread and pastries all day. The baker puts the bread and pastries into the oven by hand, and takes them out by hand. He goes home every day, and has very badly blistered hands that hurt. He relieves this pain by putting his hands under a cold tap. This works in the short term, but the same thing happens day after day. He gets blistered hands, he uses cold water after work to relieve the pain, and so on.
And he can't work out why he keeps getting these, so he tries to make up reasons for it to manage the problem.
"It must be the flour, let's change the flour". So he changes the flour, and looks for a change but there isn't one.
"It must be kneading the dough. I will get a machine to do it". This improves his work output, but he is still getting the blisters.
"Well, then it must be when I shake customers hands or take money from them". So he stops serving customers and just works in the kitchen, which actually makes him feel less satisfied and still hasn't helped him.
After failing to find a solution he just decides "well, I'm a baker, this is the way it is so if I want to do this I better just put up with it".
The solution
Bereft of his job and life that he used to enjoy, he tells a friend about it. His friend asks him "you know the oven is hot right?" He says "of course, but I'm talking about my hands, what the hell has that got to do with it?" His friend explains to him that the oven is creating his blisters, and that by putting his hands into it when it is hot, it will continue to do what it does. The friend suggests that he should probably find another way of getting the products in and out of the oven, as that's the real source of his symptoms.
The baker doesn't believe him at first, but curious, he tests his friend's theory. He uses a wooden paddle to place the bread in and out of the oven. Daily, he becomes more aware of his hands and how they are no longer in pain, and soon he doesn't even think about it. He KNOWS that it's the oven that was causing his pain, so he works out new ways to make the job easy but at the same time understanding the power in the oven and what it can do. He realises that if the oven is used in the way it was intended, it can turn his simple flour and water into a vast array of delicious foods and treats. Used in other ways it can create symptoms that are potentially harmful. He also realises that by knowing this, he has a greater amount of freedom in how he lives his life
How this relates to stress?
The scenario is exactly like experiencing stress. The bakers example looks trivial and silly looking at it from our level of understanding about ovens and heat, but to him it was normal.
With stress, it is our conditioning to look at what is happening in our lives and use that to explain our stress and our moods around it, in the same way that the baker was looking at the circumstances for the solution to his problem. When you realise, at an embodied level, that YOU create your stress through THOUGHT (not what you think, but that you think), in the same way the baker truly understood the power of the oven, then you will be able to transcend the limitations of your thinking.
The key is looking beyond the visible, to what is happening at a principle level. Once you see it's your thoughts that are creating your experience of life, your own oven if you like, and not what you can see around you, then you will understand the creative potential behind what you can see and know that you will see a different reality just as quickly as you saw the first one, if you allow it to just be.
This will give you freedom from stress, because you'll realise where it was created, and the limitless potential for new thought to be created in place of a current one. All this will happen without any involvement from you, by just knowing it and letting it happen. Once you realise this, you don't need to change the conditions or circumstances to get a different experience, in fact, trying to do something about the circumstances or conditions will always appear to be the last thing you should do, since that will get in the way of new experience being created - it will keep you in your stress rather than freeing your from it.
In the same way as the baker tested his friends suggestion, I invite you to do the same. The next time you get tense, panicked, rushed, anxious, insecure, angry or whatever form your stress takes, remember its not coming from "out there", its actually coming from you - your oven. In that moment, you'll see that freeing yourself is easier when you know where the keys are
To your wellbeing
An example of this would be if you're not quite getting the result you want, or working out the solution to a problem. Western conditioning tells you to keep working at it, and this is substantiated by leaders, peers and the media. The result of this is an experience of stress that appears to be circumstantial and situational, and this is how stress relief and stress management have come to exist and be major industries in the world today.
The problem
The problem is like that of baker who doesn't understand ovens.
The baker goes to work every morning, and bakes bread and pastries all day. The baker puts the bread and pastries into the oven by hand, and takes them out by hand. He goes home every day, and has very badly blistered hands that hurt. He relieves this pain by putting his hands under a cold tap. This works in the short term, but the same thing happens day after day. He gets blistered hands, he uses cold water after work to relieve the pain, and so on.
And he can't work out why he keeps getting these, so he tries to make up reasons for it to manage the problem.
"It must be the flour, let's change the flour". So he changes the flour, and looks for a change but there isn't one.
"It must be kneading the dough. I will get a machine to do it". This improves his work output, but he is still getting the blisters.
"Well, then it must be when I shake customers hands or take money from them". So he stops serving customers and just works in the kitchen, which actually makes him feel less satisfied and still hasn't helped him.
After failing to find a solution he just decides "well, I'm a baker, this is the way it is so if I want to do this I better just put up with it".
The solution
Bereft of his job and life that he used to enjoy, he tells a friend about it. His friend asks him "you know the oven is hot right?" He says "of course, but I'm talking about my hands, what the hell has that got to do with it?" His friend explains to him that the oven is creating his blisters, and that by putting his hands into it when it is hot, it will continue to do what it does. The friend suggests that he should probably find another way of getting the products in and out of the oven, as that's the real source of his symptoms.
The baker doesn't believe him at first, but curious, he tests his friend's theory. He uses a wooden paddle to place the bread in and out of the oven. Daily, he becomes more aware of his hands and how they are no longer in pain, and soon he doesn't even think about it. He KNOWS that it's the oven that was causing his pain, so he works out new ways to make the job easy but at the same time understanding the power in the oven and what it can do. He realises that if the oven is used in the way it was intended, it can turn his simple flour and water into a vast array of delicious foods and treats. Used in other ways it can create symptoms that are potentially harmful. He also realises that by knowing this, he has a greater amount of freedom in how he lives his life
How this relates to stress?
The scenario is exactly like experiencing stress. The bakers example looks trivial and silly looking at it from our level of understanding about ovens and heat, but to him it was normal.
With stress, it is our conditioning to look at what is happening in our lives and use that to explain our stress and our moods around it, in the same way that the baker was looking at the circumstances for the solution to his problem. When you realise, at an embodied level, that YOU create your stress through THOUGHT (not what you think, but that you think), in the same way the baker truly understood the power of the oven, then you will be able to transcend the limitations of your thinking.
The key is looking beyond the visible, to what is happening at a principle level. Once you see it's your thoughts that are creating your experience of life, your own oven if you like, and not what you can see around you, then you will understand the creative potential behind what you can see and know that you will see a different reality just as quickly as you saw the first one, if you allow it to just be.
This will give you freedom from stress, because you'll realise where it was created, and the limitless potential for new thought to be created in place of a current one. All this will happen without any involvement from you, by just knowing it and letting it happen. Once you realise this, you don't need to change the conditions or circumstances to get a different experience, in fact, trying to do something about the circumstances or conditions will always appear to be the last thing you should do, since that will get in the way of new experience being created - it will keep you in your stress rather than freeing your from it.
To your wellbeing
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