Impact of Stress on the Heart-Mind-Body. 21 Areas for Stress to look at.

Time for Mindfulness. Time for Reflection. Time to live an integrated life. Time to develop a beautiful form of service to others.

Correction to previous date.Note to Readers. Between October 2023 and to October 2024, we started our latest Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC). This is an edited and adapted for reading of the transcription of the first talk given last October. Our next 12 month course starts in June 2025. See the information about MTTC start June at the foot of this post.

Stress manifests in human existence having an impact on heart-mind-body, due to the intimacy of relationship between the three areas.

Often the body, so speak, remembers the experience of stress. Past stress, old stress, easily impacts on the current situation, making it difficult and challenging. Old stress often doubles the immediate stress.

Stress appears in the voice of fear, anger, rudeness, coldness, interruption and impatience, which enters into what we say. Let us be clear to notice stress when it enters into and influences motivation and intention. Stress arises in the desire to get something finished and out of the way. That pressure can turn into stress. This stress burns up energy.

Stress also reveals itself when we can't focus. The absence of calm, peace of mind puts pressure on the mind, so it runs hither and thither, into the past, present and future. Excessive thinking makes it difficult to focus, difficult to bring a quality of attention in a relaxed way to what we need to be doing.

Stress also impacts on sleep; excessive thinking inhibits the necessary relaxation to fall asleep. Plenty of thoughts are insightful, precious and a real necessity for human existence. My goodness me, when we exaggerate the importance of what we think about, the mind runs into extended thinking, thinking, thinking. Each one of these thoughts takes up a drop of energy. It's tiring, it's exhausting, it's stressful and upsetting.

One of the ways to avoid stress reveals itself in the exaggerated use of the mobile phone by becoming absorbed into the content on the screen. Absorbed means a polite word for an addiction. The stress will come back when you put the phone back in your bag or pocket.

• What are we avoiding?

• What are the tensions in the mind?

• What are we neglecting to look at?

• Why do we escape into our mobile phone, whether from playing games to scrolling through messages, clips and superficial entertainment?

We spend lot of time in this pseudo real world.

Our practice and exploration of stress includes reflecting on aspects of it, sees the different manifestations of stress. The classic definition of mindfulness includes being in the moment. You can be in the moment and still feel much stress. In this mindfulness training, we wish to expand out what mindfulness means, as well as stress. 

Here are further examples of stress.  Look through the list to see if you have any responses, which indicate areas where you are prone to stress. Make a note, reflect, breathe, so you can feel prepared for those situations.

MONTH ONE. OCTOBER 2023

21 Signs of Stress

1.                  Being busy, trying to do too much.

2.                  Desire and dependency on results.

3.                  Fear of not getting things done.

4.                  Fear of not being successful.

5.                  Fear of things going wrong.

6.                  Forgetting to cultivate harmony of mind- emotions-body.

7.                  Getting out of touch with the body.

8.                  Harmful, exploitive, violent behaviour

9.                  Indulging in stories, fantasies and logical arguments

10.              Inflated self-esteem or coping with low self-esteem.

11.              Loss of appreciation and gratitude.

12.              Loss of humour, enjoyment and happiness.

13.              Manipulation of others to get peace of mind.

14.              Neglect of healthy diet, regular exercise and conscious movement.

15.              Neglect of recognition of beauty/aesthetics/the arts.

16.              Neglect of mindfulness/meditation/stillness of being.

17.              Preoccupation with past, present and future

18.              Preoccupations in the mind inhibiting sleep.

19.              Resistance to tasks and activities.

20.              Too much thinking about something.

21.              Trying to have total control over one’s life or the life of another.

May all Beings live with Calmness and Clarity

May all beings with love

May all beings with Wisdom

MTTC

Here is a flyer for MTTC. Look at the website.If you wish to join, please send in the first instance your name. Registration payments start on 1 September 2024. Yes, we have made it as affordable as much as we can through registration and regular donations.