Kissing Your Stress Goodbye

I've often quoted the World Health Organization's contention that stress will kill more people in the developed world in the 21st century than anything else. And, as far as I can see, they've got it spot on - it appears, from surveys, research and my own work, that the modern workplace is not a pleasant place, that the well-worn statistic that most over two-thirds of people don't like what they do to earn money, is actually grinding people down.

And, yet, stress is a lot like beauty - in the eye (or mind) of the beholder - for one woman's or man's stress is another one's turn on or motivation. Stress is a uniquely personal thing, a product of our all-too-programmed automated imagination. It isn't just that, 10,000 years ago, stress saved our lives, it is that, as evolution would have it, stress sharpens our wits. Unfortunately, though, it seems to be sharpening the sword that all too many people are falling on!

It's almost 30 years since the University of Massachussets Medical School "prescribed" meditation to patients who were encountering the stress associated with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. It's almost 30 years since their reseach confirmed that those who embraced meditation enhanced their survivability six-fold. And it's over 20 years since I started "teaching" my clients meditation. Most of them had misgivings and, when I mention meditation nowadays, precious little has changed. What is it about us that we pride ourselves on our resilience, that we're prepared to put up with crap, day-in, day-out, to make it through the day, day-in, day-out? When will we start looking after ourselves so that can be healthy in mind and body and be useful to those around us... particularly those whom we love?