Overcome Stress – Meditate

Stress is one of the main current problems. We work and live in a stressful environment, and pressure overload is disrupting the lives of young and old alike. Although stress is not inherently bad, overload can damage the mind and body. Problems at work, breakdown of interpersonal relationships with co-workers or family members, unbridled ambition, and financial worries are some of the stressors that bombard the nervous system, affecting work, family life, and wealth.

Stress is cumulative. Small problems can build up until the nervous system can’t take it anymore. Behavior changes follow and fail coping mechanisms. Some can handle stress better than others. But there are people who worry chronically and who anticipate problems even before they can arise. There are others who keep their emotions bottled up until a sudden outburst occurs as a nervous breakdown.

Medications can provide temporary relief from anxiety. But after the effects wear off, the person may feel more anxious than before. This can lead to drug dependency.

Although stress cannot be completely eliminated, it is possible to correct wrong assumptions and incorrect responses to stress. Various exercises and relaxation techniques have been prescribed. But what is gaining ground for stress and stress-related problems is meditation and meditative prayer. Meditation helps one focus on something other than what is causing stress. It relaxes the mind and changes the way you react to difficult situations. Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years, primarily as a means of gaining spiritual enlightenment. It regained popularity in the 1960s when the Beatles and other pop musicians embraced Eastern music and spirituality.

Various forms of meditation have been tried.

• Putting oneself into a trance state by visualizing a pleasant and peaceful scene and even experiencing the sights, smells, sounds, and colors of the scene.
• Chant mantras: Repeat a word over and over again until it gains a momentum of its own and expels all disturbing thoughts. This is a form of self-hypnosis and is achieved through self-effort.
• The Silva Method was launched in 1966 by José Silva, a Mexican-American. It is a combination of positive thinking, visualization, meditation, and self-hypnosis. Silva claimed that this would help take conscious control of the mind and even tap into one’s higher consciousness.
• Tai-Chai technique (totality). Slow circular dance movements are performed here in the open air. The fluid and graceful movements are effective against anxiety and stress because participants are encouraged to let go of stressful thoughts.
• The mantra meditation propagated by Maharshi Mahayogi contemplates the participation of “a supernatural power”. He called it a “supreme self-help method” to control thoughts and calm the body through the use of a form of mantra and achieve a calmer style of mental functioning.
  In all of these methods, the focus is on self-effort.
• However, true meditation is silent communication with God to the exclusion of all else. As Morton Kelsey said: “The inner meditation journey is not a weekend excursion to a land of sunshine and happiness. It is a way of life for people who really feel the need to do it and who become aware of their need to do it.” “.

Morton Kelsey was an Episcopalian priest and counselor who at one point in his life suffered from anxiety and depression. His encounter with a Jungian Jew named Max Zeller convinced him that God is real and that meditation and prayer can relieve stress. Zeller had spent time in a Nazi concentration camp and attributed his peace of mind and eventual release to God’s providence.

How to make meditation effective:

1. Have a firm belief in God.

2. Be aware of your deep sense of need and cultivate a keen desire to converse with God.

3. Find a quiet place where there are no disturbances. This quiet period is a time to uncover your emotions of fear, insecurity, anxiety, jealousy, hate, or resentment. Only then will you be able to detach your mind from the burden of these stressors. As you sit comfortably and wait in silence, each part of the body is told to relax, so that the mind can focus on God.

4. Gradually, an inner stillness invades the mind and body, and one becomes deeply aware of God’s transforming presence.

A stressed young pastor turned to psychologist Carl Jung for a remedy.

“Simple,” Jung said, “Stick to a daily routine of eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, and eight hours of silence in your study.”
After a month, the pastor returned to Jung.

“I have followed your advice: eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of quiet in my study when listening to relaxing music by Chopin or Mozart and reading works by Herman Hess and Thomas Mann. But I can’t find any improvement. I am still very stressed “.

“No wonder,” said Jung, “they asked you to be with yourself.”

“Oh! I can think of no worse company,” exclaimed the pastor.

“Yet this is what you impose on others for fourteen hours every day,” said Jung, “This should have been a contemplative experience and a union with the Divine, in which no other external elements were involved.”

Stressed people don’t find even five minutes of time to sit quietly and commune with God. Worry and anxiety are your constant companions and take up most of your time. Meditation becomes easier through daily practice. One finds the strength to overcome stress and build a positive self image. The maelstrom of troublesome emotions dissipates. The French writer Senancour said: “Let us keep our sanctuaries silent, because in them eternal perspectives are revealed.”

5. Once a person has learned to meditate, meditative prayer becomes easy. One can disconnect from the world around him and pray while walking, driving or working, to get a dose of spiritual adrenaline and overcome moments of stress. Bernard of Clairvoux said: “Wherever you are, pray secretly within yourself.”

Meditation and meditative prayer are powerful stress relievers. They contribute to a healthy and satisfying life.