Do we not try to escape the stress we have by further imagining ways to relieve ourselves from the circumstances held responsible for it? And the more we do to create for ourselves an enclave in which we will no longer be confronted with the trouble, the more we isolate ourselves, and the greater the problem becomes because we increasingly resist anything not part of what we've dreamed to be good.
We must choose to become consciously aware of our level of stress. We're never aware of our level of stress; what we're aware of is what we seek to end our stress. We don't understand that looking outside of ourselves for a solution to the condition is the same as empowering the consciousness that blames the condition for the pain that we're in. We don't see the cycle.
To end stress, which we're meant to do, begins with first realizing there are no possibilities in a washing machine except going around and around... that's it! So, the first thing is to catch the resistance. Realize that there couldn't be resistance to the circumstance without something seeded in the consciousness that at that moment sees it as an enemy, sees it as a problem. And then instead of letting your mind place its focus on the condition outside of you, use your awareness to look inside of you, and here is what you will see: the real root of your stress is that one part of you is resisting what another part of you has asked for!
To see the truth of all this is the beginning of the collapse of the house of stress. You let the house of stress collapse in on itself and I promise you, you will see not only new things that are unimaginable, but you will realize an unimaginable freedom at the same time! No one will be able to tell you what it's like when you first take yourself from having no possibilities (or one possibility)... and then from one possibility to five possibilities... until finally you realize: The only reason that your life isn't the ground of possibilities itself is because pain has convinced you the only possibility that exists is for you to escape it by telling you what it is that you need to do. Make all of this clear to yourself and you will be free of stress.