Relax Your Way into a Richer Life

We have been delivered into the hands of our enemies. A foreign government is running our lives, a self that is thoroughly wrecking us. Because we are unaware of what is wrecking us, we look outside and blame exterior events for our inner tension and stress. The disease of the twenty-first century will be stress and tension intention. But this is not a disease but an effect of a misunderstood life.

Tension and stress produce all kinds of deleterious effects. We name what causes us this stress and we really have no idea what is its real cause. We try to relax by having dinner with friends or family, going to the movies or vacation but these activities just drain us further. It is an important point that we understand that tension and stress are not thrust upon us from something outside of us.

There is only one solution to stress and tension that works. It begins with self-knowledge. Anything else will only lead to a dead end. Self-knowledge cannot be apart from the context of the whole of our lives. We live in a world with a never-ending stream of energies that produce a natural tension. Natural tension keeps the earth orbiting the sun. Gravity pulls a tree down and the sun pulls it up. There is a balance between two opposing forces. When a pitcher throws a ball, he winds up and then releases the tension and throws the ball. There is potential energy turned into kinetic energy - wind up and lets the ball go. The action of tension and release is inherent in the fabric of the universe. Sunlight causes things to contract and when the sun goes away everything relaxes. There is a continual flow of natural opposites like breathing - tension and relaxation. But this breaks down in human beings.

We get wound up and then the way we release this tension is by blowing up, drinking or other forms of release. We are always on the edge and then something in us justifies and names the reason for our tension and what needs to happen to relieve ourselves from it.

A father takes his daughter from the city for a hike in the woods. She at first enjoys it but then she becomes agitated by all the activity in the woods that she doesn't understand. Human minds want to know what everything is doing, why it is doing it and the meaning behind it. And if it doesn't match up with its ideas we hold, we want to fix it. We are identified with the images we hold of others and events and circumstances. And if they don't match up with our ideas then we begin to feel like we are not in charge of our lives. We can't take the tension because we have to control everything that is going through us. Everything has to match up to the ideas we have. Thought divides itself up in order to fix its environment and it keeps dividing until we pop and can no longer keep it together.

The present mind lends a sense of self by being identified with thoughts and feelings passing through us. We're stressed because we have to deal with everything. Once we identify with our thoughts and feelings that produce tension, we try to get rid of the tension by acting towards it. There are four causes of tension.

1. Tension born of wanting to succeed according to our culture and society. We think tension is what interrupts our goals but it is really our ideas about it.

2. Tension of having succeeded. Now we have to maintain and protect what we have accomplished. Anyone or thing that upsets the apple cart is our enemy.

3. Tension of failing to succeed. We are identified with what should have happened, how we should have been seen. This is self-provided torment.

4. Tension of never having tried to succeed. It is natural to want to explore and develop but too afraid of failure.

The solution to all stress and tension is a mind made aware of what it is producing, the recognition of its activity and the result of its action. We have to see that our mind and thoughts are providing us with plans to relax us but what it is really doing is winding us up.

Six Characteristics of a Relaxed Mind

1. An organically passive mind is not dull but is.

2. Spontaneously responsive - This is a natural state of observation, seeing all activity passing through us.

3. A Naturally creative mind isn't bound by passing conditions and responds in an appropriate and creative way.

4. An organically passive mind is inherently sensitive. It isn't stuffed full so nothing can get into it and can continually receive fresh impressions that are new and refreshing.

5. Is perfectly efficient.

6. And effortlessly patient -- wastes no energy and can do what is set before it.

Remember that a mind wound up, everything it names to relieve itself of stress is what actually causes the stress. Here is an exercise to begin to work to understand the self-destructive nature. Become conscious of the pressure instead of doing what it tells you to do. Stop participating in its plans. Find ways we use more energy than is necessary. For instance - pushing too hard on a pen when taking notes, rushing to get somewhere so we can relax. Stop giving vitality to the pushy nature.

Begin to relax your way through life. Everything we want is already built into the movement of life. The world is balanced and so it is in the human soul. Stop trying to relieve yourself of tension. Relax your way to inner riches. Awaken yourself and be aware of the tension instead of answering it. Take a reality break and relax and come awake.

Key Words:
awareness, enemies, sense of self, stress, self-knowledge