Using stress creatively

WELLNESS

Stress has become the password of this age. It is a twentieth century phenomenon "" a gift of the mechanised world.

Dr Hans Selye, the famous Austrian "stress doctor", started to investigate this new phenomenon in 1930 (it was unheard of before then).

It was so unknown that when Dr Selye was asked to present his theory in France and Germany, he found there was no word for stress in these languages. So he coined le stress in French and der stress in German.

Stress is the wear and tear our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative feelings.

Because it is more mental than physical, a strange phenomenon can be observed: the younger the person, the more stressed he feels. Excessive competition, unattainable high goals, too many options are some stress catalysts. Words like burnout, exhaustion and anxiety have entered the contemporary lexicon.

According to the Osho vision, stress is a force which can be used creatively. Instead of repressing it, and thus forming a blockage in the body, it is healthier to learn the art of transforming it. The key is: do not try to relax when the body/mind is stressed, but use that energy in a positive way.

Here are some simple Osho techniques to overcome stress:

• Take note twice: If you have a headache, don't feel inimical towards it and reach for an aspirin. Have no attitude, neither friendly nor antagonistic. Just take note: "headache, headache". Remain undisturbed by it, without any opinion. Immediately, 90 per cent of the headache is gone "" because a headache is not a real headache; mostly it arises out of an antagonistic opinion. Immediately you will see that the greater part of it is no longer there.
• Live your stress fully: Sometimes stress won't let you sleep at night. There is no need to worry. Use the energy that is coming up: walk up and down, go for a run or a long walk, or plan what the mind wants to do. Rather than trying to go to sleep "" which is not possible "" use the situation in a creative way. It simply says that the body is ready to fight with the problem. This is no time to relax; that will come later. In fact, if you have lived your stress totally, you will reach a stage of relaxation automatically.

Dropping tension

• Talk to the body: Sit in your chair, be comfortable. Let there be a dim light in the room. Close your eyes and relax the body from the toe up to the head; try and locate the spot where you feel the tension. You will find many spots of tension.

If you feel it at the knee, just touch the knee and say to the knee, "Please relax". If you feel some tension in the shoulders, touch the place with love and compassion and say, "Please relax".

Within a week you will be able to communicate with your body. This will take at least five minutes, and you will start feeling very very limp. relaxed, almost sleepy. It may feel a little absurd in the beginning because we have never been taught to talk to our own body "" but miracles happen.

Talk to the breath: Bring your consciousness to the breathing and relax it. Have a little talk to the act of breathing: "Please relax." Say it a few times and then remain silent. When you exhale, say "one"; when you inhale remain silent.

Do it for seven days and you will have found the golden key to managing stress.