Hugh Byrne on Managing stress - 'Bringing Mindfulness to Habits of Stress or Anxiety

'Bringing Mindfulness to Habits of Stress or Anxiety 

Transcript

This is a meditation for transforming habits of stress and anxiety through mindfulness.

Stress is a natural and essential part of life and not inherently negative or problematical.

We experience stress when we run a race,

Give a public talk,

Sit an exam or have a job interview.

Whether a stressful event or situation,

Known as a stressor,

Becomes a problem or a source of suffering depends on how we respond to the stressor.

If we can experience the challenging event or situation,

Or an internal experience,

And then come down from it and back into equilibrium,

Then stress will not be a problem.

But when we stay aroused by the challenge,

Particularly by revisiting the thoughts in our minds in an anxious or fearful way,

Then we perpetuate the stress.

If we keep thinking about all the work we have to do and how we're never going to be able to get it all done,

We feed the stress reaction.

We're like the monk in a Zen story who painted a tiger on the wall of his cave and was terrified every time he looked at the painting of the tiger.

This is what we can do with our thoughts.

We paint a scary picture in our minds and then we get more and more afraid or anxious when we think about the picture that we ourselves have painted.

When we respond in an unhealthy way to challenges,

We can get locked in a fight or flight response.

Chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline are released,

Blood flows to our muscles as though we're defending ourselves in a life-threatening situation,

And we can get locked in an unhealthy stress response with potentially damaging effects on our physical,

Emotional,

And mental health.

These responses serve us well when we really are in a dangerous or a life-threatening situation,

But not when we're fueling these responses through our thoughts and our fears.

Mindfulness is a key antidote for reducing and alleviating stress because it allows us to experience the bodily feelings associated with the stress without resisting them.

We can experience them as impermanent energies that come and go when met with awareness and kindness.

When we're caught up in stress,

We're locked in habitual responses,

Our habits of identifying with our thoughts and not opening fully to our bodily feelings and emotions.

Mindfulness helps us break the unhealthy stress response.

So for this meditation,

Sit in a comfortable and relaxed way.

You can take some full breaths,

Releasing and relaxing on the out-breath.

You might scan your body and invite a relaxing and softening of each area in turn.

Your face,

Eyes,

Mouth,

Jaw,

Chin.

Down the shoulders and the upper back.

The belly and chest.

The lower body.

You might invite a smile to the corners of your eyes and your mouth,

Allowing the smile to send a message of calm and wellbeing to your brain and nervous system.

You can put your hand on your heart and send a wish to yourself,

May I live with ease,

May I be happy.

Now bring to mind something that feels stressful in your life.

It might be a family situation or work,

Finances,

Health.

Something that generates some feeling of stress.

Let yourself take in this challenging situation and feel it fully.

Allow yourself to feel whatever bodily sensations are present.

Perhaps tightness or contraction in the chest or belly.

Or a tightening of the muscles.

Or dryness in the mouth.

And open fully to these feelings with kindness,

Acceptance and interest.

Let these feelings come and go and be held in awareness with kindness.

Open too to any emotions that are present.

Fear,

Worry,

Anxiety,

Sadness.

And let yourself experience these emotions.

Saying yes to whatever is present and meeting it with kindness and acceptance.

It may help to revisit the smile or put your hand on your heart and wish yourself well.

May I be happy,

May I live with ease.

Bring awareness to whatever thoughts or narratives come up.

Like,

This will only get worse or I'll never be able to get all this done.

Whatever comes up.

And meet these thoughts with friendliness without believing them or identifying with them.

Let them come and go.

The thoughts might trigger tightness,

Fear or some other emotion or sensation.

And if they do,

Bring awareness with kindness to these feelings.

Letting the thoughts or the stories go.

Continue to open to your experience in this way.

Opening fully to the bodily sensations and emotions that are present.

Saying yes to them and observing the thoughts and beliefs that come up without identifying with them.

In this way you can untangle yourself from what can be a confused ball of stress.

Thoughts triggering bodily sensations and emotions.

Bodily feelings triggering more thoughts.

We can get caught up in a syndrome of stress.

Take a few minutes to sit quietly with all that's present for you right now.

And you can practice working in this way with thoughts,

Emotions and bodily feelings as they arise in daily life.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Stress & Struggle

When life challenges you, let it become your training partner. Lean in, steady your breath, and meet it with calm intent. Strength grows in the struggle.

Clutter & Adornment

Marie Kondo’s Cleaning Method May Help Reduce Stress

Sharon Salzberg, a meditation teacher and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, is the author of "Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation" and "Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness."

UPDATED JULY 18, 2016, 3:22 AM

Any action, from writing an email to drinking tea, can be meditative so long as it is done with awareness and intention.

And the acts of sweeping, doing laundry or folding clothes can certainly fit that bill. The more contemplative the action — the more present and connected to the experience we are — the more we smell the scent of the soap, or feel the heat of the dried clothing as we fold. With cleaning, we can also see the results of our intentions: a tidier home, laundered clothing. That can all be immensely powerful.

When we reach for stress reduction, eliminating external chaos is an excellent place to start, and Kondo’s books offer a concrete and actionable takeaway.

I do think that clutter affects our mindsets and can exacerbate stress. When we reach for stress reduction, eliminating external chaos is an excellent place to start, which is why Kondo’s books have reassured so many readers — they offer a concrete and actionable takeaway. That said, there's value in balance. One of my students struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and she has told me many times that meditation helps her let go of the compulsion to clean, organize and tidy.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the word “adornment" refers not to jewelry but to anything that can bring more joy into life, but is not essential. Knowing the difference — between what might “adorn” your life to bring more joy, and what you actually need to make you feel complete — is pretty powerful.

Kondo's exercise of assessing possessions based on whether or not they “spark joy" shares some similarities to the act of questioning what is essential, but it is a focus on identifying the "adornment" in the clutter. Her technique may not be probing what is essential in life but it's a cleaning technique, after all.

We live in a world of distractions, with information and visual material thrown at us wherever we look. It seems natural that there’s a growing cultural emphasis on looking inward, and trying to find more simplicity. In that sense, perhaps we have become obsessed with the notion of trying to be more centered and connected to ourselves in our daily environments — and not just plugged into our inboxes or Twitter feeds.