Thought 132: Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress

All religions recognize that prayer is an excellent form of worship. All of us pray at some time or the other; you very rarely find a human beng who does not pray at some time or the other. Even atheists pray when placed in highly traumatic circumstances – such as advanced stages of cancer; they try to make their peace with their maker when they realize that they are about to depart on their final journey.

Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress. It relieves anxiety and tension, by unburdening the mind and establishing direct emotional communion with the God. Every prayer emanates from the heart – it is an outpouring of the heart. The hearts of devotees cry out in prayer – especially in highly stressful circumstances, like Gajendra or Draupadi. Because the prayer is a spontaneous outpouring of the heart, it has no standard format. The prayer is only as efficacious as your sincerety, faith in god and devotion.

A prayer is a private conversation between you and your creator. A prayer is a recognition of your helplessness in this world of mortals – and also a recognition that there are higher powers ruling over the destinies of mortals. Unless you believe in God, you do not pray; prayer presupposes some amount of faith in God. While praying, you become sincere and humble - which is your immediate reward.

In prayer, you plug into your God and seek relief; you supplicate yourself to God. You petition the God for granting you some thing which you desire immediately. A soul under torment, longing for His help, conceives Him capable of granting this prayer. You have faith that He will provide the relief - from whatever is troubling you. You can, of course, ask for calmness, peace and tranquility, although, people normally do not seek these things from God. Your faith makes you believe that your prayer will be granted - and this belief itself is therapeutic. Prayer purifies your mind; it has a cleansing effect - which is very supportive, when you are under tension.

The next thought is about “Transcendental Meditation”

Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 130: Stress has become unavoidable

A person goes to work for two primary reasons. One, of course, is to earn his or her livelihood. The other equally important drive is to socialize. If you do not go to work, you degenerate. This is why people, who lose jobs, for whatever reason and those who retire, get easily bored, demoralized and depressed, when remaining idle at home. It is said that an idle man’s brain is a devil’s workshop. Boredom drives these people to all sorts of mischief – alcoholism, for instance, is one offshoot of such a boredom.

At the same time, when you have a job and go to work, the work environment interacts with you - not always pleasantly. This interaction very often results in some amount of stress. As a matter of fact, there is usually some amount of stress in every occupation and in every work environment.

The say that emotions like medicine should be in a proper dosage to be effective. This principle is observed more in its breach than in its compliance. Emotions have direct impact on health. There are many instances of body reaction relating to the state of the mind. You blush when you are embarrassed. Your face becomes red when you are angry. You become pale when you are frightened. When you feel frightened, the heart rate increases rapidly. Sadness and melancholy can produce loss of appetite. Mind and breathing are connected in some way. When you are disturbed - anger, shock, fear etc - your breathing becomes irregular. We know that rhythmic breathing calms the mind.

Emotional stress is what you feel when a loved one passes away. It manifests itself in depression, grief, sadness, loneliness, helplessness. Under the influence of this type of stress, you may get immobilized and neglect your health, your job etc. If you are a habitual cynic, these effects will be accentuated further.

Stress related disorders like, high blood pressure, insomnia, ulcers, migraine headaches, are now being cured by body-mind therapies like meditation, relaxation response, hypnosis etc. Thus, the evidence that bodies and minds effect each other appears overwhelming. Now, it is more or less accepted that "thinking well helps making you well".

The next thought is about “The Bananas”

Thought 129: The Body-Mind Connection

Certain physical ailments are influenced by mental factors – which indicates the "body-mind" connection. Continuous stress induces the body to pump increasing amounts of hormones into the blood stream. These hormones, Dr Herbert Benson writes, produce tension headaches and anxiety attacks - important symptoms of which are nausea, vomiting, short temper, insomnia and many phobias. These chemical messengers (hormones) can inhibit immune action also. It is now well established that the body-mind interactions influence migraine head aches, ulcers, high blood pressure and back pain, etc. When people are in a pressure cooker for a long time, they eat badly, sleep badly, exercise badly, work badly and even think badly.

The next thought is about “Stress has become unavoidable”