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karan23
Member
Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 5
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2008 02:50
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Can you suggest some lifestyle changes that we can incorporate to reduce stress?
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onebeing
Member
Joined: 2 Sep 2008
Posts: 6
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2008 12:56 · Edited by: onebeing
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Get back in touch with Change. Often we get used to associating with a particular label, habits, hobbies, activities, and even thoughts. We say things like "this is just the way I am" or "that's not like me". We form an idea of who we are and then build on that idea rather than changing it at every opportunity. The fact is that we are not our idea of ourselves...we are the thing that creates the idea. Accept that you are always changing and let go of the need to feel security through the illusion of self-definition.
Our first belief is usually that "If I stabilize my life, my personality, my conversation, or my habits then I will have more control and less stress"...this is not true. The more you try to create an image the harder you will work to maintain that image (and the more you will fear that image falling apart). Let go and drift into uncertainty...don't fear it, just realize that "no matter how certain you convince yourself you are...you never really are and never have been." This is not a bad thing...but you can look at it that way if you choose to (but remember that you are choosing to)
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karan23
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Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 5
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2008 02:06
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I agree with what you are saying. But isn't it much much difficult to accept change? We have been trying so hard all our lives to build some security, some permanence.
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onebeing
Member
Joined: 2 Sep 2008
Posts: 6
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2008 02:40
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what we have done before now has nothing to do with what we do now. Change is very easy to accept, it is permanence that is hard to accept (which is why we keep fighting to maintain it). This is the root of stress...the constant battle to maintain the illusion that things are permanent.
No matter how hard you try to build "security or permanence" you never had it. All you've done is convince yourself you have it. This, of course, causes more stress when something happens to threaten that self-imposed illusion.
All you have to do is Be...stop yourself from thinking about "how to maintain stability". All of this is happening in the mind...not in the world around you. What you "think" is happening and what is actually happening are two different things.
You "think" things are stable until reality shows you that they are not. When we stop thinking about life we begin to live it...we begin to change with it (which we naturally do when we are not deliberately trying to stop change from happening...which is impossible).
It's easy...you've practiced "thinking" and now you need to practice Being. It's much easier to get out of thought than it was to get yourself into it.
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Vishal
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Joined: 15 Apr 2007
Posts: 92
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2008 07:42
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Well written Ray! Glad to have you around here.
karan23: Think this way - Nothing is permanent in this world. Every single thing is changing, every moment. Your body is undergoing change, the earth is changing, the nature is changing, everything is changing. Isn't it then our ignorance in trying to resist change? In fact, like Ray writes, resisting change is the root cause of all our miseries and stress.
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