Michael Cameron's Portfolio

The word ’stress’ is becoming more and more common in our language these days. We all undergo acute stressful events that we have no control over. For example, birth and death are naturally stressful situations we all experience. We also experience the birth and death of stresses that are present in our daily lives. These stresses may range from looking after your misbehaving kids to working under a deadline at the office. Stress is present in everyone’s life in varying degrees. The consequence and impact of this varies in individual cases but most people have a particular level of stress they can tolerate. How often have you heard someone blame their foul mood on being under too much stress?

Generally speaking, we all seem to want less stress in our lives. Many people feel ill-equipped to deal with the levels of stress in their existing lifestyle. We struggle, seek help, and sometimes self medicate as means to cope with this problem. We are able to categorize a wide variety of the symptoms that are indicative of too much stress. The following is a brief list of symptoms that can impact our mind and body:

• Impacts on your mind: anxiety, restlessness, irritability, depression, mood swings, job dissatisfaction, confusion, guilt, helplessness, inability to concentrate, insomnia, fatigue, boredom, depression, social withdrawal, relationship conflicts and decreased productivity.
• Impacts on your body: headaches, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, muscle aches, clenched jaws, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhea, sleep problems, weight gain, weight loss, sexual dysfunction, cramps, drug abuse, excessive drinking and increased smoking.

For many, the most prominent symptom of stress is anxiety. Anxiety is an easily recognizable manifestation that has a broad range of physiological effects. We have all experienced anxiety in its various forms: a sense of worry, a tight feeling in our stomach or a thought that keeps us awake at night. Anxiety can often motivate us to take action. For example, if you were buying your first home, you may encounter some anxiety about making such a big decision. Our typical response to this is to take action: do some research and get informed about what to expect. In this respect, anxiety can be positive. The more negative type of anxiety causes you to fret about the house and its potential problems. You might find yourself thinking: “What if the roof leaks?” or “What if the basement floods?” or “What if there’s a earthquake?!”. We can see ourselves start to unravel as we consider all the horrible things that can happen to the new house we haven’t even bought yet. When we find ourselves staying awake at night fabricating a disaster we need to realize that we are only creating more anxiety for ourselves.

So what can we do to alleviate our anxiety and curb our negative projection? In order to properly consider this, we need to take a look at how our mind deals with reality in general. Science tells us that our body and mind communicate via our nervous system: electrical and chemical signals that travel up and down our spinal column from our sense organs to our brain and vice-versa. So consider how we experience reality: our mind interprets the signals that our body produces and gives us a feeling of the experience. For example, when you drink a cup of coffee the heat from the liquid is a series of signals sent to your mind. Your mind then interprets these signals and you enjoy a hot cup of coffee.

Often we assume that any experience, like in our drinking coffee example, is the same for everyone. This is not the case. We can see that people have different tastes and preferences in all areas of their lives, and we can infer that everyone’s experience of the same cup of coffee is not the same. So what does coffee have to do with your anxiety and projections? Well, just as the experience of the same cup of coffee is different for individuals, so is the experience of anxiety. We know that people deal with anxiety and worry in their lives with varying degrees of success. Even people who have similar lifestyles or work the same job cope with their stresses differently.

Before we can apply a solution we must first realize the need to eliminate our projections. Often when we encounter a problem, our mind grabs onto it, creates a future for it, and projects different paths for it that all lead to anxiety. Our mind becomes a torrent of worry. This only serves to mistakenly reinforce the idea that the projection is concrete and fixed. The more we participate in these projections, the more strength they gain and the more real they become. The truth is that all of your projections are just illusions. They are mental constructs that causes you suffering. No one else can see or experience them.

From a young age we learn to walk, talk, read and write. At later stages we may learn how to fix a car, how to use a computer or file paperwork. So doesn’t it stand to reason that we can actually learn how to deal with our stress and anxiety? If we’re willing, we can learn how our own mind works. We can examine ourselves and produce solutions to the problems we create in our mind. We can learn to be less susceptible to stress and external influence. We can let go and stop projecting.

It is easy to intellectualize about our projections. Of course we understand they aren’t real. But this still does not allow us to overcome the problem. We have a tendency to blame our problems on external causes. For example, you may think that your job keeps you awake at night when in reality it is your own mind. If we are really serious about changing our lives and overcoming our old habits we have to be willing to change on the inside. Leading a less stressful and happier life is going to take commitment. There is no quick fix. You need to invest time and energy. Your progress will be slow, but the eventual fruits of your labor will impact your life forever.

So what’s the answer? Start meditating.