Zen and the Art of Dealing with Stress or put it simply.. Meditation.

I have just been asked about my stand on dealing with stress.

As a therapist, I have supported my clients in making the contents of their subconscious conscious so that the person has greater awareness of exactly what is going on the deeper mind and nervous system.

One of the most effective ways of doing this is to develop techniques that will assist a person in digging deeper into the subconscious mind. Meditation is one such technique that I have used to with my clients, but it takes discipline, but everyone who has committed to the discipline, has found a new ability to deal with stress and learn how to release it.

This is because I have discovered through my own practice,  that we each hold the answer to every predicament and self-knowledge gained through meditation is a powerful way to access the knowledge. It may be buried deeply in our minds, but it is there and all we have to do, is to begin the practice of witnessing which is what serious meditation is about.

Crazy Thoughts; Something Beyond

There is  something beyond illness and wellness that gets obscured by denial. Judgment and resistance will only get anything to persist. Total acceptance means not calling it illness or wellness, as they are judgments. Illness or wellness is just experience. Being aware supports us in our responsibility for either. 

Can we accept that the mind has vast power and respect it?  If I observe closely I can see that it usually controls a great deal of my life, my habits, my drives and desires, everything really - just triggered by a thought - any thought, regardless of how important I judge it to be at the time of thinking it! 

My justifications and judgments are all part of the minds control and power. And yes, the power is vast and mostly unexplored; existing below the level of awareness!   Every aspect in my life can be transcended if I am  willing to fully accept it.  

Paradoxically, I have to fully experience "fighting" all manner of dualism as I am fighting it, before I can really be on my journey - I am thinking of the Silent Flute with all the fighters risking their lives just to get on a hazardous journey to enlightenment!      And then of the Zen temple where the Zen masters make all newcomers into Zen stand outside and just wait, regardless of weather or conditions. Wait, and wait, risking death perhaps? 

What is more important, realization of self, or continuing life in the physical body..  That is judgment again!  Seems I can't get away from it. But let's be fair, nothing much of value has come about for those of us who sit on the fence and there's nothing like the short sharp shock of a piece of reality to knock us off it.