Globally, 37% of adults report experiencing stress on a daily basis, making it the most common negative emotion worldwide. In the United States, that number is even higher: approximately 48% to 49% of Americans say they experience significant stress on any given day.
I believe stress, anxiety and an overall heightened sense of tension is one of the great destroyers of the fullness which life can be lived and experienced. I do not mean to say that stress is something which ought to be dispelled with entirely. It has its place, and has its own teaching to impart. But stress can only teach us something when we remove it from being rooted in our identity.
When we say (and believe) “I am stressed” we are not only admitting the reality of our experience, we are also linguistically claiming stress as being part of who we are. We need to reframe.
Rather than being a stressed out person, we need to learn how to look at stress as though it is another person, a teacher, who can teach us something in the moment. And if we learn what stress wants to teach us in that moment, we can quickly move on to something perhaps more enjoyable: We can become calm through the stress.
I was struck by the quote by Alan Watts: “Calmness is not merely an emotional preference, it is a biological advantage.”
This idea is something which many of us likely know intuitively; that being calm puts our body into a state where we can actually act with confidence and optimal performance.
In the video above which includes the quote by Alan Watts, he also says, “This is why calmness is the gateway to receiving.”
Why?
When we are tense, stressed or anxious, this is like clenching a fist. We close our hand as the tendons of our body become tight and begin to recoil from the world because much of stress is rooted in fear. Yet, when we are calm. When we let go of the clenched fist, we opend our hands to receive. And in order to receive, the space of an open hand is always a requirement.
"Calmness is not merely an emotional preference, it is a biological advantage."
- Alan Watts
The Power of Being Calm
Globally, 37% of adults report experiencing stress on a daily basis, making it the most common negative emotion worldwide. In the United States, that number is even higher: approximately 48% to 49% of Americans say they experience significant stress on any given day.
I believe stress, anxiety and an overall heightened sense of tension is one of the great destroyers of the fullness which life can be lived and experienced. I do not mean to say that stress is something which ought to be dispelled with entirely. It has its place, and has its own teaching to impart. But stress can only teach us something when we remove it from being rooted in our identity.
When we say (and believe) “I am stressed” we are not only admitting the reality of our experience, we are also linguistically claiming stress as being part of who we are. We need to reframe.
Rather than being a stressed out person, we need to learn how to look at stress as though it is another person, a teacher, who can teach us something in the moment. And if we learn what stress wants to teach us in that moment, we can quickly move on to something perhaps more enjoyable: We can become calm through the stress.
I was struck by the quote by Alan Watts: “Calmness is not merely an emotional preference, it is a biological advantage.”
This idea is something which many of us likely know intuitively; that being calm puts our body into a state where we can actually act with confidence and optimal performance.
In the video above which includes the quote by Alan Watts, he also says, “This is why calmness is the gateway to receiving.”
Why?
When we are tense, stressed or anxious, this is like clenching a fist. We close our hand as the tendons of our body become tight and begin to recoil from the world because much of stress is rooted in fear. Yet, when we are calm. When we let go of the clenched fist, we opend our hands to receive. And in order to receive, the space of an open hand is always a requirement.
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