Are You Stressed?

Increasing Your Purpose, Presence, and Acceptance through Mindfulness

Important things take time, energy, and commitment.

Unfortunately, the norm for many people begins with leaping out of bed, dashing out the door without taking the time to have a decent breakfast, then slogging through backlogged rush hour traffic.

Photo by Dan Freeman on Unsplash

Already embattled from the morning commute, they find the will to blast through a long, intense, and urgent workday, often sacrificing breaks and lunch.

Clocking out at the end of the day, they are back in rush hour traffic, unsure of exactly what they spent the day doing.

Finally home, they fulfill the commitments of an overscheduled personal life until late in the evening, just to repeat the frenetic cycle the next day. This relentless stress, which most people accept as normal, leads to emotional reactivity, ineffective behavior, and conflict.

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

While the rat race of the modern world is an external cause of mindlessness, there is a second internal cause: a natural propensity to see the world negatively. This evolutionary, inbuilt response creates an almost complete lack of conscious awareness when it is activated. Studies by the National Science Foundation, Harvard, and Cornell over the past twenty years have illuminated how the thread of fear is woven into the fabric of human existence:

• The average person has 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day; 80% are negative
• 85% of what people worry about never happens
• The average person spends almost half of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they are doing
• People are often least present and least happy when at work

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

Mindfulness is about learning a new way. Instead of reacting to and being overwhelmed by what’s going on around you, mindfulness allows you to focus your time and energy on…