Fundamentals of stress busting

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Osho Shivo is an enlightened mystic and a self development coach, who combines the dimensions of spirituality and ontology to help explore the new dimension of human potential. He has conducted workshops on stress free living, celebrating love, awakening creativity & intelligence, dealing with fear and many other subjects related with unlocking the human potential.

He conducts interactive chats on facebook on various subjects. Coming Saturday (August 7, 2010), you are welcome to join the interactive chat on “Stress Busting Techniques” at 10 PM. You can add him on facebook by profile name Osho Shivo and also become member of his facebook community “Stress Free Living“. He can also contacted on his phone 093231 50873 and his email:  thirdeyeastrology@gmail.com

Interview

Sarvesh: Shivoji, ‘stress’ has become a buzzword in modern life. Everyone seems to get afflicted with it irrespective of age, gender, religion etc. Psychologists say that stress is positive as well as negative. Can you please give your perspective on this and explain what exactly stress is, and why is it spreading its roots?

Osho Shivo: We need to first understand, what causes stress. When we move away from natural way of living by way of imposing our own ambitions to it, the stress results. Stress is to mind, what tiredness is to body. Since, mind don’t get any rest and it is in action 24hours including during the sleep, it acquires more and more stress. Just imagine giving no rest to body and putting it to work for 24 hours? We are doing the same with mind, as even our sleep has become shallow, so mind has no rest at all. Since, we are in the age of hyperactive mind, we are getting overloaded with stress. It is so difficult to be in the moment and enjoy life, as mind is always dreaming something about future or resenting about something from past.

Can stress be positive at times? Yes, it can be. We need to understand, what distinguishes positive stress from the negative one. The distinction is very simple. If you are in gratitude, all the stress is positive and will help you accomplish in life. If you are in complaint, stress will always be negative and will only causes serious troubles.

Sarvesh: That’s really true. Modern life, especially the professional life, is full of deadlines. We tend to keep on chasing newer and newer carrots, but yet never satisfied. But Shivoji, could you please elaborate a bit more on the phrase ‘natural way of living’ ? Please allow us to know as to how our ambitions come in way of this type of living and thus generate stress? A brief example is most welcome.

Osho Shivo: There are two forces in movement, first our individuality and second the cosmic consciousness. When these forces move opposite to each other, the stress is created. When one is cultivating talent and expressing it by way of creating value for others, there is immense creative joy and such kind of accomplishments cause very little stress, as one is being himself. Stress is caused, when one is chasing the path by way of imitating others, as this doesn’t come to him naturally. Suppose someone enjoys painting and continue to work hard on this path, there will be hardly any stress as one will enjoy, but suppose he gets insecure about the value of his work, and hence decides to try becoming a doctor, he has acquired a consistent source of stress. We need to come back to his natural path of evolution, rather then imitating the ways of others.

Sarvesh: You have brought a very beautiful point shivoji. ‘What will others think about me’ – this subconscious concern chase us throughout our lives, forcing us to imitate others. Well shivoji, if we try to do what we enjoy, then some of our desires may not get fulfilled. For example, someone may be very good in creating an abstract art, or at dance, but at the same time he may be having a desire to become very rich which would not be possible by using his talent. Does this conflict between different desires elevate stress levels further? What can be done to eliminate this conflict?

Osho Shivo: People have one basic mis-understanding about what is desirable in life. We normally desire to be rich and powerful. But Why? Because we have low self esteem, and we want approval from others. Instead of that, we must shift our focus and rather desire to be happy, which also includes gaining enough money. This can also give us freedom from being stressfully ambitious. If we learn to rejoice ourselves, and express ourselves creatively, we will definitely earn enough money to be happy. Unfortunately, what normally people look for, not just to make enough money to be happy, but try to make more money than their relatives, friends and neighbors, so as to gain a sense of superiority and hence cover their lack of self esteem, which is false and stressful. If one lives in harmony with his own being and understand that the real aim of life should be to enjoy life and not to run after ambitions, there would be minimum stress.

Sarvesh: Shivoji, often I observe in the working youth today (including myself) that out of comparison, we tend to develop some unrealistic expectations from ourselves. We as human beings are hero-worshipers, and everybody wants to be heroes. If these expectations are not fulfilled, then we develop frustrations, panic etc. We get into complaining mode.How would you explain this? Also please bring out any other reasons which could affect us with stress.

Osho Shivo: Since 1991, mind consciousness has risen, which has caused mind to go hyper active. This makes people, especially the new generation imagine a lot of success in mind and desiring that, without really being aware of what it takes to become so successful. Hence they are prone to unrealistic expectations, short cuts and faulty planning, which can lead to abrupt failures. Another major issue is, the youth can be very aggressive in making claims and promises, but when it comes to delivering on promises, they fail very often. The reason is very simple, they are living in ambitions and not really enjoying the present which makes them resent the hard toil and sweat which is an essential part of any success story. One of the keys to bust the stress is to enjoy the process, rather than remaining stuck with ambitions. My personal opinion is that the people who excel, become more successful than those who are ambitious. And my experience says that either you can practice excellence or you can be ambitious, as in ambition you are focused on future, while for excellence, you need to be focused in present. Living in the moment is the greatest of the stress buster.

Sarvesh: Shivoji, that’s a great piece of advice for all of us! Shivoji, moving on to the topic of stress-busting, does our body have any role in busting stress. I mean physical exercises, yoga, breathing exercises. How far are they effective? Do they have any limitations?

Osho Shivo: One needs to understand the basic fundamental of stress busting. There are two basic ways, first to release the stress by way of catharsis or by way of physical exercises such as jogging, outdoor games, dance etc.; second, and the more effective is to get in touch with your soul by way of pranayam, meditation and samadhi. Being in touch with soul can clean up your stress, the way taking bath can clean you up from sweat and dirt. Another great stress buster is good sleep, but in modern times sleep has become a casualty. I suggest two practices before sleeping, first, offer gratitude to life for the good things which happened to you during the day, and second hum (Bhramari Pranayam) for 10 mins before sleeping

Sarvesh: Shivoji, modern psychiatrists often consider having sex to be a very good sex-buster? How far is this true? And is it really the right way to deal with stress ? (Since some people even say that smoking busts their stress, but that really isn’t the right way)

Osho Shivo: Ya, sex could be a great stress buster, but unfortunately it has become a stress enhancer these days, as more and more men are facing the problems of premature ejaculation (being ambitious is the main cause) and women are facing the problem of lack of orgasm (because of using sex as a tool to control men). This is happening because the purity of sex is lost and it has become more a means of attaining something else and hence manipulations, ego games, control and politics have become common when it comes to sex. However, if the lovers are in truly in love and can enter in sex like worship with deep gratitude and surrender to each other, sex can turn out to be a great stress buster.

Sarvesh: I remember one of Einstein’s quote that any problem can be solved only when we raise ourself higher from the level which created it. Shivoji, after reading your views, we realize that real stress busting occurs only when we rise from the mind to our soul. You mention this interesting phrase ‘ being in touch with soul’. What do you mean by that exactly. We often hear on pranayam and meditation. But what exactly do you mean by ‘samadhi’ and how far is it relevant for the busy man of today?

Osho Shivo: Samadhi is about experiencing our existence as soul. For all the troubles caused by mind, the only way is to experience our soul, hence samadhi has become even more relevant for the modern man. Hence I foresee the emergence of a deeply spiritual era, which will emanate from the troubles caused by the mind consciousness. This is what the yr 2012 prediction of Mayan prophecies is.

Sarvesh: Shivoji, you have covered almost all the aspects of stress and have also mentioned some great stress-busting techniques. I sincerely hope that this interview will definitely guide the modern generation to become more aware of their stress levels and thus guide them to manage it and bust it more effectively. Anything more you would like to comment on?

Osho Shivo: Thank you Sarvesh for your insightful questioning. I would just like to sum up everything I said in just one sentence – “Authenticity is the key for stress free living”. May divine bless our readers with peaceful and blissful living.