stress and the buddha

stress … it’s 9:15 pm and i’ve been at it since 7 am. i’ve had a 10-minute break. somewhere around 4 pm.

look at me! i’m such a hard worker!

what a bunch of baloney!

driving my body, mind and soul like this is nothing to be proud of.

and i’m very grateful that i recognize this. so when i was driving home from a meeting, thinking about how i was going to most effectively work through the rest of the evening, mercifully, the sensible part of me told me to STOP!

“stop,” said this sensible voice to me, “stop this thinking in the future, stop the scheming and planning, and pay attention to what you’re doing now!”

so i started to pay attention to what i was doing. driving. participating in the dance of traffic. noticing the tension in my shoulders. stepping on the gas, stepping on the breaks. breathing. breathe in: 1, 2, 3, 4; breath out: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. breathe in …. breathe out ……..

aaaah. that felt better. breathing, stepping, looking, moving … and then of course, thoughts of the future still popping in and out. but the focus wasn’t on those thoughts anymore. the focus was on being right here, only “this”, right now, rather than doing this and that, over there, in the future.

i even pulled over for a few minutes to just sit and breathe.

i feel much better now.

thank you, buddha, for teaching me this.

isabella mori
counselling in vancouver
www.moritherapy.com