How to Manage Stress Effectively

December 19, 2019

There are plenty of stress management strategies out there. Exercise, talking, action, meditation, yoga, nature. Tons more. However, there’s one thing that gets me viewing situations in perspective. A phrase that is part of my mantra for living.

Before I share with you the phrase, I want to stress the importance of it. I know that reading it, it might just wash over you as not a big deal. So I wanted to share with you how I came to really understand this phrase.

I’d heard it many times before I ‘got it’. Naturally, it’s been around for years, and the idea is nothing new. It was only in 2013 when I went on a 10 day silent meditation retreat – called Vipassana – that I truly understood it’s significance. When I truly ‘got it’ in my bones – not just intellectually.

The phrase is this:

This too, shall pass.

Indeed, all things pass. There is an impermanence to life. Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer – the seasons change. Nothing lasts forever. The pain – it doesn’t last. The joy – neither does that.

I got it when doing Vipassana as for some of the 12 hours of meditation a day, I had to remain completely still for an hour at a time. And you know, that after a couple of minutes, you will get an itch somewhere. And want to scratch it. But you don’t. You just sit with it. Observing it. Noticing it without judgement. And then what happens. It goes away. And then another sensation (good or bad) will take its place. And then what. That disappears too.

This too, shall pass.

Whenever I am stressed, or injured, or dejected or dumped, and feeling low. I say to myself:

This too, shall pass.

Take serious note of this, because when you are experiencing stress and pain, know that it will pass, so don’t wallow in it. Equally, enjoy the good times. Saviour them. As they too shall pass.

This too, shall pass.

Just like the seasons, the Earth, the universe even. Everything in life is transient. That’s how it goes. So usually when I’m feeling stressed about something, I know that at some point in the future I won’t. And then the feeling starts to dissipate.

I know that this sounds simplistic. Too simplistic even. But do you really want it to be complicated?

What’s your ‘go to’ stress management approach? Let me know.

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