EP 416: Stress is not a Possession

‘I have so much stress!!!’ ‘I am angry!!!’ ‘I am stressed out and I have anxiety!!’ These are terms I hear all the time as I speak with people who just can’t show up to their lives as a result of all these big emotions and stress. And while I don’t doubt the sincerity of people who say these kinds of things, I do object to the accuracy of these statements. We don’t ‘have’ stress or emotions. And we are not the stress or emotions we feel at any given time. The truth is that we experience stress and emotions the same way we experience things like weather. Just like the weather, the stress and emotions we experience are impermanent and passing phenomena. And with a little training and daily practice, we can allow these phenomena to pass the same way we see the weather change from moment to moment. (Especially in a place like Colorado where we have the saying: ‘if you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.’) For many of us, we have practiced stress, anxiety, and anger for so long that we’ve gotten very good at it! Would you like to learn how to practice well being?