The curious paradox is that when we are stressed, even the thought of meditating can be stressful. We are in such a hurry to get rid of the things that we believe are causing our stress that taking time out to meditate is the last thing we can imagine doing. We ask, ‘How could I possibly meditate now?’ However, when we’re stressed, meditation is one of the best things we can do. Our hectic and stressed lifestyle is robbing us of our meditation experience.
Stress is referred to as ‘the silent killer’, as it not only affects our body and corrupts its natural functioning; it also affects our mind and behaviour as well. Every day, we go through stress a number of times—mild or severe. We follow our own ways to fight or flee them, yet Stress still remains the major disease of modern life. Meditation awakens us to the reality of our existence. We get stressed because we feel that we are separate from the divine energy that created us. We find ourselves entangled in a tight web of illusion. By refusing to accept that we are just reaping what we have sown in our current and past lives, we are choosing to create stressful thoughts and this in turn sets of a series of reactions in our body and mind that medical science calls the fight-flight-freeze response.
When our fight-flight-freeze response is activated, chemicals like adrenaline, and cortisol are released into our bloodstream. These chemicals cause our body to undergo a series of very dramatic changes. Our respiratory rate increases. Blood is shunted away from our digestive tract and directed into our muscles and limbs, which require extra energy and fuel for running and fighting. Our awareness intensifies. Our pupils dilate and our sight sharpens. Our impulses quicken and our heart rate increases. Our immune system and digestion shut down. We become prepared—physically and psychologically—for fight or flight. We scan and search our environment, “looking for the enemy.” Eventually the brain says the only people around me are my family and colleges – then they must be the enemy. So, we start finding faults with all those around us. The fight-flight-freeze response is life-saving in the face of real physical danger, however, if this response resulted from our negative thoughts about the past then it becomes life-damaging.
When our fight-flight-freeze system is activated, we tend to perceive everything in our environment as a possible threat to our survival. Our creator has designed us to survive physical threats. By its very nature, the fight-flight-freeze system bypasses our rational mind— and moves us into “attack” mode. This state of art alertness causes us to perceive almost everything in our world as a possible threat to our survival. As such, we tend to see everyone and everything as a possible enemy. Like government security during a terrorist threat, we are on the lookout for every possible danger. We may overreact to the slightest comment. Our fear is exaggerated. Our thinking is distorted. We see everything through the filter of possible danger. We narrow our focus to those things that can harm us. Fear becomes the lens through which we see the world. Hence, we become our own enemy creating havoc in our relationships with ourselves and the people we love.
We can begin to see how it is almost impossible to cultivate positive feelings, beliefs and attitudes when we are stuck in survival mode. Our heart is closed to the joy around us. Our higher thinking, rational mind is disengaged. Our consciousness is focused on fear, not love and growth. Making clear choices and recognizing the consequences of those choices is unfeasible. We are focused on short-term survival, not the long-term consequences of our negative beliefs and choices. When we are overwhelmed with excessive stress, our life becomes a series of short-term emergencies. We lose the ability to have fun, to relax and enjoy the moment. We live from crisis to crisis, with no relief in sight.
Meditation is one of the potent ways to reduce our stress and turn down the activity of our fight or flight response? According to the teachings of spiritual Masters, with meditation we can rise above the sphere of matter and mind so that pleasure and pain do not affect us. Meditation is essential. Meditation helps our attitude by giving us the cosmic perspective to see the big dramas of life as small or insignificant, rather than as gigantic, unsolvable problems. In turn our attitude to meditation is a determining factor in the way our meditation will unfold. When we sit in meditation, we are training ourselves to operate from a perspective of accepting the now, letting go, being free. Regular meditation is an attitude of obedience to a power we have accepted as greater than “me”.