Dear Patient,
Recently I was talking with a patient about stress. About how it never really leaves us. Sometimes it’s front and center, demanding our full attention, while other times it hides in the shadows. But it’s always there. One stressor goes away, and a new one pops up to take its place.
Is a stress-free life even possible?
Probably not, because life is unpredictable. Life requires that we get out into the world and encounter strange situations and interact with baffling, inscrutable life forms. Life requires us to take chances and be vulnerable. Stress IS life. So what do we do?
Instead of trying to conquer stress, maybe we can try to make friends with it. Invite it in for tea. Ask what it wants. Listen to what it has to say. Maybe even ask for its help. Maybe acknowledge and respect its power instead of trying to run from it. And maybe even accept its power as our own.
Imagine what it would look like if you harnessed the power of stress to create, or nurture, or comfort, or love. Maybe now’s the time to make friends with stress.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
This makes me think of something I’ve heard from top athletes and musicians. They say things like “if I don’t have the nerves going I know I won’t perform well.” Where I feel the opposite, they are able to harness that energy and welcome it.
This reminds me of what Nietzsche wrote about the abyss: stare into it, it stares back at you. Stress is like the abyss and it's part of us. It's always been with us. In fact, we wouldn't be who we are without it. I imagine "stress" (the abyss) to be like the 12th House in astrology: becoming one with all that is. Mystics, prisoners, institutionalized, hospitalized or oppressed. Stress offers us a choice: serve or suffer with self-transcedence and surrender to a higher power; dreams, fantasies, imagination, illusion and disillusion; the House of self-undoing, isolation and retreat; conditions prior to birth and karma..... and there's nothing more stressful than being born!