Amrit Sadhana

Stress has become the password of this age. It is a 20th century phenomenon — a gift of the mechanised world. Dr Hans Selye, the famous Austrian “stress doctor”, started to investigate this new phenomenon in 1930; it was unheard of before that time. It was so unknown that when Dr Selye was asked to present his theory in France and Germany, he found that there was no word for stress in these languages! So he coined new words: le stress in French and der stress in German.
Actually speaking, stress is the wear and tear our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually-changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative feelings.
Because it is more mental than physical, a strange phenomenon can be observed: the younger the person, the more stressed s/he feels. Excessive competition, unattainable high goals and too many options are some of the stressors. Words like burnout, exhaustion, anxiety and boredom have entered the contemporary vocabulary and become a part of our daily conversations. As a result, efficiency goes down.
According to the Osho vision, stress is a force that can be used creatively. Instead of repressing it, and thus forming a blockage in the body, it is more useful and healthier to learn the art of transforming it. The key is: Do not try to relax when the body/mind is stressed, instead use that energy in a positive way.
And mind you, there is no need to go anywhere or renounce your work place — just bring awareness to the small acts that you are involved in.
Here are some simple Osho techniques to get over stress:

l Live your stress fully: Sometimes stress is so much that you can’t sleep at night. There is no need to worry. Use the energy that is coming up: walk up and down, go for a run or a long walk, play fast music and dance, or let the mind do what it wants to do. Rather than trying to go to sleep — which is not possible — use the rush of energy in a creative way. It simply means that the body is ready to fight with the problem. If you have lived your stress totally, you will come to a relaxation automatically.

l Take note, twice: If you have a headache or any pain, don’t feel inimical towards it and reach for an aspirin. Have no attitude, neither friendly nor antagonistic. Just take note: “headache, headache”, or “tension, tension”. Remain undisturbed by it, without any opinion. Immediately, 90 per cent of the headache will be gone — because a headache is not real pain, 90 per cent arises out of the antagonistic opinion. Immediately you will see that the greater part of it is no longer there.

l Talk to the body: Sit in your chair, be comfortable. Let there be a dim light in the room. Close your eyes and relax the body from the toe up to the head, feel inside where you feel the tension. You will find many spots of tension. If you feel it at the knee, just touch the knee and say to the knee, “Please relax”. If you feel some tension in the shoulders, just touch the place with love and compassion and say, “Please relax”. Within a week you will be able to communicate with your body. And once you start communicating with your body, things become very easy. This will take at least five minutes, and you will start feeling very, very limp. Relaxed, almost sleepy.
The body need not be forced, it can be persuaded. It will look a little absurd in the beginning because we have never been taught to talk to our own body — but miracles can happen by taking to the body.

l Talk to the breathing: Then bring your consciousness to your breathing and relax the breathing. Have a little talk with your breathing: “Please relax. Be natural”. You will see that the moment you say, “Please relax”, there will be a subtle click. So tell it to relax two or three times and then just remain silent. When you exhale, say “one”, when you inhale, remain silent.

Do this for seven days and by the end of it you would have found a golden key!

— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops
around the country and abroad.