The Story of Stress

When you think about it, stress is really a condition of the mind when you want things to be different than they are. It's easy enough to begin scolding yourself - be present, you say, and yes, of course, you have to be present. But life presents anynumber of circumstances that leave us wistful, yearning and unhappy about the way things are.

Take for instance graduation - you really want to see your child graduate, but you have to work. In times past, the whole town would stop for an occasion like kids graduating, but not in todays world. In the Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard says, "We have become a nation of consumers, our primary identity has become that of being consumers, not mothers, teachers, farmers, but consumers."

Stress is in many ways a product of fanatical consumerism, and consumerism isn't something that just happened, it was something that was designed. Annie Leonard goes on to share that after World War II, the government was trying to figure out how to ramp up the economy, when retailing analyst Victor Lebeau articulated the solution that has now become the norm... "Our enormously productive economy, demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction in consumption. ... We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate." Our government decided that the ultimate purpose of the American economy was to produce goods. [I want to say right here, that the Story of Stuff is one of the internet's best all time presentations - please show everyone you know! http://www.storyofstuff.com/]

And so it began - the ever-lasting cycle of consumerism as a way of life. Gotta have it, it dies, and then you need more. It creates a cycle of obsessive work to get goods, which become obsolete, so we work more, work harder, work obsessively to get more and go through the cycle more, endlessly. And all the while the things our hearts yearn for - the things of human spirit - love, comfort, joy, happiness, intimacy, sharing...these things are left on the roadside, because we have no time.

Stress happens because we want something other than what is. Yes. And sometimes the process of becoming present is the process of recognizing what choices we are making in life. Are we choosing the need for stuff and the hamster wheel of consumerism (and all it's planned obsolesence) or are we choosingto be less consumers and more human spirit enthusiasts?

Next time you're feeling stressed, ask yourself some hard questions. Is stuff at the bottom of it? Is there a way to do with less stuff? Can human spirit be brought somehow to the foreground? Would you be happier if you could bring human spirit to a higher priority in your life? And what are you going to do, or, more importantly, do without, to make that happen?

The story of stress is the story of our own making and therefore we are empowered to make anything we want out of it. What are you going to make out of it?

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop