Letting Go of Habituated Stress & Discovering a Peaceful Normal

Photo: Lines of surf and a lone leaf adorn a Lake Michigan beach. Saugutuck, Michigan (2021). Copyright SJPhotography

Letting Go of Habituated Stress & Discovering a Peaceful Normal (includes 6-minute guided meditation)

I often delve into the topic of the mind, encompassing our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. I do this because our minds are often the very source of our pain and suffering. While external events can trigger these inner turmoils, they are left in our care to tend, manage, and cope with. Our self-care routines can be interrupted, and our self-love can be thwarted when our critical inner voice takes over, remains unchecked, and allowed to run rampant.

However, it is also through our responses to upsets and triggers that we can access our deepest and most wounded aspects. It is here that we can begin the gentle overtures of befriending, respecting, and holding our own hand through discomfort and pain. It is from this space that we can learn to comfort ourselves, find relief in our loving awareness, and embrace compassionate presence. It is within this realm, that we find long-term healing and transformation – a synergy of learning how to stop normalizing stressful times and begin to love the slow, quiet, and peaceful times without feeling scared and skeptical about what may lurk around the corner, poised to upend our tranquility. We become our own loving healers and guides on this journey of life.

For those habituated to high levels of internal stress since early childhood, it is the absence of stress that creates unease, evoking boredom and a sense of meaninglessness.

_Gabor Mate, “When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection”