Perhaps the root cause of stress. . .

Dr.Rachel Remen wrote in her book My Grandfather's Blessings, "Perhaps the root cause of stress is not overbearing bosses, ill-behaved children, the breakdown of relationships. It is the loss of a sense of our soul. If so, all the ways in which we have attempted to ease stress cannot heal it at the deepest level. Stress may heal only through the recognition that we cannot betray our spiritual nature without paying a great price. It is not that we have a soul but that we are a soul."

What a powerful perception. I have thought for a long time we have trivialized the whole concept of stress, especially with the "manage your stress" mantra. I keep saying that going to a class to learn how to manage your stress is like going to a class to learn how to be organized with your misery. We need to rethink our approach not just to stress but to life itself. I agree with Remen. Stress is more than just stuff out there. It is deep and it is profound. And it isn't about turning into a fundamentalist "whatever". I hate that we seem to get stuck in the idea of either/or. I don't believe reconnecting to our soul means we have to believe any particular religious dogma. If it helps fine, but it isn't necessary in my opinion.  And we can talk about psychological things and behavioral things we can do to help us with our stress. I do that all the time and I think they can be helpful. But if that is all we do and we neglect our spirit, our soul, we are like a technically great concert pianist who just doesn't seem to "get it" on the deeper level.

I think what we need to do is put the fragments back together. We are a soul that has splintered.We are Humpty-Dumpty and we are looking for "all the kings' men" - the superficial cures - often cloaked in psychological and religious terms to put us back together again. We seem reluctant to do the work ourselves. This work, I believe should be on rediscovering our integrity. Most of us think of integrity in relationship to the idea of being an honest person. But there is a much deeper meaning. Integrity refers to a wholeness. It is about being whole, of putting our pieces together, of being honest and true to ourselves.

Feeling tense, harried, put upon etc. is not what stress is - at least the stress that I, and I believe Remen are talking about.  It is about being fragmented and not knowing which way to go. Because we are fragmented we have lost our way. And what makes it worse is that there a lot of people out there who will tell you they know the way - - for sure - - no doubt about it. You don't have to think anymore or explore. Just follow like sheep. In fact if someone gives you suggestions and they begin with "Just". . . start running away - Just stay positive. Just let go and let God. Just believe in yourself. You don't have to turn into little Sigmund Freuds, but you have to be willing to get involved in your life. And getting involved is more than a "just." You have to be willing to experience your life. You have to be willing to be open so that you can experience your life. Someone once said that the most important thing we can do is wake up. Perhaps waking up will help us put our soul together again. Perhaps.

Comments

[Simple Zack]

I agree, but furthermore, I believe that stress is decided solely on our own. People and other events do not make us stressful, we make ourselves stressful because we're choosing to let those people stress us out.

Great post!

[adrienne]

Thank you for stopping by at let me read your blog. I feel honored that you found the discussion worthy of leaving your blog info.

[Ed]

Great post on an important topic! Jesus said, in Matt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matt 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Grace and Peace,
Ed

[RainforestRobin]

I cannot believe this post. It was like clean air, no spiritual woo woo, just straight from the good ol' honest gut. It moved me to tears and is one of the most powerful pieces I've read in a long long time. It is SO timely in my life that I can't even begin to tell you how moved I am...and happy. The soul and stress connection...oh YES! Lately I have been writing almost everyday (for myself) about soul and its relationship to stress. Will be blogging about it soon. I am finding, for myself, that is is ab"soul"utly our disconnection from soul and, as you say, the fragmentation of soul that causes deep stress. In fact it can cause life threatening stress. I also cannot believe your last paragraph...you are one of the most free thinkers I've read in a long time. I often feel like we have become a society of followers, often living followers' lives instead of EXPERIENTIAL lives. Not that we can't learn from others, we can, but I think in the end to really KNOW life and one's self we must experience life for ourselves. We then have a life long built in BODY and SOUL connection to ourselves and all of life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. : ) : )

[Louise]

Amen. Amen. And again Amen. Thank-you for this post. You are dead right. Stress is about disconnection and not about overwork or about social negation of the flight or fight response, or about being torn in ten different directions at once, although all of those things contribute to our separation from our souls. In my early 20s, only a couple of years into living and working in London - stress city - I was a complete basket case psychologically and nearly died (long story). After emergency surgery my physical recovery was fast. But it took months and months travelling on a shoe string with nothing but my camera and a backpack to bring me back to my soul. In the years since, I've sometimes teetered on the brink, but have always managed to remember, somehow, how to pull myself back from the edge. Author Philip Pullman, in his trilogy His Dark Materials has a really telling way of illustrating the connection between our physical selves and our soul - in his world, the people have souls that manifest themselves visibly as animals. If the distance between the soul and the person becomes too great, the pain for both is intense. If the connection between the two is severed altogether, the result is a zombie...