The realization that I will one day put this life aside leaves only one question.  How will I ever survive it?  Between the must do’s and the must have’s, is the constant race to “be”, “fulfill”, “succeed”, while making sure I satisfy everyone else’s expectations.

   I’m sure God realized the complexity of life, because He was very careful to give us a present to get us through it.   Aware that the only reality we have is the N-O-W, Divine Wisdom made The Present His gift to us.   But we in our haste for more or other are blinded to what really counts.  Like a child rushing to open the next gift under the Christmas tree, what lies ahead is more valuable than what lies at hand. 

    At times, of course, the converse is true.  Like a dog with a bone, we become fixated on the energy and modalities of the past.   With the comfort of familiarity the past can be a forceful captor.   Regardless of the factor, ignoring life in the moment results in that all too common malady called stress.   Oh yes!  It is a malady-the most costly expression of imbalance.  

   To live in the past is to live in stress.   To live in the future is to live in stress.  Why?  Because neither of them are real, and we have no means of coping with that which is not real.  Only the N-O-W is real.   Only by living in the present can we experience the fullness of life for it alone can give us all we require for a full, happy and successful life.   All life experience converges in the N-O-W.  It is the only real perspective we have.  Only here can we decide to “choose”.  When I choose to be out of sync with my world as it is unfolding, I react with confusion, loss of balance and substitute the experience of pain and confusion for one of harmony.  In short the joy of N-O-W is replaced with the discomfort of S-T-R-E-S-S. 

   Let’s examine this experience.  Certainly, the mere act of living exerts a level of stress.   Any organism—no matter how primitive or advanced—encounters stress in the mere process of survival.  Stress is a disruptive condition which occurs in response to adverse external influences, and is capable of affecting our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.  Every level of our experience is forced off center.  The resulting sense of being unable to deal with the situation or control its outcome arises from a perceived loss of power.   The most pertinent aspect of stress is that the cause is external.   This we may or may not be able to control.  The effects—increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability, and depression, however, are internal, and therefore under our control.  

    We are back to that essential reality: What you claim is yours.  There is a choice.  The solution is to leave it outside I am free (and intelligent enough) to deny the situation power over me.   Regardless of the nature of situation, there is always a choice. I can allow the experiences to master me, or, by the power of my will, I can master them. 

   There are two ways of achieving this denial of power.   The opportunities are available to drug oneself into a waking sleep; or to choose the holistic approach of prayer and meditation.  I suggest you try the latter! You have nothing to lose. The next time you permit yourself the experience of stress—pause.   Refuse it power over you.   Spend a moment in prayer.  Move into that higher place where stress cannot exist.   Return to N-O-W.  Miraculously, stress is gone. I am in control of my life.   I am whole and healthy again.