Coping with Stress

It is a basic and elemental fact of the body-mind relationship that while positive thoughts promote health, negative attitudes tend to invite disease. Sympathy, peace, courage, hope, faith, appreciation, happiness, contentment, gratitude, forgiveness, ad infinutum─these create a condition that is most favourable for the development of a vibrant health.

On the other side of the ledger, selfishness, hatred, anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, distrust, rebellion, grief, jealousy, discontent, remorse, frustration, depression, gloom, worry, ad nauseum─these sap your body’s vital forces, break down its defenses, and create a condition which is most conducive for the inroad of disease.

Don’t become easily disturbed, for instance, by what you hear people say against you. In fact sometimes criticism is disguised compliment. Remember that people throw stones only at mango trees that are bearing fruits. What should worry you more is when people think you are not worth criticizing at all. That means you are not bearing any fruits worth throwing stones at!

Stress, if not handled properly, will only bring you angina, coronary hearty disease, palpitations, elevated blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, asthma, indigestion, peptic ulcer, colitis, so, when unfounded criticism is hurled at you, let if flow beautifully down your back as water flows on a duck’s back.
How about worry? Elizabeth Cheney put it rather facetiously in her “Overheard in an Orchard” when she wrote:

“Said the Robin to the Sparrow,
‘I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so,’
Said the Sparrow to the Robin,
‘Friend, I think that must be
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.’”