Stress As Energy

Don’t get bogged down in examination stress. Learn to use stress totally, it is your creative force, says OSHO

A Canadian psychoanalyst, Hans Selye, has been working his whole life on only one problem — stress. He has come to some profound conclusions. One is that stress is not wrong always; it can be used in beautiful ways.

It is not necessarily negative, but if we think that it is negative, then we create problems. Stress in itself can be used as a stepping stone; it can become a creative force. But down the ages we have been taught that stress is bad, that when you are in any kind of stress you become afraid. And your fear makes it even more stressful; the situation is not helped by it. For example, there is some situation in the market that is creating stress. The moment you feel that there is some tension, some stress, you become afraid that this should not be so: ‘I have to relax.’ Now, trying to relax will not help, it will create a new kind of stress. When there is stress, use it as creative energy.

First, no need to fight it, accept it. It is perfectly okay. Stress is simply an indication that the body is getting ready to fight with it. Now if you try to relax, take tranquillisers, you are going against the body. The body is getting ready to fight a certain challenge that is there, enjoy the challenge!

In fact, if you have lived your stress totally, you will come to the point of relaxation automatically; you can go on only so far, then the body automatically relaxes. If you want to relax in the middle, you create trouble; the body cannot relax in the middle. It is almost as if an Olympic runner is getting ready, just waiting for the whistle, the signal, and he will be off, he will go like the wind. He is full of stress; now is not the time to relax. If he takes a tranquilliser, he will never be of any use in the race. Or if he relaxes there and tries to meditate, he will lose all. He has to use his stress: the stress is boiling, it is gathering energy. He is becoming more and more vital and potential. Now he has to sit on this stress and use it as energy, as fuel.

Selye has given a new name for this kind of stress; he calls it ‘eustress’, like euphoria. It is a positive stress. When the runner has run, he will fall into deep sleep, the problem is solved. Stress has disappeared of its own accord.

So try this too: when there is a stressful situation, don’t freak out, don’t become afraid of it. Go into it, use it to fight with. A man has tremendous energy and the more you use it, the more you have of it.

Abridged from Don’t Bite My Finger Look Where I Am Pointing, courtesy: Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com ■

Gibberish Meditation

The word ‘gibberish’ comes from a Sufi mystic whose name was Jabbar — and that was his only meditation. Whoever would come, he would say, “Sit down and start”. Jabbar helped many people to become utterly silent. How long you can go on? The mind becomes empty. Slowly, slowly a deep nothingness... and in that nothingness a flame of awareness. It is always present, surrounded by your gibberish. The gibberish must be taken out; that is your poison. The same goes for the body. Your body has tensions.

Just start making any movement that the body wants to make. You should not manipulate it. If it wants to dance, it wants to jog, it wants to run, it wants to roll down on the ground, you should not do it, you should simply allow it. Tell the body, “You are free, do whatever you want.” And you will be surprised, “My God! All these things the body wanted to do but I was holding back, and that was the tension.”

So, there are two kinds of tensions: body tensions and mind tensions. Both must be released before you can start relaxation, which will bring you to awareness.

 Zen: The Solitary Bird — Cuckoo Of The Forest ■