Zap Stress by Following the Way of the Zen Warrior

Workplace stress in the Western world is on the rise, but you can beat it by following meditation and martial arts practises from the East.

Plain Words reports

You’re busy trying to meet the deadline for a project, when another one – this time a rush job – lands on your desk. Your heart skips a beat and you feel the anxiety rise. Bigger workload. More pressure. How are you going to cope? The same as always: scramble to finish the rush job, then stay late, and take work home to finish the first project.

The result? You become frazzled, snap at your co-workers, miss your son’s rugby match or your daughter’s dance show, and make your family miserable until the projects are done. And then it starts all over again. A seemingly endless cycle of stress and more stress.

It’s a familiar scenario for most of us.

In fact, workplace stress is becoming commonplace. In a survey last year of 100 businesses that use its 24-hour Business Support Helpline, Croner, a provider of business information, support and advice, revealed that 65% of callers from senior management reported employees complaining of stress, with 56% admitting it was affecting their productivity. The companies polled by Croner represent a cross-section of UK businesses, indicating that stress is widespread and not significantly linked to a particular industry or job.

Hazardous Effects

Work-related stress contributes to poor eating habits and the risk of colds, flu and stomach inflammation. According to a report, workers in demanding jobs developed colds at a rate 20% higher than those in less demanding jobs. And a study of utility workers suggested stress thickens arteries even in physically active jobs.

Apart from making us feel bad, stress is clearly hazardous to our health. Some believe it can be fatal. “Stress is a big buzzword today, but it’s killing us,” says Nina Morales, a clinical social worker at Hackensack University Medical Centre in New Jersey. She believes stress can be deadly because it may lead to a breakdown of the body’s immune system.

“We have a nervous system that’s not really geared to handle the stresses of the changes that the last 300 years have forced the human being to make,” she says. “Not so long ago, the whole idea of living was survival. Today, it’s about having the biggest and the best, which requires working many hours, not resting properly, not eating properly, not spending time with family, and not having many social interactions.”

“Such increasing demands, studies show, can result in cardiac ailments and some cancers, and compromise of the immune system, which leads to a host of infections and diseases,” Morales adds.

Mindfulness Meditation

One of the most effective ways to deal with stress is to use a simple technique called “mindfulness meditation”. Its roots are in Asian Buddhist traditions of meditation. It doesn’t involve the more common deep-breathing approach found in yoga (called “pranayama”), but instead focuses on normal breathing, which may be preferable to many.

You basically train yourself to be aware of your breathing – moment-by-moment. All stress reactions in the body are the result of autonomic nervous system arousal. What the meditation does is still or quiet that arousal by having the mind focus on what’s happening in the moment, instead of on fears, apprehensions, or concerns. In other words, you exchange a negative mental attitude for a positive one.

Here’s how you practise mindfulness meditation:

Sit in a chair in a quiet room. Place your feet flat on the floor and slowly begin focusing your attention on your breathing. Feel your abdomen rise and fall. Gently push all other thoughts out of your mind. By concentrating only on breathing you will avoid feeling anxious. It simply won’t be a part of your mindset. Note: It’s fine to stand up when doing this meditation. Keep feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent.

You can also practise this type of meditation in the hustle and bustle of city streets, on trains, planes, and subway trains. Just “being” for a while is not only a great way to relax, it is also revitalising and can make all the difference to your day.

Way of the Warrior

Dig deeper and you’ll find that mindfulness or “awareness” meditation was practised by the ancient Samurai warriors of Japan. Their martial art was based on the mysterious and often contradictory spiritual path of Zen. For them, the ability to concentrate on only one thing at a time with almost tunnel vision was crucial. In a combat situation, a split second’s waver in focus could mean the difference between life and death.

Martial arts expert and highly decorated Vietnam war veteran, Lenox Cramer applies this to work, life and stress. He says if you are concerned with one particular aspect of your life when you are trying to perform in another area, you can run into trouble on a purely practical level. If you leave work still worrying about a tight deadline or seething from a run-in with your boss, for example, and step out to cross a road - you could all too easily not notice an oncoming car or motorcycle. Another example where the consequences of stress can be fatal.

Cramer recommends following the way of the Zen warrior.

“The warrior would be thinking about walking, [and] observing the people around him, the flow of the traffic, his mind clear of the past until he was able to reflect on it in an area he knew was secure for his purpose,” he says.

Cramer believes the solution to stress and worry is to learn to compartmentalise your daily affairs. “When a situation arises, do what you can to resolve it. If it is not resolvable, put it away in its own ‘compartment’ until such a time as you are directly faced with it again. Do not let it interfere with your other affairs or goals,” he says.

Serenity of the Samurai

Having this attitude towards worry, annoyance, irritation, and all the other trials and tribulations of daily life, is the way ahead towards living a stress-free life. The only problem is you need a great deal of mental discipline to stay focused on living in the moment and silencing the internal dialogue. The secret is to keep trying every day. See each moment of inner silence you achieve as a victory. Eventually you will gain the mental serenity of an ancient Samurai warrior – and stress will be a thing of the past.

July 13th, 2004
Plain Words Editorial

Recommended Reading

The Book Of Five Rings

by Miyamoto Musashi. (Inspiring Japanese classic by a 17th century lone-wolf Samurai warrior)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0877739986

War With Empty Hands

by Lenox Cramer. (Excellent, but little known, treatise on martial arts and mental attitude by Vietnam war veteran).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0939427419