This anonymous writing pretty well describes how I feel about Easter:
Easter is not a time for groping through dusty, musty tomes or tombs to disprove spontaneous generation or even to prove life eternal. It is a day to fan the ashes of dead hope, a day to banish doubts and seek the slopes where the sun is rising, to revel in the faith which transports us out of ourselves and the dead past into the vast and inviting unknown.
... to seek the slopes where the sun is rising. I love that visual.
Easter is about hope and faith. It's a perfect mindset to push our internal RESET buttons and get back to moving with the good foot.
I've experienced how stress can devour vaporize creativity, stagnate productivity, and tick away precious moments of the already short time we have on this planet.
I've been reading about stress from different perspectives (scientific, spiritual, religious, medical). About "good" stress and "bad" stress. About "positive" stress and "negative" stress. About "normal" stress and "abnormal" stress.
With myself, family, friends, clients, and people that I randomly cross paths with, I'm remind of these two descriptions of stress:
(a) a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation; and
(b) bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium.
Stress is expensive and dangerous. Here's a snippet of something I recently read:
- Stress is recognized as the number one proxy killer disease* today. The American Medical Association has noted that stress was the basic cause of more than 60 percent of all human illness and disease .
- It is estimated that American businesses lose approximately $200-$300 billion dollars per year to stress related productivity loss and the treatment costs.
- Every week, 95 million Americans suffer some kind of stress related symptoms for which they take medication.
- A 20-year study conducted by the University of London concluded that unmanaged reactions to stress were a more dangerous risk factor for cancer and heart disease than either cigarette smoking or high cholesterol foods.
- A survey of 201 U.S. corporations revealed that 60% of all managers felt that stress related illness was pervasive among their workers and decreased productivity at an estimated cost of 16 days of sick leave and $8,000 per person per year.
On this Easter Sunday, regardless of your religious affiliation or non-affiliation, I'd like to throw a thought out into the Universe for you to catch if you like. I believe that most of humanity is hungry for Peace. We want to be Healthy and Happy, Heard and Productive, Loving and Loved. We want to be treated Fairly and we don't want to Suffer. We want to express ourselves Creatively and we want to feel in some way that our life matters.
My thought: From today through the rest of the year, or through as long as you like, spend at least 1 calm minute every day thinking about Health, Happiness, Dreams, Hope, Gratitude, and other thoughts that hold Redeeming and Renewing value.
