Stress is becoming alarmingly widespread in today’s world. Naturally, people are seeking effective ways to deal with it. Sometimes, acute stress needs to be treated medically. To address stress sustainably, however, we also need to better manage our lives. 

Here are three accessible principles for lifestyle management:

Simplify: Stress often arises from the overcomplexity of our world: too many things to do, too many choices to make, too many factors to consider. Even if we can’t change the world we live in, we can change how we live in it. We can simplify our lives by regularizing our standard activities: for example, having fixed times for sleep and meals. Such regulation is recommended in the Bhagavad-gita (06.17). Can maintaining such regulation become just one more stress source? Not if we stay focused on the purpose: it’s not rigid adherence; it’s decreasing our mental load by letting a routine take care of relatively inconsequential decisions. Another way to simplify is by digital detox: intermittently freeing ourselves from our devices or at least regularly monitoring our device usage time. 

Clarify: To simplify systematically, we need to determine what really matters for us, distinct from what the world says should matter to us. For such discerning and prioritizing, we need to take out some time for introspection, preferably aided by some powerful tool such as journaling. Reading time-tested wisdom-texts like the Bhagavad-gita can also help us remember and realign with the True North, thereby increasing our clarity amid daily decision-making.  

Purify: Even after knowing what is important for us, we sometimes can’t focus on those things because the unhealthy desires lurking inside us obstruct or divert us. By spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation and yoga, especially bhakti-yoga, we can disempower our unhealthy desires and empower our healthy desires. With this change in our inner power dynamics, we will be increasingly freed from inner disharmony, thereby decreasing yet another source of stress.

One-sentence summary:

To better manage stress, simplify, clarify, purify.  

Think it over:

  • How can you simplify your life?
  • How can you clarify your life?
  • How can you purify your life?

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06.17: He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.

 

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