By Bart Sharp

A friend of mine told that corporate America is facing burnout.  Life has become to fast for the working world with emails, twitter, and constant technological, economical and global changes.  People have become over-stimulated and as a result it has become more difficult to maintain their focus.  Life at a faster pace creates a mindset that makes it more difficult for the worker to slow down enough to be able to concentrate long periods of time as well as leaves the worker mentally frazzled at the end of the day.  The toll is a mysterious case of large numbers of burnout.

The story brought me back to my days at the university in psychology classes during the late seventies exploring the book “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler.  Toffler explores a future world that has changed so rapidly that people have lost touch with their inner guidance.  In this a highly stimulating world inhabitants become seduced by so many inventions that they forget to maintain their own identity within themselves.  This gloomy perspective predicts high rates of addiction, depression and crime.  Toffler predicts a society scattered and diffused in a variety of ways.

Was Toffler correct?  Was he the Nostradamus of the seventies? Does this reality sound familiar?  Are we dancing on the edge of Future Shock or right in the middle of this futuristic world?

What Future Shock does not take in account is the adaptability of humanity.  Toffler was correct in some of his predictions however we have tools to improve the way we interact with high-speed living.

I am sure many of you have read articles giving guidance on how to live with stress and have an easier life.  The problem with many of these recommendations is that they require a mental and/or physical discipline.  It is a schooling of your mind.

However, the anguish stress, anger, frustration, etc… is actually held in your body not your mind.   An approach to help our body adapt with what it carries is much more effective in changing our relationship with stress.  Here are some ideals that your body would love.

Nurturing Happy Hour.  Spend at least one hour a day doing something that fulfills you.  Be creative.  Look to stimulate the other side of your brain that satisfies the soulful part of you.  Do not confuse this with relaxation activities such as television or reading.  This is a time to interact on the creative side, whether it is writing, art, gardening, meditation, walking in nature these ventures into a world of possibility enlivens and nurtures something more heart-felt.

Rituals of Release.  Find a process that allows you to let go of all of the energies of all of your interactions as a daily routine.  A prison counselor told me she let go of her issues in a daily ritual.  The first thing she does after returning to her car at the end of the shift is to have a vision of her day and place it on an alter guarded by her angels.  A fast forward visualization of what happened. She gives herself full-permission to let it remain there until the next day.  When we give our body permission to let it go or to process the issue differently our mind follows the suggestion.  Thus our body is more comfortable.  It is important to learn from our past in order to be better but it does not mean we have to carry the energies of the emotions that we experience.  I like doing a simple clearing statement “I destroy and uncreate all energies I took on in _______ situation today.”  It tells my body to let it go and through practice I actually feel its release.  It is a form of prayer, which is an effective tool to use as well.  In letting go we particularly need to be clear on what it is that we wish to release as well.

Life Is Certainly Interesting.  Living a detached point of view keeps us from getting overwhelmed with everyone’s problems.  Never align with or react to others. This is a judgment that you make that their world is good or bad.  As soon as you do that you become connected to their emotional challenge.  You literally pick it up and it begins the process of depleting your energy just like it does with the person who you are conversing with.  Listen to a person intently without siding with them, be compassion for them, even offer counsel but do not jump into their problem.  It can be done by making a judgment such as, “that’s horrible what he did to you or you really screwed that up!” By aligning or reacting with them you become attached.  It is an attitude perspective as much as it is a use of language.  Buddha would call it “Detachment with compassion.”

Carry No Old Baggage.  The more that we resolve the conflict we have in daily life the happier we are.  If it is not resolved we carry that memory within us.  If we seem to be recreating the same kind of struggles the issue we carry I most likely an older unresolved part of our past.

Surrender To A Higher Power. Our humility is one of our greatest powers.  Identifying your stresses, shortcomings and challenges to the hands of a higher power (what or whoever that be) always takes it to a greater source than your mind and ego.   A friend of mine reminds me ego is an acronym for Easing God Out.  Faith is a great partner is the workplace, it is most powerful when the creation of god is your visualized creation not someone else’s.

We Are All Super Humans.  Our body can do amazing things naturally when we ask it and not judge it.  My mind requires a disciplined rationale to develop it talents. Abilities for the body are naturally there, it is a process of uncovering.  For example a client was having tremendous bowel and stomach pains, she knew that it was her process of resolving a divorce.  But it was a major obstacle in her life.  I counseled the grieving woman to tell her body that she could still honor the grieving but her body did not need to do it in such a rough way.  She then asked her body to process the emotions in a way that was not physically so painful.  The bowels changed within thirty minutes to calmer state.  Of course she needed to honor her body as well by continuing to process the separation.  Our body has an infinite ability to do things.  In order to access those talents we begin by asking.

A Meditation Of Enjoyment.  When we actively enjoy the sensual side of us with the full intention of feeling the pleasure of it our body turns on to a higher vibration.  Our body becomes more alive.  The obvious activities that most think about is sexual or a massage and they do fall into this category, but there are many more options.  To receive the full benefits of this meditative practice requires you to be fully attentive to your body.  Your body may enjoy someone touching you or you touching yourself with the lightest of strokes so they you feel your body beyond the sensual zones.  Eating foods very slowly so that you taste every bit fully.  I like walking a very slow pace in the forest so I feel my muscles moving and enjoy viewing the woods on a fine level.  Even a simple activity as rubbing my bare feet in the dirt on a hot day grounds me and is very pleasurable.  All of these activities involve you getting deeper into your sensual aspects of feeling.  Turn off the music, television and allow yourself to focus on one simple pleasure at a time.

We are coming to an era of wonderful possibilities of living longer lives, better health, more prosperity and magical technology.  Our bodies are developing in magical ways as well.  What it requires of us it to see the possibilities of what we could become and the world from an ever-changing perspective.  The world and we as individuals are growing faster than we ever had before.  Lets honor that.