I picked up a booklet years ago called Success Without Stress by Guy Finley. It was based on the teachings of Vernon Howard who was a spiritual leader back when the internet wasn’t really used as a vehicle to get out “the message”. You found these gems in a bookstore or at a thrift shop or even a garage sale. It didn’t necessarily reach millions at the time but his writings are now kept alive by going online and reading his teachings.
I have read this book a number of times and for some reason thought I had understood it’s message but in looking back obviously it went in one ear and out the other. In reading it again recently I was floored by how so much information was what I have been reading from the now prominent spiritual leaders. He was and is saying the exact same thing but the book was published in 1988! I mean the exact same ideology! Where was I back then? What was I thinking? Was I sleeping?
Yep, I guess I was. Or maybe was not willing to do the work it takes to really be aware of how “the inner determines the outer”. Sounds so easy and yet is quite profound. It truly eventually leads to self-release. And that is paramount in decreasing stress in your life. Any real stress can only take hold if you allow it to get into your mind. How I perceive the situation is how I will allow it to create havoc in my life.
To begin living a stress free life I really had to look at how I actually was and not how I imagined I was. My mind told me that if I was successful that would guarantee me a less stressful life. So I jumped in and became, in my mind, somewhat successful. Key here: in my mind. But then I became more stressful fearing I would lose my success and all that entails. My mind was very busy deciphering when it was all going to go away and fearing the loss. That victory was suppose to free me from the original stress! What a rat race!
Now I am learning that if you have stress you are not successful, no matter how much you have achieved. Because you are not at ease with yourself. Straight from Mr. Finley and Vernon Howard. Plain as day on the page and yet I read it and reread it over the years and am just starting to absorb it and live it. What a relief! I am grateful that I at least am looking at this gem of a small booklet and really comprehending and feeling what it has been patiently trying to tell me all these years.
Finally, the section on self observation really hit me. It told me to be aware of my physical self. At that moment I relaxed my shoulders. Hadn’t even noticed they were up around my ears. And then it said, “Neither condemn nor approve anything you see in yourself. Reveal yourself to yourself. Seek revelation not repetition.” So above all, instead of telling the truth where I want to go, I’m letting the truth take me where I need to be. Stress free.