photo courtesy of pattista

It's funny, the topic of this article is excuses and this has been one of my toughest entries to write so far. It has taken me the longest to write. Not that it's any longer than my previous articles, it's just that the subject matter hits home for me much more on a personal level. Of course, I made excuses for it, such as not having enough time, being too busy, writer's block, etc. I then realized I was making excuses for not writing an article on excuses! I had to explore the underlying truths I was attempting to avoid, because as you will read, excuses are masks for a truth we don't want to face. What I began to realize, was that my excuses for delaying this article boiled far deeper than merely writing an article, it was a revelation into why I put things off, why I procrastinate and what I was fearful of.

What are excuses?

Here's an insightful little video about life. The speaker is Alan Watts. It's interesting how he talks about the "music of life." There's a parallel with what I described as the "symphony of your life," in my article The Importance of Physical Fitness in Your Spiritual Journey.

To realize freedom, the mind has to learn to look at life, which is a vast movement without the bondage of time, for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness. Watch, but don't stop and interpret, "I am free" - then you're living in a memory of something that has gone. To understand and live now, everything of yesterday must die.

Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

It is in the understanding of ourselves that fear comes to an end. If the individual is to grapple with life from moment to moment, if he is to face its intricacies, its miseries and sudden demands, he must be infinitely pliable and, therefore, free of theories and particular patterns of thought.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

Image courtesy of messiaen

This is the third part in a series on managing stress. The first article gave you an overview on what stress is and the two different ways to decrease stress in your life. The second article looked more closely at the first way to decrease stress which is to lower stress input. It also defined what input is. In this third article on managing stress, I will discuss the second way of lowering stress in your life - that is to increase your stress capacity.

From the first two articles, we can conclude:

Self-love involves a yes to myself in whatever I am going through, instead of holding on to some concept of what or how I should be. Any idea I have about who I am or who I should be is never accurate, for it always falls short of the living presence that I am, as this unfolds freshly in each new moment. Who I am is not a fixed entity but a dynamic stream of experiencing that is alive in every moment - when I let myself happen.

John Welwood, Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart