Have you ever wondered what actually causes stress?
Stress is caused by our attachment to outcomes and this stress essentially comes from a fear of loss. It is the fear of losing something that we are attached to that generates the greatest amount of stress for us.
We may have a fear of losing;
Our possessions – things, money, job, house etc
Our positive self image – respect, status, love, acceptance etc
Our connection to our loved ones
As a result we are attached to these things, feelings, relationships or situations.
When we detach from a need for things to go a certain way we significantly reduce our stress levels. Consider this logically, is it really possible to control every situation? The way other people react to things? Of course not! Yet when we believe we need things to go a certain way we place a huge amount of stress on ourselves to ensure that happens.
When we acknowledge that it is this attachment that generates the stress, we are empowered to change our approach to situations that we have little control over.
Some of the strongest attachments we have are usually to our close family and friends and often these relationships are the ones that cause us the most stress. Reducing our attachment to our loved ones allows us to not have a personal vested interest in an outcome, we can still have an interest in the outcome, but only an unselfish one. This can be a challenge!
Through questioning your degree of attachment to these relationships and situations, you can learn a lot about yourself and your behaviours.
