Stress, stress, stress...it's everywhere: on the job, at home, in school. Everybody talks about it. Everybody seems to be affected by it at some point -- some people on a continuous basis. I have been working on the strategy for a new company (secret! can't tell yet!!) that required me to do a LOT of research on stress, particularly in the workplace. What I read blew me away.

Did you know that 40% of workers feel that their job is very or extremely stressful? (Is that a surprise to you? Was to me.) And that in 2004, 70% of workers believed that employees in their workplace are more stressed out than they were the year before. But here is the really bad news: the Journal of Environmental Medicine reports that there is accumulating evidence to suggest that stress plays a key role in several types of chronic diseases. In addition, 60-90% of doctor visits are stress-related.

Phew! So stress isn't just simply depressing thoughts -- it can have major physical effects if not treated. This has made me think, ok, if stress which is mental is the cause of many physical illnesses, then if I can modify my mental state -- like, make it more peaceful instead of in turmoil -- I should be able to change the physical effect, no?

A couple of years ago I was engaged in several task forces at work, in addition to overseeing a 24/7 website. All the work, including the website, required collaboration with other managers and departments and often we didn't see eye to eye on many levels. It was like trying to navigate Rubik's Cube : many issues, many agendas, many objectives. I would come home from work very late, eat dinner and fall into bed. Then up early and start all over again. Oh, and this would usually entail weekend work too.

Not only was the work challenging, the relationships were too. I remember many times during the day feeling very ticked off at someone -- usually many someones! It was like sloshing through quicksand to get anywhere. As I look back on it, the bigger challenge was the people part, not the work part. But at the time it felt like this big blob of work just sitting on me.

This had been going on for a few weeks when early one morning I woke up with a major pain in my urinary tract. It was so uncomfortable I could hardly move. But I forced myself to get up (gee, that seemed like what was happening a lot every morning!) because I had a big presentation to give that day. I had to be at work.

Every function of getting dressed was a pain. Finally, standing at the kitchen counter wondering what I should do -- go to work and be in pain, or stay home and be in pain? I said out loud, "This is such a PAIN!!!"

All of a sudden it hit me -- like a thought coming into my head sideways: "This is all about the pain at work: the people not seeing things your way, the projects not working, the stress of trying to drag everyone along with you!"

This was a VERY humbling thought. At that moment I realized that the HUGE annoyance I felt toward everything was the sum of the stress I had been carrying around. In other words, this annoyance could be at the root of my physical pain.

Amazingly the pain I had been feeling for a few hours became somewhat less acute. Huh! Maybe there was a connection here I needed to dig a little deeper into. OK, if the mental annoyance and turmoil is at the root, how can I change that? This negative mental state can be changed into positive thoughts. For me, the most effective positive thoughts are those that are spiritual. These are based on how I think of the divine Spirit, who is all powerful to me, and how I think of my fellow beings.  How can I get rid of the ticked-off feeling about them and align my thinking to the Divine?

Well, I have learned that when I really see myself AND other people as creations of the one Spirit, then my feeling about them turns to the positive. So here was definitely the time to do that!! How could I be annoyed at a creation of Spirit? If Spirit is good and love, then the creations must be good too. I really had to change my way of thinking about them as "causing" my annoyance to seeing them as people of integrity, kindness, caring -- after all, they were giving their best effort to this work.  How could I possibly think I was the only one working hard?

Bottomline, I needed to be GRATEFUL for each one of the people that I was working with. I needed to care about them as children of the one divine Love. In that way, I was seeing myself too as a loved child of the Divine Spirit. They couldn't possibly be annoying and I couldn't suffer the effects of annoyance! I really had to see what was the only substantial cause -- Spirit -- and what was the only effect: good.

I thought a LOT about these spiritually-focused ideas and more over the next hour...because it made me feel SO GOOD! The burden of all the work just kind of evaporated away and I was actually looking forward to going to work. And yes, the pain dwindled away too. In a couple of hours it was gone, but the best feeling I had remained: a feeling of bouyancy, happiness. I hadn't felt that in a long time.

And my relationships with the fellow managers improved significantly -- we finished the projects we were working on, but the lesson I learned about seeing the good in my colleagues continued. Many times over the next couple of years, when I was tempted to fall into the trap of annoyance, I remembered to be grateful for my co-workers' efforts. Can't be annoyed and grateful at the same time!!

What is stress? In a way it is thinking that you have no control of the situation, whatever it might be. What I learned is that I CAN control my thoughts...and if they are the cause of the stress, then I can change them to be positive, to be in line with spiritual thoughts. And that can change everything.

Read more from this blogger at Practical Spirituality . 

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