The Tao of Stress: How to Calm, Balance, and Simplify Your Life by Robert G. Santee Page B
Authors: Robert G. Santee
Tags: Non-Fiction
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your eating and drinking in your journal and reflect upon it. What can you remove from this list?
Next, slowly start practicing wuwei by eliminating just one or two things that interfere with your eating and drinking. After you do so, come back to your journal and note what you notice about your
experience of eating and drinking after removing these things. This is a gradual process, so start small and remove more as you feel more comfortable with the approach. You can try this with just one meal or snack or even just part of a meal. The bottom line is that when you have a meal, it’s best to slow down and simply focus on eating and drinking. This will help prevent stress.
Wuwei and Sleeping
While there are many external factors that can interfere with getting enough sleep, one of the main causes of insomnia and other sleep problems is stress created by our own thinking and behavior (Colbert 2006).
We are interfering with ourselves. We need to learn how to stop interfering with ourselves. We need to practice wuwei.
Susan’s Story
Susan, a single woman in her late thirties who worked in a
crowded office, was prone to anxiety. Most nights after getting in bed, she would lie awake obsessing about social interactions of the day and her fears that she had alienated people and worrying
about what might happen the next day. This left her so stressed
that she couldn’t get to sleep. About an hour or so into her nightly rumination, she would think about how late it was and worry
about not getting to sleep. After another hour or so she usually
passed out— often only to wake up suddenly in the middle of the
night. Then she worried about waking up, and it usually took
another thirty minutes or so for her get to back to sleep.
Most mornings Susan was extremely tired. She frequently had
headaches and had a hard time focusing. She drank a lot of
75
uncorrected proof
The Tao of Stress
coffee— often an entire pot each morning— until she felt some
sense of being alert. This had been going on for some time, and it was affecting both her health and her performance at work.
Although she had tried over- the- counter sleep medications, they
left her feeling foggy and out of sorts. Besides, she didn’t want to become dependent on them. The last straw came when her boss
called her in to his office to complain about Susan’s last
assignment, which she’d turned in late and in terrible shape. He
wanted to know what was wrong. In that meeting, Susan finally
reached the point where she knew she needed to do something
different to try to improve her sleep, but she wasn’t sure what.
Susan’s usual route for walking home from work took her past
a building where taijiquan classes were taught. She had heard a bit about taijiquan, and although she was skeptical, she wondered if it might help. She did some research and found an article in the
journal Sleep . Its conclusion was that taijiquan was helpful in improving sleep. So one day on her way home from work, she
stopped in and talked with one of the instructors. She explained
her problem and then asked whether taijiquan might help with her
sleep. The instructor smiled and said, “It can definitely help. From what you describe, it’s clear that you’re thinking while you’re lying in bed, and this is cluttering your mind, stressing you out, and
interfering with getting to sleep. You need to learn how to empty
out your mind. In fact, right now, at no charge, I can teach you a simple meditative technique that will help you empty your mind
and get to sleep.”
Susan said she’d love to hear it, so the instructor told her,
“When you get into bed, make sure all of the lights are off, then
simply focus on following your breath and think of nothing else.
Focus on just inhaling slowly and deeply, and then exhaling slowly and deeply. As you inhale, let your abdomen naturally expand, and
as you inhale, let it retract naturally.” He demonstrated
Next, slowly start practicing wuwei by eliminating just one or two things that interfere with your eating and drinking. After you do so, come back to your journal and note what you notice about your
experience of eating and drinking after removing these things. This is a gradual process, so start small and remove more as you feel more comfortable with the approach. You can try this with just one meal or snack or even just part of a meal. The bottom line is that when you have a meal, it’s best to slow down and simply focus on eating and drinking. This will help prevent stress.
Wuwei and Sleeping
While there are many external factors that can interfere with getting enough sleep, one of the main causes of insomnia and other sleep problems is stress created by our own thinking and behavior (Colbert 2006).
We are interfering with ourselves. We need to learn how to stop interfering with ourselves. We need to practice wuwei.
Susan’s Story
Susan, a single woman in her late thirties who worked in a
crowded office, was prone to anxiety. Most nights after getting in bed, she would lie awake obsessing about social interactions of the day and her fears that she had alienated people and worrying
about what might happen the next day. This left her so stressed
that she couldn’t get to sleep. About an hour or so into her nightly rumination, she would think about how late it was and worry
about not getting to sleep. After another hour or so she usually
passed out— often only to wake up suddenly in the middle of the
night. Then she worried about waking up, and it usually took
another thirty minutes or so for her get to back to sleep.
Most mornings Susan was extremely tired. She frequently had
headaches and had a hard time focusing. She drank a lot of
75
uncorrected proof
The Tao of Stress
coffee— often an entire pot each morning— until she felt some
sense of being alert. This had been going on for some time, and it was affecting both her health and her performance at work.
Although she had tried over- the- counter sleep medications, they
left her feeling foggy and out of sorts. Besides, she didn’t want to become dependent on them. The last straw came when her boss
called her in to his office to complain about Susan’s last
assignment, which she’d turned in late and in terrible shape. He
wanted to know what was wrong. In that meeting, Susan finally
reached the point where she knew she needed to do something
different to try to improve her sleep, but she wasn’t sure what.
Susan’s usual route for walking home from work took her past
a building where taijiquan classes were taught. She had heard a bit about taijiquan, and although she was skeptical, she wondered if it might help. She did some research and found an article in the
journal Sleep . Its conclusion was that taijiquan was helpful in improving sleep. So one day on her way home from work, she
stopped in and talked with one of the instructors. She explained
her problem and then asked whether taijiquan might help with her
sleep. The instructor smiled and said, “It can definitely help. From what you describe, it’s clear that you’re thinking while you’re lying in bed, and this is cluttering your mind, stressing you out, and
interfering with getting to sleep. You need to learn how to empty
out your mind. In fact, right now, at no charge, I can teach you a simple meditative technique that will help you empty your mind
and get to sleep.”
Susan said she’d love to hear it, so the instructor told her,
“When you get into bed, make sure all of the lights are off, then
simply focus on following your breath and think of nothing else.
Focus on just inhaling slowly and deeply, and then exhaling slowly and deeply. As you inhale, let your abdomen naturally expand, and
as you inhale, let it retract naturally.” He demonstrated
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