Stress and Enlightenment

14 of April: The mystery of the mind

23:00 of Sunday, Sai Gon

It was supposed to be the departure time of the bus back from Da Lat to Sai Gon but I cancelled the bus ticket for some unplanned reason. The short decision turned out a perfect decision to make a car-roadtrip journey with my colleagues!

Immediately, I just sent my thanks to my boss who gave us this chance to have a team-building trip and arouse the working motivation for the whole company. 3 weeks have passed since I first started working in here. Somehow it feels like a year as there are many stuff to run here and there every day taking away part of my precious time for meticulous daily reflection and reading. However, for now my mind has been much widened to get the gist of the work to take over and manage the time wisely from tomorrow. I have got more understanding of the huge efforts of my boss and the team to get the company into a right direction and structure. I have much clearer view of the psychology and culture of the organization to settle down more firmly on the ground and move forward. It has been such a stressful time ever since my gap year time began. My day-by-day schedule has been packed with multiple jobs that require the proper division of time on different tasks to meet the objectives by my best. It’s truly challenging and effort-costing, yet I feel it’s truly living to be able to engage in a hectic but joyful and worthwhile pace of life.

This working environment is totally different from my previous one. It has taken me really a while to realize what I should do and how I should play the role! Stress and pressure are tiring and harmful to some extent when people seem to be overloaded or get lost in the direction. Beyond those negative consequences, stress can drive people into a rigorous mood and strive for the better. Stress comes on and off within the flow of work and the limit of human energy. Stress also comes in different types of expression depending on the essence of the stress-related issues. The stress of waiting for something important is different from the stress of the responsibility for jobs. The manifestations of the former to me are sleep deprivation and overthinking uncontrollably, and it is of no point trying to stop the nervousness and the natural worries but just let them go. The latter acts like a storm of bad emotions and even poor-thinking behaviors accordingly if we are not well-aware of our own perceptions. Until the awakening moment of stress-based awareness happens, stress can raise up our clarity and calm then converts the negativity into a powerful force for improvement and enlightenment. I have just gone through this process of enlightenment, a process of ups and downs, expectation and disappointment, hope and loss of faith, stress and realization, getting lost and getting light in the tunnel. Life is full of miracles! All course of actions, all levels of emotions, all people passing our life by happen for some reasons, and for some destinies that are either expected or unpredicted in advance but there are some reasons for the natural occurrings.

I got one lovely quote taken from Brainpickings this morning: “The more clearly we can focus our attention to the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race.” It goes into the fact that there is an intimate relation between nature and human, science and the spiritual growth based on nature. The quote infers that as long as we appreciate and have a belief in the miracles of what happen to us in life, we will have less desire to destroy the gifts from nature namely trees, our body, our fresh air etc, and make more ethical decisions. The process of our development is as natural as the ceaseless growth of natures, the pattern of seasons, the migration of birds. Stress obviously happens when it’s out of our capacity to moderate it. Stress, nevertheless, can channel our thoughts into a sense of determination and mindfulness. Stress can move us out of the boundary and can also push us into a higher level of thinking and working performance. Seasons become vulnerable and unstable due to climate change, yet still have the taste of nature. Birds might migrate late according to the arrival of winter, they will migrate eventually come what may. Stress should happen to challenge a so-so way of doing and being, over time, stress create a more resilient mind and self. Is it how life should be?

“The mind is a constant adventure that has its amazing sides but also conflicts happen.”

My dear sister- Hannah

#clarity

#destiny

#objectives