There was a man who worked in a hi-tech science laboratory. One day, late evening, he accidentally locked himself in the walk-in freezer room. He screamed and banged on the door but no one heard him since his colleagues had all left the office by then. He attempted to break the door but it was made of heavy metal and there was no way he could’ve broken it. Soon, he began to feel cold, and weak. He started thinking that by the time people arrived the next morning, he would freeze to death. Sure enough the next morning his co-workers found him dead in the freezer room. He had all the signs of hypothermia—a severe drop in body temperature caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. It perplexed everyone, including the physicians who performed the autopsy on him because the freezing apparatus in the room had broken down a few days ago. The poor man didn’t know this and had believed that the freezer was on. He literally believed himself to death.

While this extreme story seems apocryphal, the conclusion is all too common: Too often, the dangers in our lives are mere imagination. Most of the troubles we worry about never transpire. But in our mind, we tend to not only anticipate the worst, but also exaggerate it. As a result, we are in constant fear of imminent dangers. In short, we live highly stressful lives—unnecessarily!

When stressed, we make poor decisions, our immunity falls and we fall sick easily, and we spread negativity around us. In spite of its pitfalls, stress has become so much a part of our psyche, we have come to accept it as the norm.

But, what if you could banish the daily stress that you experience which is mind-made and has little to do with reality? What if you could eliminate the unnecessary worry and anxiety that steals away your peace of mind? And what if you could do this by learning to use a gift you were born with but have rarely ever used?

In this month’s cover story, author Michael Olpin, who has been teaching the science of stress management and mind/body wellness for over 30 years, tells you how can be free from stress. “Stress happens when your thoughts project into your future or past, and those thoughts include pain of any kind. It is rarely, if ever, the current experience or event that causes the threat,” he writes as he offers five principles of the mind to help you understand why and how you create stress. He also suggests an easy yet fail-proof guide that will help you dissolve your stress instantly, every time.

I think you will find, as I did, his elaborate and meticulous elucidation quite valuable. You will also discover that almost always your stress is a ‘false positive’. Byron Katie said, “I have never experienced a stressful feeling that wasn’t caused by attaching to an untrue thought. Behind every uncomfortable feeling, there’s a thought that isn’t true for us.” This realisation is freedom from stress.

Read the full story here.

The post May 2015 issue: The illusion of stress appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Many years ago, when I was still pursuing graduation, a friend lent me a copy of It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It by Robert Fulghum, whose uncomplicated outlook on life, together with his fresh and funny style of writing, quickly made him one of my favourite authors. Over the years, his books made a profound impression on me, besides influencing my writing.

In the aforementioned book, there was a chapter on how we mix up our identities with the work we do professionally. It was a hilarious read—so funny that I laughed at nearly every sentence. And yet, there was also a very powerful message contained that made me question my priorities. Fulghum wrote, “I often say that I don’t worry about the meaning of life—I can’t handle that big stuff. What concerns me is the meaning in life—day by day, hour by hour, while I’m doing whatever it is that I do. What counts is not what I do, but how I think about myself while I’m doing it.”

These words of Fulghum sum up the essence of our 8^th anniversary issue. No matter what anyone does, we are all yearning to live a life of meaning. But, there is no formula to decode life, nor is there any universal meaning of life—that single answer to the great quest of humankind. Meaning is personal and comes from within each individual. That is what Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon, two bestselling authors, have come together to help you understand.

“Meaning is the life energy or fuel that motivates us to achieve our highest potential as human beings. In fact, meaning is an integral part of our innate humanness, and it is the search for meaning, our primary intrinsic motivation, that distinguishes us from other living entities,” they write as they share practical ideas to help you to discover, and apply, meaning in your everyday life and work.

I urge you to read this month’s cover story slowly, and then read it again. Absorb its message fully. It contains pointers that will help you answer the ultimate question we all ask. And once you find your own unique answer to this question, your life will be filled with the only wealth that counts—meaning.

Read the full story here.

The post November 2014 issue: Finding meaning in life appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.