Stress is a Natural Part of Life
In postindustrial Western cultures the degree of stress has become excessive and deleterious.

Primitive humans had to deal with the challenges of :
- disease
- changing weather with no permanent shelter
- environmental dangers
- family and community relations
- unstable food supply
- fear of death and disability
Today your stresses are different:
- mortgages
- school achievement
- employer relationship
- employees
- customers
- economic issues
- politics
- new devastating diseases
- anxiety over time
- effects of noisy, polluted and crowded environments

When you get used to these stresses it does not lesson the harm to your body. Stress causes you physical and mental tension.
The Chinese call this: wai qiang nei gan – “the outside strong,the inside rots”
When you can’t change your circumstances, you often internalize your frustration. Beneath this hard shell the Qi becomes sluggish, unable to flow smoothly. This leads to pain and disease.
Prolonged stress leads to :

- high blood pressure
- headaches
- digestive disorders
- arthritis
- cancer
- heart disease
- respiratory disorders
Under continuous stress :
- your nervous system learns to desensitize as a means of coping
- you tune the air conditioners
- you don’t hear the drone of passing cars
- you don’t notice the rattling of the railway train
- you ignore toxic fumes of cars
- you loose sensitivity to the feelings of others to protect your own privacy
- you avoid and escape your worries by dulling your senses with alcohol, drugs or excessive television
It is imperative you take control of the health of your internal environment:

- throw stones
- watch the clouds
- practice Qigong
- do a tree meditation
- try a walking meditation
- observing an animal
- keep a gratitude journal
- write daily pages
- breathe consciously
- chant a mantra
- sit in silence
- ponder on a prayer
The world is not a peaceful place, but we can do a lot to create peace within.
” Dear God
Enlighten what is dark in me
Strength what is weak in me
Mend what is broken in me
Bind whats bruised in me
Heal whats sick in me
and lastly ….
Revive whatever peace has died in me
For I am “

Thank you Sanna Puritan for sharing this beautiful prayer and the meaning behind ” For I am”.
“ It is a powerful statement, to say FOR I AM – it is a generator of LIGHT.”
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