Hey, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, we're going to talk about stress. Chances are, if you're a human being, you have some experience with stress. And while sometimes a little stress can be useful, helping us to meet a deadline or indicating when we need to make a change in our life, too much stress can compromise our health, our productivity, and our wellbeing. So let's start with what stress is.

One definition we have is that stress is when our perceived demands are greater than our perceived resources to meet those demands. Perceived demands greater than perceived resources. So what's the key word perceived. Now, why is that the key word? Well, often what we perceive to be demanding is very different than what is actually demanding. So for instance, when you're in the shower in the morning or you're actually in the shower.

Okay. Lost you there, Cory. Yeah. I have no doubt that your body is in the shower, but is your mind in the shower with you? Mm, probably not. Or it might be, but you might be bringing other things in the shower with you.

Uh, your, your 401k might be in the shower. Uh, that person you don't want to see later, they might be in the shower. Your boss might be in the shower. Your kids might be in the shower. Your kids might literally be in the shower.

So here you are standing in the shower, but what happens? Your perceived demands become: I got to have that meeting with my boss. I need to take care of the kids. I need to plan out my retirement. And then be angry, I can't retire when I want to retire. Right? Who has the resources to be able to meet all of those demands in any given moment? No one, but your brain is not very good.

We're good at distinguishing the difference between the thoughts about those things and the reality of those things. However, when you drop your attention into what is actually happening right now, you're just rubbing soap on your body, you're just shampooing your hair. You're just standing in the shower. Most of us have the resources to be able to meet those demands. Now you might hear this and go, alright.

Well, it's easy for me to be calm in the shower, Cory. I don't have an issue with that. What about real life? When things are fast paced and I have a lot going on and I have a hundred emails to take care of? Well, let's look at it in those contexts. We'll take the example of the hundred emails. So you sit down, you start working on your first email.

But are you only doing one email or are you also thinking about the 99 other emails you have to take care of, how much you hate email, how much life was better when you didn't have to deal with email, et cetera, et cetera. In those moments, your perceived demands are not one email. They actually become a hundred emails. None of us are going to have the resources to be able to meet those demands. But if you really drop your attention to what is actually happening right now, you're just doing one email and not just one email.

It's just one sentence. And not just one sentence. It's just one word. That's not Pollyanna. That's not putting on rose colored glasses.

It's not positive thinking and it's not denying the reality of your life. If anything, it's dropping more intimately into the reality of your life. Often what we see when we bring this quality of mindfulness into our moments is that the catastrophe that the mind is making this moment out to be is a little less than it actually is. So my encouragement to you today is to see where are you creating more stress for yourself by being caught up in your perceived demands. And when that happens, can you drop your attention into what is actually here.

Oftentimes, I think you'll, you'll see this moment as a little less of a catastrophe than your mind is making it out to be. So thank you for your practice. I'll talk to you soon and take care.