This newsletter is an invitation for some feedback from you. I’ve been talking too much and I could use some input. Here’s the situation (there are no problems): People live with stress all the time, from mild to severe.

Having had some success in freeing myself from stress, I can share what I have learned with others. Not as a teacher who has some knowledge or a technique to give, but as a fellow traveler who wants to provide the space where others can discover the secret to living without stress. One can’t learn this secret from someone else, one has to discover it for themselves.

I placed an ad in last week’s Courier for a class in January, and have received no response. Either the ad was bad, or it was in the wrong place in the paper, or the timing and flavor were wrong. So I am wondering, what suits this area? What will work here? I have made Monday evenings open for this, and since I don’t watch TV, there is nothing making any demands on my time.

As I wrote in today’s journal, it is not a question of finding the right food; it’s a question of flavor and timing. When is the right time to feed, and what flavor do people prefer? Do I offer a stress reduction class for 8 weeks (in the ad), or do I offer an open session (donations only) where people can come and experience an interior peace where there is no stress: the “Try it and you’ll like it” method.

An open session for Stress Removal (which I call “Relax and Let Go”) would include some meditation experience and how to apply that experience to everyday conditions, some space to share how stress is experienced, and a deep relaxation to reveal that beneath the mental storms there is an ocean of peace just waiting to be accessed.

Those of you who have either been in our yoga sessions or have been subjected to my writing, know that from my experience (and all the wisdom teachings) stress is not something we need accept as the “normal” condition of human life. Stress is psychological suffering, and we are not created to suffer from our own mind. Something is wrong when we experience life as suffering, but we don’t know where to look for relief. How does one escape his/her own mind?

All our modern tools and advances don’t seem to work when we experience a loss, or when we have a boss that drives us crazy. Stress is a splinter in the mind, and all we can do is medicate it with addictions or entertainment. It is only when the pain becomes more than medication can dull that we look for other solutions...some tweezers, maybe?

Paradoxically, too much stress is good. Stressed out people are the very ones who are desperate enough to entertain the possibility that one can actually live without stress. Oh, there will always be situations to fix and physical pain...but life is meant to be the source of peace and joy instead of suffering. A BIG difference.

If you have any ideas or know someone who might be interested, let me know or forward this to someone who is stressed out.

Thank you,
Om Peace
Ed Conley

12/13/06

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