How to Manage Yourself in Stressing Situations in Modern Life?

When we look at the modern life that we are facing every day in European cities, we come across an amalgam of reoccurring stressing situations that seem to define what is normality at present: headaches, migraines, stiff necks, bowel symptoms, skin problems, irritation, distraction, addictions and agendas that make one dizzy just by looking at it. The human being is trying to balance within this maze of actions, and look after its the body, mind and spirit. However, at times we only focus on one; we exercise a lot and care for the body; or we engage in spiritual practices but leaving aside the body; we over-think or organize not taking into account the body or spiritual self. The focus seems to be on one element each time.

Finding Balance, being in the mid way of whatever extremes rule your life is crucial to maintain health and well being. But how come we get out of balance? It's here that I would like to share a story with you, an old ancient zen story about two monks and a woman:

"A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her. The senior monk carried this woman on his shoulder, forded the river and let her down on the other bank. The junior monk was very upset, but said nothing. They both were walking and senior monk noticed that his junior was suddenly silent and enquired "Is something the matter, you seem very upset?"

The junior monk replied, "As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your shoulders?" The senior monk replied, "I left the woman a long time ago at the bank, however, you seem to be carrying her still."

Thus, the question should be what are we carrying on our shoulders that prevent us to move towards that longing balance. To find out what is the cause of such suffering from tense muscles, headaches, digestive problems & IBS or Bruxism (grinding teeth), that still remains unsolved. And probably, we are also finding ourselves at one point where the solution of the cause of all these symptoms is like the pebble in the shoes of our day-to-day. It's even possible that after having parsed what is happening to us to bits and piece but without figuring out what symptoms are they of. And it is then where breaching the gap between the mind and the body, plugging into emotions would surely work as the solution to that Gordian knot in our body-mind level.

For that, a first and important step to cut that lock is to start creating ourselves new positive habits that will help us to pave the way towards a cohabitation between us and our professional life: to have a healthy diet with a low consumption of alcohol and café, the practice of sport twice a week, to realize deep breathing exercises to relax our diaphragm, take little breaks in-between working hours, easy methods to reinforce our concentration and avoid procrastination, as reading or playing chess and other table games, yoga or laughter exercises, among others are activities easy to assume and will cause an immediate and positive in our bodies and minds.