Stress Academy Presents:

Web Series – The Story of Stress

Part 1 – Understanding Stress

Episode 14 – Defining Stressful and Stress-free State

Hello Friends. You may remember, we started this video series by asking several thought provoking questions such as what is stress and where does it originate? After introducing the extensive framework to analyze stress, now it is time to introduce a comprehensive and consistent definition of stress. 

We now know that stress originates in our consciousness. Our consciousness possesses attributes such as knowledge, beliefs, conduct and happiness. Unnatural states such as  wrong knowledge and wrong beliefs lead us to form pleasant or unpleasant emotions resulting in sensory pleasures or displeasures. Therefore, “Stress” is defined as an unnatural state of consciousness characterized by emotions or passions; arising in the pursuit or indulgence of sensory pleasures and displeasures. 

All of these passions (known as Kashayas) can be divided in two main categories – Aversion (Dwesh) and Attachment (Raag). The passions such as Anger (Krodh), Ego (Maan), Sorrow (Shok), Fear (Bhay), Disaffection (Arati) and Disgust (Jugupsa) fall under the category of Aversions (Dwesh). Based on personal experience, most of us can easily realize that these unpleasant emotions are indeed forms of stress. Other passions such as Deceit (Maya), Greed (Lobh), Affection (Rati), Laughter (Hasya) and sex-passions (Stri-Purush-Napunsak Ved) fall under the category of Attachment (Raag). 

You may wonder why these seemingly pleasant emotions are also characterized as stress. Let us understand the limitations of these seemingly pleasant emotions through an example. We all know that these emotions such as laughter and sex-passions are momentary in nature. They cannot be sustained beyond a few minutes at the most. So, if we treat them as a stress-free state, then we would have no way to sustain our stress-free state for longer periods. 

Now let’s see how these emotions could affect human physiology.  Dr. Jelena Ghadri from University hospital of Zurich and her team from multiple hospitals in Europe published a retrospective study where they found that pleasant emotions, just like unpleasant emotions, are capable of inducing significant changes in autonomic nervous system to trigger a heart attack a.k.a. “Happy heart syndrome”1. Dr. Ferner from University of Birmingham in his review article outlined that while positive emotions like laughter can help reduce anger, anxiety, depression, etc., when in excess, it may trigger neurological, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal disorders among others2. These examples demonstrate that excessive pleasant emotions are also a form of stress. Preference of pleasant emotions over unpleasant emotions by living beings is understandable but as discussed in earlier videos, it would be a misconception to believe these pleasant emotions arising from material pleasures as a “stress-free state of consciousness”.

Like we have seen in previous videos, the major causes of stress are: 

1. Wrong beliefs
2. Wrong knowledge or worldview
3. Unrestrained passions

We will describe these causes in more detail in future videos. Therefore, in different terms, stress can also be defined as “experience of unrestrained passions during pursuit and indulgence of sensory pleasures or displeasures resulting from wrong belief of identifying ourselves only as a body, wrong knowledge & worldview as well as violent, unethical & immoral intentions.” 

Based on the above definition we can form a practical action plan to eradicate stress and make our day to day life very peaceful. This can be achieved primarily with a strong conviction about identifying our own self as consciousness and secondarily, by avoiding causes of stress in following manner:

1) Do not blame others for our circumstances or mental state. 

2) Develop a positive attitude based on right knowledge and right beliefs.

3) Remain free of violent, unethical and immoral behavior by refraining to indulge in unrestrained passions.

Based on this information, let’s define a “Stress-free state of consciousness”. “Stress-free” state can be defined as a natural state of consciousness characterized by non-sensory bliss that comes from within. This non-sensory bliss is a result of the right belief about self as consciousness, correct worldview, non-violent & ethical behavior and restrained passions.” We will discuss each of these aspects in more detail in future videos.

Let’s reinforce our understanding of these definitions using a real life scenario. 

One day, there was a lady who had to leave her son and a pet dog at home to attend an emergency. She trusted her dog for the safety of her son and the house. Upon returning, she noticed that the dog’s mouth was tainted with blood. She instantly became aggrieved thinking that the dog hurt the child and angrily beat the dog to death. When she stepped in the bedroom, she noticed that her child was safe and there was a dead snake next to the bed. In reality, the dog had saved her son by killing the snake. When she realized that fact, she felt relieved knowing that her son was safe but regretted her unthoughtful action of killing the innocent dog. During this entire episode, the circumstances did not change because her son was never harmed and the dog had in fact protected the son. However, initial wrong perception and belief made her take an extreme step. Later, when she gained correct knowledge of the situation, her perception changed which led her to feel relieved as well as regretful. Therefore, we can conclude that her wrong knowledge, wrong beliefs and unrestrained passions (especially negative emotions such as anger and fear) were the real intrinsic causes (Updaan kaaran) of stress. The circumstances were only passive external factors known as instrumental cause (or Nimitt kaaran). 

This means that the circumstances by itself cannot force us to feel stressed no matter how difficult they seem. Stress is self-inflicted!! Since stress is the direct result of wrong knowledge, wrong beliefs and uncontrolled passions; right knowledge, right beliefs and restrained passions can provide defense from stress.

Acharya Kundkund described the definition of stress along with characterization of sensory pleasures and non-sensory bliss in his treatise “Pravachan Saar” and he explained concept of “intrinsic cause” and “instrumental cause” in his most popular treatise “Samaysar”  during the 1st century CE based on Tirthankar Mahavir’s teachings.

Now, before we can talk about managing stress, we need to classify and clearly identify different types of stress. For this purpose, we shall learn about different types of stress in the next video.

References:

1. Ghadri JR, Sarcon A, Diekmann J, et al. Happy heart syndrome: role of positive emotional stress in takotsubo syndrome. Eur Heart J. 2016;37(37):2823-2829. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehv757
2. Ferner R E, Aronson J K. Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful): narrative synthesis  BMJ  2013;  347 :f7274
3. Acharya Kundkund. Samaysar. India. ~100 C.E.

English translation and explanation by Vijay K. Jain, inspired by Acharya Vidyanand.  2012 C.E.

Available at:   

https://jainelibrary.org/book-detail/?srno=009847

1. Acharya Kundkund. Pravachansar. India. ~100 C.E.

English translation and explanation by Vijay K. Jain, inspired by Acharya Vishuddha Sagar.  2018 C.E.

Available at: https://jainelibrary.org/book-detail/?srno=034445