Historical The Quest List Post 99

From: Christopher S. Penn
Subject: Re: Stress 101
Date: 2000-04-26 09:00:00

John,

Your question is actually quite relevant to me at the moment, because
we're fairly heavily downstaff at my company.

Stress and burnout, for me, are caused when I am put under a lot of
pressure to do something, but I don't necessarily believe in what I
am doing.

It's like evangelism. If I can convince myself at a gut level that
something is really worth going full steam ahead, then the
stress/burnout factor never seems to materialize. My ridiculously
strong commitment to whatever it is I'm doing just knocks down the
doubts and the obstacles in the way. Occasionally, it knocks down
people in my way, too.

To connect it with To-Shin Do, there's a couple of relevant points.
In the Three Jewels of Buddhism, aka the Student Creed, there are
three factors that bring out success. You've got to believe in
yourself, what you are doing, and the people who you work with. If
any one of those three falter or collapse, it's burnout time.

Sometimes, again to relate to a To-Shin Do/Buddhist point, you can
sometimes squash problems by sheer power of will. I forget where it
comes from (it's in First Steps on the Path of Light) where Mr. Hayes
talks about how sometimes willpower is enough to circumvent obstacles
that pure logic would declare impassable.

As always, there's a price to be paid. If you go full burners 24x7,
you will take an enormous physical toll on your body, just as if you
trained hard every day for 12 hours a day. Unless you were very
careful and slowly adjusted yourself over time to train at that pace,
you'd be in a clinic faster than you can say Mineral Ice.

The best and most relevant way I can address stress in my own life is
to give myself different kinds of stress. A variety, so to speak. My
instructor, Mark Davis, often talks about how Hatsumi sensei says we
need a job, a family, and an art, to live a balanced life. Any one of
those three can cause stress and burnout, so if your job is blasting
you out, maybe think about wrestling your workday to as close to 9 to
5 as possible and spending more time with your family, or in training.

Hope this helps,

Chris

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