I've had stress on my mind a lot lately. Mainly because I've been stressed in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. A nagging way that makes my chest hurt and makes it hard to breathe. I have confronted that stress and have been trying to reconcile it with my faith and my promise to myself that I would never allow this kind of stress to overwhelm me again. It's not because it's unpleasant. I can deal with unpleasant. It is because this level of stress has only ever been an indication to me that change is necessary and has to occur. It's because my promise to me was to always embrace the internal freedom happiness Mexico Shano very often had. My promise to me was to control the things I could and let go of the things I could not. My promise to me was to walk away from stress and embrace calm happiness. And my decades-old promise to myself was to try, with all of my ability, to follow my faith, as it has never failed me when I mindfully embraced and learned from it. 

So, I've had some burning questions about my recent stress. First, my stress is nothing to do with my life situation as a whole. My stress is related to a mid-stage change that ultimately will culminate into a much better situation that will bring a later positive and reduce a longer-term stress. It is temporary. But, in reality, all stress is temporary. So, why is the stress so necessary? Once I spent a bit of time with these questions, I realized my stress has almost always been necessary. And that this stress, too, is necessary. 

Second, isn't it the general goal of my faith to recognize and then move past suffering, aka, eliminate stress? Aren't I suppose to be striving for living in the present moment and not spending needless time worrying about the future, which is what stress essentially is, isn't it? Aren't I betraying my own faith by not maintaining a constant calm and a steadfast belief that everything will work out just as it should? Shouldn't I be taking the "live in the moment" approach and just "going with the flow" with the blind faith that it'll all just work itself out? For this, I had to do some research. I had to look back into teachings and interpretations. I had to look to Buddha himself and to the many wise interpretations of his teachings. I had to look into the essences of suffering and what centuries of teachings made of it. I had to take some time. And, ultimately, I found an answer. The answer that, my stress is necessary and has a purpose. 

Both answers jived together as the same answer. Some stress; this kind of stress; the stress I'm feeling now, is completely and fully necessary and has a purpose. It is not the same sort of purpose that other major stresses in my life have had. The stress is not related to needing a major life change or a full purge of current circumstances. It only means that I have things to do. Many, many things to do. And that I'm not doing them to the best of my ability.

There are a lot of factors to that. Mainly, I'm not the only person who is necessary to check things off my growing to do list. To borrow the old yet time-tested truth, I can only change what is in my control. I cannot control what others do and do not do. But, when others actions, or lack thereof, impede my own progress, I get a stressed. So, my necessary stress is partially unnecessary. Or, at the very least, prolonged.