There’s a lot going on in the world right now, and most people I talk to are feeling stressed. Even people who don’t think they are stressed likely are, because stress is contagious and significantly impacts everyone around the stressed person. And stressed people are pretty hard to avoid right now. This phenomenon, called ‘stress contagion’, occurs when stress is passed on from one person to another through things like pheromones, social cues and emotional expression.
Dealing with stress (along with other brain tasks like thinking, focus, uncertainty, change, decision making, and strategy) uses up a huge amount of our body’s energetic resources and can leave us feeling exhausted. If you’re like me, you probably have a hard time believing that just using your brain can physically deplete you. But, consider this: when chess grandmasters play in tournaments, they can burn up to 6,000 calories a day - comparable to athletes playing physically demanding sports like tennis or marathon running. Mental exhaustion is real.
So what to do? Your social media feed will likely tell you that we need to protect ourselves and avoid people who could rob us of our peace - lest they pull us down with them. Yoga and Buddhist philosophies would disagree, saying that separation is what got us into this mess in the first place. Instead of disconnecting from each other, the wise Yogis and Buddhists would tell us to meditate daily, so that we can become steady and peaceful. When we’re grounded and at ease within ourselves, we won’t become easily overwhelmed by other people’s stress, and can help them - which is the whole point.
If you don’t have a meditation practice but would like to start, try SO HUM or METTA meditations - both are great for beginners. MAÄT also hosts a weekly live group meditation. We’re taking a break for August, but will resume on Sunday, September 7th. Here’s more info and a link to sign up.