压力是成长的路标

当我们在谈“压力”时，

我们究竟在谈什么？

生而为人

压力亦是生命重量的一部分

当我们放弃对当下经验的抵抗

将压力与生命、与他人相联系

会看到这“生命之重”中自有珍宝

生命中的压力其实是成长的路标

节选自托马斯·希伯尔《压力转化》课程

重新定义“压力”是根本而且必要的。由此，我们才能看到，生命中的压力其实是成长的路标。

压力不应该是我们拒之门外的负面事物。只有当我们把压力与我们自己、与我们所处的公司、机构联系起来，并且透过这些联系，我们才能深入地理解压力。我相信在这种深度的理解中，蕴藏着成长的珍宝。

有时候我们会笼统地把“压力”冠名在一些其他的情绪经历之上，而我们甚至不知道这些“其他的情绪经历”到底是什么。

事实上，“压力”是我为了避免或延迟去感受其他真实情绪的借口。举个例子，我正在和老板开会，事实上我很怕（我老板），但我告诉自己，我只是在开会时有压力，然后，在会议结束半小时后，我还在思索这次谈话，这让我一直纠结于此。

而实际发生的情形是，恐惧正在我的情绪系统中发挥作用，在那半小时里，我是焦躁不安的，我与下属或者同事在一起时心不在焉，事实上我处在一个很低的临在状态，而这种状态又将在我体内以一种无明的方式结束。

通常在充满压力的情境中我们会发现，其实压力很大程度上来自于我对当下体验的对抗。因此，当我开始观察压力，并越来越清晰地体会每一刻，我会发现，我在何处产生对抗、亦或是如何在既有情境中调整内在，进而我能从中有所收获。

自然而然地，我也会对自我发展以及生命成长的探索充满兴趣，这也让我发展出更为敏锐、静观与反应的能力；并且强化了我的好奇心，去成为一个对发展与变化感兴趣的人，因为生命永远处于变化之中。

运动是永恒的，运动与变化是生命的基调。事实上，我也藉此融入了生命之流。

压力看似是个体症状，但其实是我们文化结构的一部分。如果越来越多的人开始以充满创造性、建设性、整合性的方式来看待压力，我们就可以为社会带来转化。其实压力也是我们文化结构中一种与生俱来的症状，一旦我们转化了压力，我们也会转向一种更可持续的共同生活的方式。

I think a reframing of stress is basically necessary. So that we see that stress in our life is actually a signpost to growth.

Stress is not a negative thing that we’d better shouldn’t have. It’s something that we need to relate to in ourselves, in our companies, in our institutions. It’s something that we need to relate to understand its depth, because I believe that always in the depth, there is a pearl of growth.

Sometimes stress is a word that we put in front of other experiences, where we are not actually fully clear what we experience.

I might call stress, for example, what actually is a postponing of experience. So I am in a conversation with my boss, actually I’am scared. But I tell myself that I’m stressed in the meeting, and then, afterwards I’m still thinking for half an hour about the conversation, it keeps me busy.

What happened actually that the fear is processing through my emotional system. But in that half an hour, I’m a bit restless, I’m not able to be present with other employees or other colleagues at my work, and I actually function in a lower presence, which means the ethic situation might again end up in a non-clarity in me.

Often in stressful situations we will find out, that resisting my experience is a big part of distress that I feel in the experience. So if I start to look at it and more and more clarify my moments, I will find out where I kind of resist, or how I regulate my interior in the given situation, and I can learn about it.

So I’ll become a human being that is naturally interested in a kind of self-development or the development of my life, and so it creates the capacity that is more mindful and contemplative and reflected; but it also strengthens the curiosity, to be a human being who is interested in development and change.

Because life is chaging, life is changing all the time. There are all the time the movements,  because the basis of life is movement. So actually I become a human being that joins the movement of his or her life.

Looking at stress is an individual symptom ,but it’s actually part of our culture architecture. So if more and more people will start to look at stress in a creative, constructive and integrative way, we actually transform our society, because stress is also kind of an inherent symptom of our cultural architecture. So the way we live together is going to change into a more sustainable way of living together.