John Roberts on Stress or Resilience, Your Choice

Stress as a source of distress:
Stress is presented not as an idea, but as a lived experience with physical, emotional, and relational consequences.

• Recognizing stress in the body:
  Participants are guided to recall a recent stressful experience and notice the sensations in their bodies. This highlights the importance of somatic awareness in identifying and understanding stress.

  Three fundamental reactions to stress:

  • Struggling against: Resisting what is happening.

  • Struggling for: Striving to make a situation continue or not end.

  • Being blindsided: Being caught off guard due to lack of awareness or attention.

  The impact of liking and disliking:
  Roberts emphasizes how clinging to what we like and resisting what we dislike creates a constant struggle with our experience.

  Principles for working with stress:

  • Investigate and acknowledge: Become aware of the role of liking, disliking, and ignorance in your stress response.

  • Feel the experience fully: Allow yourself to feel the sensations of stress without resistance.

  • Recognize your reactions: Observe your thoughts and emotions in relation to the experience.

  • Develop capacity of attention: Cultivate mindfulness through practices like meditation to enhance present moment awareness.

  • Grounding technique: Participants are encouraged to practice feeling their feet as a simple grounding technique to manage stress.