Stress, thinking quality and the soap dispenser.

Yesterday while I was listening to the super coach Michael ‘Mr. Hollywood’ Neill on his HayHouse radio show I heard some shouting from my kitchen. It seems that my wife was having difficulty with the new liquid soap dispenser.

At the time I felt a degree of ambivalence. I experienced annoyance that I was being distracted from a very interesting, and informative, show while also being concerned that my wife was obviously feeling unhappy (and letting us know about it).

In addition, I felt amused. This was because I was getting stressed, by missing the show and hearing the stress in the voice of my wife; while I was listening to Michel Neill explained that stress is created by our own thinking!

So, as I ripped the headphones of my head, to storm into the kitchen to ‘sort it, and her, out’, the humour of the situation helped me experience a moment of curiosity and clarity. Without realising the stress was gone and image of my childhood appeared in my mind.

It was accompanied by a feeling of contentment and joy. I went back to a time when my farther, now deceased, had showed me how to deal with a ‘crossed thread’. I was 7 years old and we were doing some bicycle maintenance. I remembered the enthusiasm he showed, while teaching me a simple technique, and re-experienced the love that was involved between us as we mended my bike together and he taught me a lesson for the future.

What prompted me to detail this experience was the insight that I gained from the situation. The change in my neuro-physiological state, that the sudden realisation that I found if funny enabled me to let go of all the thoughts that were ‘stressing me out’.

So instead of my ego taking me into the kitchen to ‘fix things’; I went in with nothing on my mind. That allowed me to resolve the issue while quietly enjoying the process. In the past I may have made things worse be saying (in a loud and arrogant voice) “Why do I have to fix things, when I am obviously busy, just because the laws of physics are having a go at you?!“

Of course the ‘obvious’ may not have been apparent to a person in a different room but my thinking would have found a way for me to be indignant with a real justification.

By accidently letting go of my ‘righteous’ thinking I enjoyed a moment of contribution that changed the dynamic of the whole household. The greater my insight into the ‘Inside-Out’ understanding of reality; the more often I experience moments of joy instead of frustration.