In this dog-eat-dog world of ours most of us encounter stress on a daily basis. Stress causes tension and strain on the mind and body. It seems that stress is a natural part of life. Or is it?

So how can we learn to remove stress?

If you really want to eradicate stress then you must first understand what it is and where it comes from. Go look up the word stress in any dictionary and you will find something like this - a force that is exerted when one body presses on, pulls on, pushes against, compresses or twists another body." When you experience stress in your life I am sure you will agree that it often feels as though an external force is pressing against you. Certain sayings sum this up such as "feeling heavy with guilt", "feeling the pressure", "it feels like a ton weight has been lifted off me" etc.

Stress and the pressure we feel behind it can exert, what feels like, a very real physical force. Where does the force originate? What is generating this stress? Is it the events in our lives or just our perception of them and our reaction to them?

All stress is the result of our thinking and emotions. Such feelings/thoughts can create an imbalance. This eventually causes an imbalance in the body which will probably lead to illness or at least a shortened life span!

DO you realise that your mind doesn't know a imagined event from a real one? Scientists have found that the same neurons fire in the brain whether you are actually performing a task or just imagining it. The muscles in the human body will respond in the same way to an imagined task as they will to a real one!

Now we can say that stress is "a state of emotional or mental imbalance caused by internal or external forces whether they be real or imagined.

So what external forces can possibly be responsible for causing the emotional and mental imbalance in one's life? There can be an almost infinite number of causes that lead to stress. They can range from a bad day at work to a catastrophe. However, regardless of the actual event itself when we study the cause of stress closely enough we always come to the same root cause. Stress is the by-product of wanting to change the way something is.

Stress always occurs when you want things to be different from the way they are but they just remain the same. Let's go back to our dictionary definition - 'a force exerted when one body presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body.' This is exactly what is happening to you. When you want things to be different but they just stay the same, you experience stress because it is as if the situation is pushing against you. You use your force of 'will', by wanting it to change, and thus exert force on the situation but it resists and pushes back. In such situations it is your desire that becomes compressed or twisted. Basically your stress has its root in your desire to change things that cannot be changed!

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