Seth 407
Stress and the Rubber Band Exercise
Tuesday June 16, 2009
8:25 PM
Seth… Good evening, a pleasure to have you here with me again this evening. We shall start with a small bit of housekeeping. Kaetorina, you are to inform Isabella that since she makes no effort to do her reading or to attend sessions on a regular basis, I am clearly stating that she shall not receive any sessions that she misses. One should not profit from not doing work. That being said to our friend Frank I am pleased to understand that you have started your typing of Session 394 and since you enjoy deadlines (Stephanie and Frank laughed as deadlines were probably mentioned at dinner.) you have three weeks from tonight to finish that session.
Now: Frank, would you be kind enough to get a rubber band from that door handle, one for you and one for Kaetorina. Let me give you the instructions first. I want you to place the rubber band around your hand and across your palm (Seth demonstrated.) then notice how it feels. Next place your other hand inside the rubber band so that your palms are facing and third move your hands apart as far apart as you reasonably can and then judge how this makes you feel. You may start the exercise now. (As we tried Seth explained to feel how one hand felt first then two hands stretching the rubber band and then to judge again how it felt by moving our hands out as far as we reasonably could and then to go even further apart and then release. It is recommended that the reader try this exercise! F.N.) What this simple exercise has done is to show you how stress affects all individuals. When you had the rubber band on one hand this is an indication of the fact that stress is a normal part of the physical plane. You noticed that something was there, but it did not concern you. When you placed your second hand with palms touching you were aware that there was tightness and that there was a desire to keep the status quo. Next, I asked you to move your hands apart to a reasonable distance, you immediately noticed that there was a strong desire to eliminate the tugging or pulling feeling that was placed on your hands. I finally told you to increase the pressure to move as far apart as you could, you became worrisome and fearful that the rubber band would break. When I finally told you to release and close your hands together there was a feeling of ease that surrounded you.
The idea of stress is comparable to our rubber band exercise, stress is always there! For the most part you are unaware of its existence and take no steps to ease any burden that this type of stress may cause. The moment you slipped your other hand into position you became aware that something that was difficult, unpleasant, or challenging was going on. In simplistic terms you became aware of stress. Next, I told you to move your hands a reasonable distance apart from each other. In your own minds you magnified the difficulty that the stress induced. You felt trapped if you will by the desire to alleviate the push pull situation that you were experiencing. Finally, I told you to increase the amount of tension or stress that you were placing on the rubber band. Fear now overwhelmed your thoughts. The desire to eliminate the fear became obvious. For the most part all of your thinking abilities were focused upon not breaking apart. In other words, you suffered from a lack of clear thinking. Our friend Frank moved his hands under the table. Kaetorina lowered her hands and moved them to the right and downward. Both of you demonstrated that you were willing to give up the fight against what you perceived was a massive amount of tension or pressure. In other words, you gave into the stress. (I remember this exercise vividly over seven years later as I edit this. I was quite stressed out and a bit upset that a mere rubber band was inducing me to feel so! F.N.)
These traits are common among individuals when they allow stress itself to overshadow the event. Individuals become so fearful that they will reach a breaking point that they become ignorant of their own actions. In simplistic terms the desire for relief outweighs the idea that the problem itself always has been going on for a period of “time.” It is far too easy for individuals to eliminate thinking out of fear that they cannot or will not handle whatever difficulties they have. That being stated the question should arise when do I start focusing in upon the aspect of Change? Remember our main topic is Change we are on The Road to Misery out of the Stress that we allow to surround our daily existence. One must notice that most individuals live their lives in this fashion.
One must reflect on the idea that it is necessary to live your life as if it was water. Besides being cool and refreshing, even a slow moving stream will always cause change. Water will eventually erode even the largest mountain. It will slowly cut away at whatever surface it flows upon. The same must be said for individuals who handle stress inappropriately. These individuals fight against the river. The desire for release prevents them from formulating an easy path. The river itself flows and takes its easiest way to reach its final destination. It curves, it bends and moves ever onward toward its desired goal. This cannot be said of most individuals. It becomes mandatory that a river will wash away that which is not profitable for its goal. The same must be said about individuals who are so stressed they do not function adequately; they don’t change, they don’t bend. If you live your life like water, you will be able to wash away the bad patterns of behavior that you have set up for yourself. This effect requires WORK! Most individuals believe that by shutting down, moving away from any difficult situation eliminates that which they fear. This of course is untrue. You cannot run away from that which bothers you due to the fact that your experience on the physical plane prevents you from achieving comfort in these types of situations.
One must again look at yourself as water. If someone were to throw a pebble into a quiet pool of water, there is a ripple effect. Waves spread out across its surface. The deeds and actions that you make on a day-to-day basis are the ripples in the lake. They may either be positive or negative. The more positive ripples you make the greater your chance for success. That which you fear you bring towards yourself. You will notice that if you were to throw two stones of equal size into our pond as the ripples meet, they cancel each other out and the waters are left undisturbed. However, when you go ahead and throw a very large stone that is negative into our pond and at the same time throw a small stone which is a positive effect into our pond the negative aspects overwhelm the positive ones and spread out and become unstoppable.
The individual who only examines others and refuses to look at themselves clearly demonstrates this effect. No matter what good they do they overwhelm themselves, and others with the negative aspects of their own personality. These type of individuals do not foresee or understand that their actions and in many cases inaction effects most individuals. They are too concerned with the idea that they are not alone with their misery. They rationalize their behavior by stating that others do the same thing and in doing so they prevent themselves from moving forward and become stuck in the past. It is impossible to eliminate stress in these situations since they are entrenched in the idea that I am not alone. These types of individuals have traveled the road to misery so many times that they are not aware that they are on the same path over and over again.
To ease the stress that individuals have one must look to the idea that it is necessary to do for others! If you do not do for others then you are indeed alone. You isolate yourself from events and pleasures that you may have. If you do something positive, in other words do a good deed the ripple effect that you send out to the universe is magnified and will be returned to you in ways that you cannot imagine. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. What you send out molds and shapes your future. You cannot expect to have a prosperous experience without being prosperous yourself. You cannot benefit from kindness unless you learn to be kind yourself. That which you experience is a creation of your own making. That creation of course may be positive or negative. The question then arises if you are experiencing anything that is not pleasurable then one must endeavor to change!
The good deeds that you attempt to do may not always be appreciated or understood by other individuals. Unfortunately, most individuals when faced with this type of a situation become so stressed by others actions that they feel that their rubber band is about to break. They are so wrapped up with their own emotional garbage that they cannot and certainly for the most part will not allow themselves to be thoughtful and appreciative of their own actions. There is an old expression, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. While the words are simple the concept often escapes most people. The idea itself is difficult to grasp when another does not appreciate that which you have tried to do. This being said the way that you correct this type of a situation is to inquire why the other person is having difficulty with your actions. While seemingly simple, this act itself escapes most individual’s thought processes. I will allow the man through whom I speak to change this side of the tape.
One must if growth is to be expected and new experiences are desired, the idea of being open, to remain open is mandatory if success is to be found. The idea of change itself to avoid the road to misery can only be accomplished if you desire profit! In this instance profit means growth and acceptance of that which is necessary for you as an individual to move forward. The idea of the status quo must be eliminated from your concept of reality. You cannot profit by standing still. Movement is always necessary. If you are open to see a new environment even if it is stressful you will be able to come away with the idea that you can succeed. As previously stated, the bad patterns of behavior that most individuals have are due to the fact that they approach “similar situations” in the same manner that they always have approached such stressful events. When you learn to approach every situation in a manner that allows you to grow and to experience any event as if it were new then you will be able to wear away your bad patterns of behavior. It is this process that allows you to use stress in a profitable manner.
When stress is used as an indicator of an event whether positive or negative you will then be able to approach that event with an ability to think and to justify your own actions. The idea of our pond where the waves of progress move toward shore can only be achieved if the boulder that is thrown into the water wipes away the negative effects of whatever difficulties you have had when dealing with whatever event has taken place.
One must learn to give themselves permission to change. While this idea is incredibly simple the difficulty that surrounds that idea is unbelievably hard for most people to accept. Most individuals would choose to remain static or as with our rubber band exercise desire release from the pressure of tension. One must be willing to work through the difficulty that you face. If you give yourself permission to work then the results will justify your own actions. It should be noted here that success does not mean winning! Success means understanding that you are not infallible, that you can make an error and that you will not always succeed in whatever endeavor you have embarked upon. Simply put success means growth.
At this point we shall take a break. (9:27)
Seth… Let us continue. I will make this simple for all of you. Are there any questions?
Stephanie… Does the idea of time affect the way in which one handles stress and their perception of it?
Seth… No. When an individual looks at a recurring event over a period of time, they become more stressed the more often they perceive that the same event is constantly reoccurring. In reality if they approach the event differently each “time” even if their stress levels increase the results will be different due to the fact that they are not reacting in the same manner. Does that answer your question?
Stephanie… In the event of Natalie and her dizziness issue and my becoming upset. Instead of wanting the stress to go away now, had I waited it out and gave it more time to unfold would that have made a difference for me and that’s how I am relating the idea of time.
Seth… Again, the answer is no. You did not approach each event as if it was new. What you did was to pretend that it was a constantly ongoing situation that you then magnified into this gigantic problem. Since you made no effort to differentiate the sequence of events what you then did was magnify your own stress and dis-ease! Think of the country road, I believe that will help you get a grasp on this type of difficulty. Are you satisfied?
Stephanie… Okay. Then when you speak of the idea of wanting the release now from the stress if this doesn’t have to do with time then how does this problem affect the stress in general and how one handles it in relationship, to this idea?
Seth… The stress in general, is the problem itself that you allow to continue due to your inability to change. You kept moving along the same path without bothering to look for different solutions to the difficulty that you were facing. This of course is true for most individuals.
Stephanie… So, you are saying that the wanting of the stress to end…
Seth… Left you wanting!
Frank, you have a question?
Frank… The idea of good deeds and helping others has to do with an ongoing process as opposed to the stressful event itself. Or it does not matter?
Seth… What is the difference between the two?
Frank… The difference is one is an ongoing process and another is event specific.
Seth… Nothing could be further from the truth. There is nothing on the physical plane that is not ongoing. You forget that all souls are embarked upon their own specific lines of study. These lines of study are there not only for you to observe and to learn from but for all others to observe, learn from and thereby profit from those ideas. It is impossible to have a singularity for that would isolate you from everything that you know. Since it is impossible to be that isolated the question, itself only reinforces your desire to walk aimlessly in the forest.
Frank… What are the specific reasons that doing good deeds help you with stress?
Seth… When you reread this session, it will become obvious to you that the ripple effect when used properly overshadows and thereby eliminates the negative aspects of any problem. When you give assistance to others, when you shelter them from their troubles you are thereby eliminating the idea of the release of stress since you are taking a positive step. In doing so you provide yourself with an opportunity to remain open on a subject area. When one is open on any subject area you allow new experiences to flow through you so that you may profit and grow from these difficult situations. If you close yourself off and do not allow assistance in, you are preventing yourself from receiving information from higher realms and you then become mired down with your ego which has now been set to focus only in a narrow band that points outward from the self to the physical plane. This situation prevents you from moving forward and allowing information from your second framework to be passed along to you “the actor” who resides on the physical plane.
When one prevents information from reaching you become stagnant and in doing so you make change more difficult. It becomes a taxing problem for individuals to become receptive to information because they cannot understand it because they are closed off even to the most rudimentary forms of assistance. You become weighed down in your own misery so that you cannot and will not function in a correct manner.
A great many of your questions from our first session on stress will be found in the second session on stress. I asked you to open yourselves at your dinner session so you could become receptive to this type of information. Are there any other questions?
Stephanie… When someone does not appreciate your assistance does it in any way affect the giver in a negative fashion?
Seth… The giver of assistance in the situation that you have described has a great many choices that he/she may look at. Simply put anger, annoyance, and frustration, disappointment all may be seen and used by our assistance giver in response to the other. In reality our assistance giver must learn to simply state I attempted and tried my best I feel badly for the other but that is their choice, and I will be open to render assistance again should they desire it.
Stephanie…. Does the universe still reward them for it even though it’s not appreciated?
Seth… Simple question, why do you have to be rewarded? Again, this shows a lack of understanding…
Stephanie… No, I am talking about, do you still get…
Seth… Excuse me, I understand clearer than what you believe I do.
Stephanie… Right. (Stephanie laughs.)
Seth… Again, this shows a lack of understanding of the idea of reward. You do not get a gold star on your paper. The reward is in the learning, the universe itself does not pat you on the head and say good job.
I will leave you with this: Stress itself when used properly will assist you in moving away from the road to misery. It will allow you to change. Your needs will be fed, and your wants will lift like the fog in bright sunshine. A hearty good evening to all.
(Session ended at 10:09 PM)
