Don’t Fight with Your Nature

The psychologist Hans Selye worked his whole life on only one problem—stress. And he came to certain very profound conclusions. One is that stress is not always wrong; it can be used in beautiful ways. It is not necessarily negative - and if we think that it is always negative, that it is not good; then we create problems. Stress in itself can be used as a stepping stone, it can become a creative force. But ordinarily we have been taught that stress is bad, so that when you are in any kind of stress you become afraid. And your fear makes it even more stressful; the situation is not helped by it.

For example, there is some situation in the economy and that is creating stress. The moment you feel that there is some tension, some stress, you become afraid that this should not be so: "I have to relax." Now, trying to relax will not help, because you cannot relax; in fact, trying to relax will create a new kind of stress. The stress is there and you are trying to relax and you cannot, so you are complicating the problem.

When stress is there, use it as creative energy. First, accept it; there is no need to fight with it. Accept it, it is perfectly okay. It simply says, "The economy is not going well, something is going wrong, you may be a loser or something." Stress is simply an indication that the body is getting ready to fight with the situation. Now you try to relax or you take painkillers or you take tranquilizers; you are going against the body.

The body is getting ready to fight a certain situation, a certain challenge that is there. Enjoy the challenge! Even if sometimes you can’t sleep in the night there is no need to be worried. Work it out, use the energy that is coming up: walk up and down, go for a run, go for a long walk. Plan what you want to do, what the mind wants to do. Rather than trying to go to sleep, which is not possible, use the situation in a creative way. It simply says that the body is ready to fight with a problem; this is no time to relax. Relaxation can be done later on.

In fact if you have lived your stress totally you will come to relaxation automatically; you can go on only so far, then the body automatically relaxes. If you want to relax in the middle you create trouble; the body cannot relax in the middle. It is almost as if an Olympic runner is getting ready, just waiting for the starting gun, the signal, and he will be off, he will go like the wind. He is full of stress; now that is no time to relax. If he takes a tranquilizer he will never be of any use in the race. Or if he relaxes there and tries to do Transcendental Meditation he will lose all. He has to use his stress: the stress is boiling, it is gathering energy. He is becoming more and more vital and full of potential. Now he has to sit on this stress and use it as energy, as fuel.

Selye has given a new name for this kind of stress: he calls it "eustress" - like euphoria. It is a positive stress. After the runner has run he will fall into deep sleep; the problem is solved. Now there is no problem, the stress disappears of its own accord.

So try this too: when there is a stressful situation don’t freak out, don’t become afraid of it. Go into it, use it to fight with. A human being has tremendous energy, and the more you use it, the more you have of it. 
When it comes and there is a situation, fight - do all that you can do, really go madly into it. Allow it, accept it and welcome it. It is good, it prepares you to fight. And when you have worked it out, you will be surprised: great relaxation comes, and that relaxation is not created by you. Maybe for two or three days you cannot sleep and then for forty-eight hours you can’t wake up, and that is okay!

We go on carrying many wrong notions - for example, that every person has to sleep eight hours every day. It depends what the situation is. There are situations when no sleep is needed: your house is on fire, and you are trying to sleep. Now that is not possible and that should not be possible, otherwise who is going to put that fire out? And when the house is on fire, all other things are put aside; suddenly your body is ready to fight the fire. You will not feel sleepy. When the fire is gone and everything settled you may fall asleep for a long period, and that will do.

Everybody does not need the same length of sleep either. A few people can do with three hours, two hours, four hours, five hours; others need six, eight, ten, twelve. People differ, there is no norm. And about stress also people differ.

There are two kinds of people in the world: One can be called the racehorse type and the other is the turtle type. If the racehorse type is not allowed to go fast, to go into things with speed, there will be stress; he has to be given his pace. So if you are a racehorse, forget about relaxation and things like that; they are not for you. Those are for turtles! Just be a racehorse if that is natural to you, and don’t think of the joys that turtles are enjoying; that is not for you. You have a different kind of joy. If a turtle starts becoming a racehorse he will be in the same trouble!

So accept your nature. If you are a fighter, a warrior, you have to be that way and that’s your joy. Now, no need to be afraid; go into it wholeheartedly. Compete in the marketplace, do all that you really want to do. Don’t be afraid of the consequences and accept the stress. One has to understand one’s type. Once the type is understood there is no problem; then one can follow a clean-cut line.

Osho

13 Reasons Tea Is Good for You

Tea or coffee? Consider these health benefits of tea and the next time you have to choose, you may skip the joe

By Laura Newcomer | Greatist.com

Copyright Anna Nemoy(Xaomena) / Getty Images

But what real tea lacks in variety, it makes up for with some serious health benefits. Researchers attribute tea’s health properties to polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) and phytochemicals. Though most studies have focused on the better-known green and black teas, white and oolong also bring benefits to the table. Read on to find out why coffee’s little cousin rocks your health.Put down those saucer cups and get chugging — tea is officially awesome for your health. But before loading up on Red Zinger, make sure that your “tea” is actually tea. Real tea is derived from a particular plant (Camellia sinensis) and includes only four varieties: green, black, white, and oolong. Anything else (like herbal “tea”) is an infusion of a different plant and isn’t technically tea.

1. Tea can boost exercise endurance. Scientists have found that the catechins (antioxidants) in green tea extract increase the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance.
2. Drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack. Tea might also help protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases.
3. The antioxidants in tea might help protect against a boatload of cancers, including breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, ovarian, prostate and oral cancers. But don’t rely solely on tea to keep a healthy body — tea is not a miraclecure, after all. While more studies than not suggest that tea has cancer-fighting benefits, the current research is mixed.
4. Tea helps fight free radicals. Tea is high in oxygen radical absorbance capacity (“ORAC” to its friends), which is a fancy way of saying that it helps destroy free radicals (which can damage DNA) in the body. While our bodies are designed to fight free radicals on their own, they’re not 100 percent effective — and since damage from these radical oxygen ninjas has been linked to cancer, heart disease and neurological degeneration, we’ll take all the help we can get.
5. Tea is hydrating to the body (even despite the caffeine!).
6. Drinking tea is linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. When considered with other factors like smoking, physical activity, age and body mass index, regular tea drinking was associated with a lowered risk of Parkinson’s disease in both men and women.
7. Tea might provide protection from ultraviolet rays. We know it’s important to limit exposure to UV rays, and we all know what it’s like to feel the burn. The good news is that green tea may act as a back-up sunscreen.
8. Tea could keep waist circumference in check. In one study, participants who regularly consumed hot tea had lower waist circumference and lower BMI than non-consuming participants. Scientists speculate that regular tea drinking lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome (which increases the risk of diabetes, artery disease and stroke), although it’s important to remember that correlation does not equal causation.
9. Regular tea drinking might also counteract some of the negative effects of smoking and might even lessen the risk of lung cancer (good news, obviously, but not a justification for cigs).
10. Tea could be beneficial to people with Type 2 diabetes. Studies suggest that compounds in green tea could help diabetics better process sugars.
11. Tea can help the body recover from radiation. One study found that tea helped protect against cellular degeneration upon exposure to radiation, while another found that tea can help skin bounce backpostexposure.
12. Green tea has been found to improve bone mineral density and strength.
13. Tea might be an effective agent in the prevention and treatment of neurological diseases, especially degenerative diseases (think Alzheimer’s). While many factors influence brain health, polyphenols in green tea may help maintain the parts of the brain that regulate learning and memory.

Though most research on tea is highly positive, it’s not all definitive — so keep these caveats in mind before stocking up on gallons of the stuff:

1. Keep it cool. Repeatedly drinking hot beverages may boost the risk of esophageal cancer. Give tea several minutes to cool off before sipping.
2. The studies seem convincing, but a rat does not a human make. Chemicals in tea may react differently in thelab than they do in the human body. Tannins (and the other good stuff in green tea) may not be bioavailablefor humans, meaning tea might not always benefit human health to the same degree as in lab studies suggest.
3. All tea drinks are not created equal. The body’s access to the good stuff in tea might be determined by the teavariety, canning and processing, and the way it was brewed.

The takeaway: at the very least, tea should be safe to consume — just not in excessive amounts. So brew up a batch of the good stuff — hot or cold — and enjoy.