The following story illustrates the value of compassion in managing stress and events related to such challenges.
A friend was recounting a story of a king and demon recently. While king was out of his kingdom on an errand, a demon came to visit the city. Frightened, all the decision makers tried every trick in the book to scare the demon away. But nothing worked. More they tried, fiercer became the demon.
Then the king came back. Instead of pushing the demon away, he acknowledged, embraced, and listened to it. Gradually, demon stopped scaring the population.
This story holds a metaphorical significance in our modern life.
Our stresses are like modern demons we battle every day. Instead of endlessly trying to conquer these stressors, could we benefit from listening to our stresses by taking a gentler, loving or compassionate approach to them? Compassionate attitude to daily stresses can be a significant tool in your pocket.
A recent study published in the journal of Harvard Review of Psychiatry (2018) indicated that both compassion-based and Loving-kindness interventions were effective in treating a variety of disorder and challenges such as depressive disorders, eating disorders and chronic pain. Journal of Psychiatric Research (2017) also indicated that taking a more non-reactive approach to daily stressors brings down harmful impact of stresses on health and well-being. Other studies have similar suggestions: maintaining compassion during stressful times is helpful in managing optimal decision-making capacity and avoiding burnout.
