Stress, Pain, and Illness: Facing the Full Catastrophe

An excerpt from Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD (pg 2)

The problem of stress does not admit to simpleminded solutions or quick fixes. At root, stress is a natural part of living from which there is no more escape than from the human condition itself. Yet some people try to avoid stress by walling themselves off from life experience; others attempt to anesthetize themselves one way or another to escape it. Of course, it is only sensible to avoid undergoing unnecessary pain and hardship. Certainly we all need to distance ourselves from our troubles now and again. But if escape and avoidance become our habitual ways of dealing with our problems, the problems just multiply. They don't magically go away. What does go away, or get covered over when we tune out our problems or run away from them, is our power to grown and to change and to heal. When it comes right down to it, facing our problems is usually the only way to get past them.