Welcome to the ezine produced by SGI Buddhists that prompts the positive, kindles the constructive, highlights the hopeful and leaves you feeling - well, up!
Published on Wednesday, 20 August 2008 19:00 | | 
| 
|
Do we need to see ourselves in a different light in order to cope successfully with stress?
Every year an estimated 13 million working days are lost because of stress, according to latest figures from the Health and Safety Commission. Stress is believed to trigger 70% of visits to doctors, and is linked to the development of illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease and gastro-intestinal problems.
There is an endless list of external causes of stress, each slightly different according to the individual. Living in the early 21st century, it is difficult to escape from some sort of stress, with increasing pressures of work, keeping up with financial commitments, relationship and family problems, and the threats of climate change and terrorism.
Bookshops and doctors’ surgeries are filled with information on how to deal with stress, from learning relaxation techniques to making lifestyle changes. While increasing numbers of people are turning to tranquilisers and anti-depressants to help them cope with their problems; others are using street drugs and alcohol. However, several leading psychologists are putting forward the idea that the core source of stress can be traced to our contemporary ideas about the nature of the self.
In a regular column written for The Japan Times, Daisaku Ikeda, President of Soka Gakkai International, the global society for Nichiren Buddhism, and Director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, writes about the latest research into the causes of stress.