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The African Way of Letting Go of Stress

By Yamaya Cruz

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Published: 20Mar2012
Word count: 579
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The number one killer in the United States is stress. Unfortunately, through the process of evolution, our environments have changed. We live differently than our ancestors did centuries ago. We breathe in a great deal of pollutants; our foods are saturated with sugar, salt, and preservatives. And we are constantly operating at high stress levels. We live our lives in total and complete fear. We are afraid of losing our jobs, our houses, our businesses, and our relationships. We are conditioned to live our lives in fear, and they only way to relieve stress is to let it go.

I've traveled throughout the world, and I have seen my fare share of poverty. I've seen poverty in East Berlin, in Europe, and South Africa. I remember driving by the little shanties, and eyeing the villages with children running around barefoot. They had no running water, electricity, and very little food. Yet, they were smiling, happy to see Americans drive by them in a large charter bus. I was a different person back then. However, I knew that these people had so much less than I did, and they still managed to find happiness in their despair.

Sometimes people have to really lose it all in order to understand the true meaning of life. We live a lot better than most people in the world. We have all the gadgets we need and more food and water than we can possibly consume. But these things have worked more to imprison us then to set us free. We can't find joy in our lives because we are always imagining the worse possible situations. We tell ourselves that stress is good. That it allows us to accomplish more and surpass our limitations.

But stress causes our bodies to be so tight and rigid, that we have to expend a great deal of energy just to complete one task. Furthermore, stress and anxiety are negative states of mind that don't really allow us to manifest and attract the things that we need in life. Instead, we attract the very thing that we don't need, more stress. I learned a lot from my travels in Africa. Life is incredibly simple when we learn to let go. The Africans revered death, because to them it wasn't the end, but a new beginning.

I believe that they incorporate this concept of death into their everyday lives. They understand that the world has to contract and expand in order to evolve. To them, their failures and misfortunes weren't considered bad, but necessary for evolution. So they weren't afraid of losing anything. Maybe it was because they had nothing to lose? Or maybe because they were no longer afraid of losing what they had? An African, living in one of the villages told me that they have hope that things will get better.

Today, I realize that it just wasn't just about hope. It was about the sacred and internal knowledge of the African people. They understood that their misfortune was so much like death; they had to mourn it, let go, and bury it into the ground. They understood that they can transform even the worse situations into something good, and surrendering their problems was analogous to allowing a soul to transcend into the heavens. I love you mother Africa, and will work to keep hope alive.

Yamaya Cruz is the author of When The Shadows Began To Dance. She writes about African spirituality, chakra healing, shamanism and much more. For more information go to http://newafricanspirituality.com/page3/page3.html

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