These days just about everything demands our attention. Here’s a typical day disected. You try to concentrate on work, then something distracts you. Then you’re feeling hungry and think about food. Your friend calls with the latest gossip and you’ve forgotten about food. Kids come in yelling and fighting with each other. After sorting the kids, you’re back to food. Then you remember about work and the looming deadline. Your partner comes in with their problems of the day. And so on, you get the drift. At the end of the day you feel drained. You reach for a glass of wine (or something stronger) claiming it calms your nerves. You end up going to sleep feeling guilty that this or that hasn’t been done. Does this sound familiar? There are infinite number of things that our minds have to worry about. This is contributing to the epidemic of stress related health issues. More and more people are either self-medicating or reaching for prescription drugs. There is however, a simple way to deal with stress. We know that there is a conscious and subconscious mind. The conscious mind processes new information and learns new things. The subconscious mind takes care of repetitive stuff so that the conscious mind is free to focus on whatever we choose. Imagine how hard it would be if we had to consciously think about breathing, heart beating, digesting and so on. We would not have time to work or enjoy ourselves. Anything new done a few times becomes automatic – that’s the beauty and power of the subconscious mind. Take bike riding as an example. Once you learn it, you won’t forget it. So what does the subconscious mind have to do with stress? Simply, let it solve your problems for you. How? By letting it. Once you stop forcing stuff with your conscious mind, you let the subconscious do its magic – do what it was designed to do. Very often it has done it before. You may not realise it at the time, but some problems are similar to others and some solutions are similar to others. Furthermore, problem solving in general can be pushed to the subconscious and done effortlessly. Think about it – no more stress! You can practice this by thinking nothing, or meditating. When you don’t think, all the competing worries get equal share of your time – nothing. Some people suggest that the mind is like a radio tuner and station at the same time. Then we are all broadcasting our thoughts, but only when you quiet your mind you can hear anyone else’s thoughts. And chances are that others have had the same issues as you. So by tuning in to their thoughts there is possibility of obtaining the solution stress free.