Majority of people accumulate stress and suffer in mind, body and relationships. They may not even be aware that the underlying cause is stress. A tiny percentage try one or more of the traditional techniques – exercise, Yoga, Tai- Chi or meditation. Rest of the population do not even attempt any such practice. They suffer from stress, not even thinking “Is there something I can do to come out of this suffering?”. Even the few daring people who jump on to one of the above band wagons give up in a few days, months or years, with some sheepish explanation. They go back to their suffering, pacified that they are not alone in this respect. Why do smart people suffer like this, individually and as families? The reasons may be -

• We have great internal resistance to any change in the established routine, even if it is a suffering routine.
• Practicing any new technique needs some time, giving up some usual activity.
• Yoga demands that the body be held in unusual positions or move as prescribed. Tai-Chi demands that the body move in a prescribed manner. Meditation demands one to sit still. We are not used to moving the body in such styles nor keeping it still.
• The conventional techniques demand a non-practitioner to practice intensively, promising remarkable benefits. This is like asking a preschool child to do higher mathematics or sit still for 10 minutes!

No wonder the potential practitioner is scared away before beginning or gives up quickly. What could be our winning strategies?

• We need some preschool style techniques to weaken the resistance to change.
• We need a ladder of techniques like kindergarten to college. The first step should be at a low level easily accessed by the practitioner.
• The practitioner should have total freedom to continue practicing on the first step, as long as one likes.
• The practitioner should gain some tangible benefit at the first step, creating motivation to continue at this level and create desire to move on to the second level.
• Any attempt towards changing the daily routine is a daring task, like trying to make major modifications to a multi storied building being used 24/7, by crowds of people. Unless we adopt appropriate strategies, our attempts are doomed to fail, either inthe beginning or at some future point of time.

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