Hello!
I hope you’re staying well during these hot summer days.
It’s already been two weeks since I returned to the U.S. from Japan.
I’ve fully settled back into my life here, and I’ve even stopped dreaming about Japan—
which, to be honest, makes me feel a little sad.
Today, I’d like to talk about a question:
Could it be that we are the ones creating our own stress?
When I wrote my previous post, “Freedom or Not,”
it was right after I had a powerful experience of feeling truly free.
During my five-week summer stay in Japan,
there was a sudden moment when I felt, “I am free!”
When I meditated on that moment, I realized something:
I had been acting based on what I imagined my family expected of me—
what they wanted me to do, how they wanted me to be.
But in truth, these were just assumptions I had created in my own mind.
My family probably didn’t have such expectations at all.
I had been binding myself with those assumptions and feeling stressed because of it.
So when I was away from my usual life—back in Japan—I was finally able to feel free.
In other words, stress is something we create ourselves.
After my spiritual studies deepened and I experienced a kind of spiritual awakening,
I began living with the awareness that everything that happens in my life is my own responsibility.
So, I thought I understood that stress, too, is my responsibility.
But recently, I came to see that even with this awareness, it’s not always easy to apply—
especially when it comes to close relationships like family or loved ones.
That’s because when we love someone deeply, our ego can get involved.
Although I practice internal alchemy (Neidan) Qigong every day
and have cultivated my Qi to a point where I’m rarely affected by others,
I can still be affected by my family.
And I’ve realized that, with family, I sometimes act according to an ideal version of myself—
how I think I should be as a daughter, sister, or mother.
If even someone like me—who practices Qigong regularly—can fall into this trap,
then it’s easy to imagine how people without any spiritual training
might get caught in emotional dramas.
When that happens, I encourage you to:
🌬️ Take a deep breath
😴 Rest and let yourself sleep
🧘♀️ Find the courage to take a step back
Thank you so much for reading to the end today.
