Say ‘Enough is Enough’ to Your Stress

Dimitri Safonov
Nov 3 · 6 min read
Photo by Rux Centea on Unsplash

We have been here before: we’ve told ourselves that ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘my work is not good enough’, ‘my relationships are not good enough’ or ‘I don’t have enough time for [your pick, but usually things that actually matter!].

At some point you just reach one vital realization: enough is enough.

We know what you want because we wanted the same — more peace of mind and joy in life, less stress and better health.

Sounds like a mission impossible, but it is not!


Our Stress and Rat Race

Mounting stress and increased busyness that seem like never ease on us are those characteristics of a modern rat race. Our lifestyle is programmed so we always want more. Businesses seem to be successful if they experience healthy growth. People are happy when their incomes increase all the time too.

What this does in a bigger picture for all of us is that we feel like we are not enough. Our business isn’t good enough, our relationships might be not good enough and we are most definitely not enough as well. This feeling is like having a war inside of us. It is definitely not your much-needed peace of mind.


Systems that make us suffer

You can see already that these issues are very neatly organised into systems — food supply chain, mortgages, credit cards, and so on. Let’s dig deeper into these systems.

Many people get up early and then come back home late. Others work long night shifts that cause a wreck in their sleep cycles. This deliberate lack of time works for businesses who then offer fast food solutions or products to treat after a hard working day (sugary energy-dense foods). All these treats and fast foods are inherently low in nutrients, but packed with empty calories, trans fats and contain processed and refined ingredients. Businesses are interested in you keeping very busy schedules and to only have time or energy to go and pick up those unhealthy takeaway foods. Industrially made foods cause various diseases, trigger obesity from a young age.

Food and dairy are two hugely powerful industries. These businesses dominate supermarket shelves and many people’s shopping lists too. Let’s accept the truth — humans who lived hundreds of years before us did experience food uncertainty. It wasn’t so certain as nowadays whether they could get food tomorrow if the crop is lost due to the weather or pests. Therefore, people domesticated animals and meat became a part of a diet. It was never a major part of people’s daily meals and for many years only very rich people could afford it. Yet let’s imagine your regular plate of food these days. You picture a big slab of meat and then maybe some veg or grain that you call garnish. No wonder meat and dairy industries are very powerful.

Big processing slaughterhouses in the US process tens of thousands of pigs every day. Can you imagine how many lives we take just to enjoy a piece of bacon? These industries also employ top-class experts in marketing and advertising they shift a focus from killing to making it sound neutral. They show laughing cows or pigs on a serene grass. For every one of us, the product is called beef, yet in reality, it is cow’s flesh. Don’t you think it’s enough of this cruelty?

There are more examples of such systems designed for people to stay in and benefit ultra-rich people pharmaceutical and so-called healthcare (they would be happy to take our money to treat diseases caused by unhealthy nutrition), travel (holidays to treat us after a hardworking year) and so on. It is time to say enough is enough, don’t you think?


Brazilian Fisherman

Let’s illustrate one of the most common systems of employment and business growth with a fairly well-known tale about a Portuguese or Brazilian fisherman.

Imagine a small fishermen village. People go fishing every morning and later on some of their produce is kept for them to eat and the rest is being sold at the town’s market, so the villagers have enough money for clothing, other foodstuffs, occasionally medicine and home maintenance. They then gather together and eat, drink natural wine and dance. They share their life and ideas and enjoy.

One morning a fisherman encounters an American tourist. The latter asks him to tag along for his fishing job. Fisherman agrees. American tourist observes the fishing, how hard it is to just get a few kilograms of produce. He then starts to ask questions.

He asks the fisherman whether he could save money from the sales and buy a second boat. Fisherman nods.

American tourist then suggests that fisherman can employ his son to go fishing with him but on the other boat so they catch is doubled or even more than that. Fisherman answers that it is possible.

American tourist enthusiastically continues and suggests that if it works out well, they could move forward with the same scheme and buy a few more boats, employ people and earn even more money.

Fisherman calmly nods and asks in return: “What would happen then?

American tourist, rather impatiently, answers that he could then retire in 20–25 years and simply spend enough time with his family, drink, be merry and enjoy life.

Fisherman agrees but adds “I am already doing all of that”

You see, we could easily be that American tourist. It was also clear that the latter was programmed by society. Systems tell us that we need to grow our business all the time. But this rat race consumes you, it infects you with greed. We are sick and imprisoned in this vicious cycle. Enough is enough!

We join many systems as consumers. We start to belong to them and to their creators. When you enter such a system you are in a rat race — you want more, you need to spend more, so you need to work even more. Your life belongs to them now.

Enough is enough.


Liberate your peace of mind

Therefore the only way to liberate yourself is to become aware of your own ‘enough is enough’, learn tools on how to live with peace of mind and abundance. Ultimately, you can create your own system of peace of mind that based on your own intrinsic values. By knowing more about yourself, your values and your purpose, you are to fuel your own ‘Why’. You will know what’s important to you in your life and business and always find enthusiasm and motivation to act on it. Your peace of mind plan will be simple — enough mental health, enough of good nutrition and enough meaning in business and work. You will live happier, be content with yourself and your relationships.

Talking about a bit bigger picture, we need to resist this power of Big Food, Big Pharma and other big businesses that make us sicker, poorer and stressed out. After all, they do it all at our expense too!

The issue of cost is that we do not pay the real cost actually. We hurt our bodies (the tremendous cost to healthcare). Our wrong values hurt our communities (aggression, violence and crime). And these big businesses hurt our planet (polluting it and by killing billions of living sentient beings).

Yet we can do a lot about it. We vote with our money. What we do these days is that we simply let the Big Biz do what it pleases. We vote for our governments, but let them be lobbied by Big Biz. We need to rebel to change this system. Enough is enough.


Say Enough is Enough

Rebel for your own sake and benefits to your loved ones.


Originally published at https://peaceofmindschool.com.

Dimitri Safonov

Written by

Entrepreneurial, business-minded & enthusiastic. Into mindfulness meditation, cooking & natural wine. Nonviolence activist & another vegetarian on the planet.

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