In what ways can developing self-awareness through spirituality help manage stress?

Stress generally is an outcome of the worry and fear we experience when we have to do something

So let’s understand, spiritually speaking, how is worry generated?...

The Enlightened One explains:

When ignorance (of really who am I and who is the doer in this world) is there, due to ignorance, egoism is there. That egoism is alive egoism. So, when one wants to do something but is unable to finish the work, is not getting success, or is not finding a solution to their problem, they worry about it at that time. Ego is worrying for his problem. So, worry is nothing but (egoism); due to egoism, worry generates!

Why is worry said to be a sign of the ego? It is because in his mind, one feels, ‘I am indeed the one who is running this.’ That is why he has worries.

~ Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan

Why does this child not have any worry? It is because he knows, ‘I am not running this.’ He has no concern whatsoever about who runs this world. It is because one believes, “I am doing this, I am doing this,” that worries arise. And from worries arise fears which create tensions and stress.

How can cultivating self-awareness through spirituality aid in stress-management?

The Enlightened One suggests:

“You take Gnan (Self-Realization) and remain in that awareness... because all fear is in egoism (Egoism means ‘I am John (please insert your name here), I am the doer of the task’). (During Self-Realization), our wrong belief gets fractured and we get right belief, ‘I am a pure Soul’, then slowly, slowly effect of fear will dissolve.

So you have to keep awareness that, ‘I am pure Soul and whatever suffering of fear, anything (like worries, tension, stress) is there, it is with John, not with me. I am pure Soul.’

Suppose you are going to someone else’s house, you will feel fear; (but) in your own house, there will not be any fear. In our own house, is there any fear? And in somebody’s house, (when) we don’t know that person and we move into that home, then we feel fear, ‘Oh, somebody may come here and they will say, Get out from here!’

Because John is other house (the relative self) and your own house is pure Soul (the real Self). So once you come in your own house, then fear will dissolve. And you are staying in relative house – John’s house - that will create fear, stress, worries.

So now (after Self-Realization), change of place will take place, ‘Oh! I am not John, I am pure Soul.’ (And hence,) slowly slowly, effect of fear and stress will go away.”

When we cultivate self-awareness through spirituality, we (the pure Soul) can really enjoy ‘seeing and knowing’ (the functions of pure Soul) in an independent state. So, even when there is stress outside, inside it is fun to ‘Know and See’. In fact, the greater the scope (more the stress), the more the power (of self-awareness) increases.

Some people (in order to release stress) abandon everything and run away to the forest for solitude, but the real pleasure is amongst a crowd. It is when there is a crowd on the outside, a crowd in the inside, a crowd everywhere, that the pure Soul becomes alone. There it does not identify itself with anything. However, this is possible only after acquiring the knowledge of the Self.

~ Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan

So first and foremost, let’s attai
Self-Realization, as only thereafter we can cultivate Self-awareness

And did you know, through Akram Vignan, we are able to attai
Self-Realization in a matter of two hours only? Yes! Here, Gnani, the Enlightened One, with his divine spiritual powers, directly gives us the experiential knowledge of the Self. And then, following the words of His, we are able to enhance our Self-awareness too!.

For details, you may visit, https://www.dadabhagwan.org/