I cant project when im stressed out. help?

I don't know why but I've been having several failed attempts at projecting. I think its because Im stressed out or something. Can't really get rid of the stress so any thoughts on alternatives?

[loopylucid]

Originally Posted by JoeJoe

I don't know why but I've been having several failed attempts at projecting. I think its because Im stressed out or something. Can't really get rid of the stress so any thoughts on alternatives?

Are you able to lucid dream ? Id probably work my stresses out there and go from that platform for a while. I actually find stress or illness makes my obe pretty much uncontrollable, im fighting to stay in my body lol I love how it all works so differently for all of us :)
Happy travels!
Loopy

Stress makes anything hard, even something as simple as reading a book is hard when you are stressed. There are no tips other than getting rid of your stress, which, probably 99% of the world struggles with, lol.

Whenever I am stressed the one thing I notice in common every time is I am taking stuff way too seriously...doing math seems to work for me but I'm odd

[Fairyana]

Relaxing is required in order to be able to astral project. If you do manage to astral project being stressed, which is very hard, the experience will not be a good one.

I think you should work on relaxing yourself first. You can either find the cause of stress and take the necessary measures to end the cause of it or adopt activities that will relax you so you have something to counterbalance out the stress.

[astralsuzy]

I read in a book if you are stressed, perhaps you have bad problems, give it a break until it passes or you start to feel better. Lately I have been feeling stressed as something very stressful has happened. I have to deal with it. I get involved with my interests, such as mahjong and bicycle riding. I get very focused in what I am doing and I forget about everything else. I have to try to put my mind at rest by not thinking about it which is not easy. It makes aping harder. You might find listening to music will help you to relax. It helps my husband. He also likes playing computer games as that helps him to relax as well. There is no other answer except what loopylucid suggested and that is to lucid dream. That is a great idea.

[Astral Explorer]

Being that stress is pretty much the polar opposite of being relaxed and being relaxed is necessary for astral projection that is definitely the problem. The only way to resolve it would be to relax, learn to relax even when you're stressed out, or learn how to prevent yourself from becoming stressed out to begin with. Even if you were able to project while stressed out the chances are it would be a waste of time because your stressed thoughts and emotions will manifest and distract you at the very least.

[astralsuzy]

It is hard not to get stressed when bad things happen. It could be a car accident, getting attacked, being robbed, loss of a job, an illness etc. None of those things apply to me. When we do get stressed we can do things to get our mind off it. When we want to ap, we have to put our mind completely at rest and not to think about it. It can be done. The mind is very powerful. You can do anything if you want to. I did this morning. I have not ap lately. I think I lost confidence. I told myself I can do this. I breathed in and our, long slow breaths about three times. I imagined I was flying and it worked.

[Astral Explorer]

Suzy I agree that it is easy to become stressed but with the right attitude and outlook on things stress becomes a joking matter. Just about anything that would stress out a normal person rolls off of me like a drop of water. Not because I am stronger or better than the next person but because my spiritual practices have allowed me to put physical life in it's proper perspective and instead of my car breaking down or losing a job stressing me out and getting me down I look at it as an opportunity to learn and grow. One could waste their entire physical life hopping from one stressful situation to the next if they allowed themselves to become absorbed in the stress of the situations, but that would be a huge waste of time and a physical life. Physical life is a giant case of Murphy's law and whenever something can go wrong IT WILL and allowing ourselves to get upset and stressed over it solves absolutely nothing. The problems don't actually get solved until we pull ourselves together and deal with them in a clear state of mind and so by completely passing the stressed out phase we solve more problems more efficiently. I wish that everyone could be that way but unfortunately we have to figure these things out for ourselves in most cases.

[astralsuzy]

You sound sensible Astral Explorer. That is what I keep saying to my husband, we will deal with it if and when it happens. It is no good getting stressed over something that may or may not happen. When stressful things happen, you just have to let it go and not think about it. If the thoughts keep coming back, you keep putting the thoughts out of your mind. If people can do this, they will be happier and a lot less stressed.

Well, for this discussion I believe you also have to define if you believe stress and worrying are one in the same....

Stressful situations will ALWAYS happen. Not only do they keep life interesting you need this kind of brain stimulation and critical thinking to survive, without it your brain will be the walking dead and something as simple as your key breaking off in your house lock will leave you as clueless as a 2 year old when it happens, and it will. Thats a big reason why I too believe Murphy's Law exsists. It's highly neccesary for your brain to figure out these things on your own....but....

Situations that make you worry NEVER need to happen, which is what the overall goal would be for anybody. Stress will always be in your life, but how you handle it is the big picture. Band aid fixes like getting your mind off it will work only temporary (I do it too so not saying I'm perfect) but without rationally handling the root of the problem, that "worry" will always be there and will make an appearance, often in your dreams/AP/etc..

I grew up on the poorer side and vehicles breaking down was the norm growing up. I can remember plenty of times me and my dad walking home because the car died wherever we were, sometimes that car stayed there forever (meaning it wasn't worth fixing/etc) and we had to walk or bus places for awhile making some things difficult. I have been putting off some car repairs myself right now and it still transfers over to subconcious land. I had a slightly lucid dream last night and my car died, wouldn't start and I needed it to since we had some place to be, the stress hit me and it was over. The root of this problem for me is known car repairs should be dealt with immediately, largely in part because I have a history of it stressing me out. When I don't do it, that stress starts to creep back in my life.

I also have a job that requires operating and repairing rather complex machinery, most of which I am not familiar with. This can cause stress due to people expecting things I can't always do. I spend time researching them so I am more comfortable with them but often, like any job, you get a little lazy and start spending more time reading or chatting on internet forums, hehe. I can tell when I haven't been spending enough time researching work related stuff as I will start to have dreams of machines exploding or not doing what I program them to do...again, worry transfering over to the subconcious because I didn't handle the root of the stress properly :)

Long story short, stressful situations will ALWAYS happen and are required. How you handle them is key, and fixing the root of the problem is number 1. You can still AP with stress, some of my most intense projections were at times when I was insanely stressed, but note I said intense and not a positive word like amazing. For the most part, they sucked, that stress transfered over to them HARD and they could have been so much better without it.

Basically your "band-aid" fixes like running or watching sports/etc should be done always as a supplementary stress buster but the big dog is finding the source and dealing with it properly, while also keeping preparred for future occurances of it. Good luck :)