Some Background:

According to Abraham Maslow, human beings have basic needs that are the structure towards psychology. Based on his findings we are in need of physiological stability, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self actualization.

The lack of these basic needs or a threat to them are the triggers of stress. Ignorance plays a greater role into stress because a person that doesn't know how their pyramid of needs are filled or how to fill them may be under the results of stress as a way of living. Some results of stress include anger, fear and anxiety which are expressions of the lack of understanding to what the person needs.

One of the basic teachings of Buddhism speaks about the impacts of desire. Desire being defined as: "that which the body does not need". Throughout life many have been in the search of peace within and peace within would be the so called, "elimination" of desire. In our times, desire causes stress specially if we do not fully understand what it means.

In the search for peace and harmony many have gathered in various religious groups, organizations and communities to practice something that allows them to free themselves from that which stresses their "hearts".

Understanding Stress:

In order to fully understand what stresses us and how to eliminate stress we must understand our body and mind. Based on our studies, stress cannot be eliminated because it is not a solid substance or matter, but the result of an activity within the mind which causes an impact to the body. The activity that happens in the mind is considered to be a mental picture of the past or the future. Sometimes these activities are repetitions of memories which although happened in the past, continue to cause an impact in the emotional and physical bodies. 

For example, picture a rubber band; the rubber band can naturally be stretched without forcing it. And if we play stretching it, is completely safe and normal. The moment we begin to stretch beyond its normal stretch, the body begin to force the stretch and it also begins to stress. The stress happens because there is a reference to a painful event with a rubber band that happen to oneself or another person. That reference is automatically causing the body to feel threaten and the tension can be felt everywhere as the body resists the pain that is yet to happen.

Now, the rubber band is in our hand, it is therefore our body and we should be completely relaxed into the awareness that we control the rubber band. But in reality the body knows that it doesn't have the control over the rubber band because we do not know how far the rubber band can go and whether breaking it will cause great pain or simply fly away from our body. The moment we let go of the resistance of the rubber band, the body feels overwhelmed and worked out. The temperature increased, the blood pressure increases, the heart beat increased and the muscles can feel quite tense. Although the rubber band never broke, the body is not just tense it is almost sick. If we were to hold the rubber band for a longer period of time the body could have been greatly impacted with the unknown possibility of the rubber breaking.

As you read this, I'm sure your body is a little agitated specially if you had the painful experience. This is a simple way of explaining how the body feels when is lacking something or when something is going to happen and there is a reference to it. As we grow in life experiences stress increases because we gather more memorable or painful references that the mind either wants again or wants to avoid. The constant movement of going to the past or the future is what causes the levels of stress in the body and the longer the time remembering these moments, the greater impact we cause into our bodies.

To further apply these understanding to ourselves we must individually:

1. Analyze what are our current needs are,
2. What are our whims and desires of the past and future,
3. and what can we accomplish based on our conditions at a short and long term.

Setting goals is a way to visualize into the future what we could be capable of, allowing us to understand what we can accomplish now.The desire of greatness creates a form of illusion in the mind, a belief of something that seems so tangible in mind and that appears to be easy to acquire that we stress when we don't have it or the possibility of not happening.