Stressed? Try using a Blindfold

It's another Monday morning, and the beginning of a new week again. This will be the second last week of my attachment, provided I don't extend it. I still have lots of stuff to do, both work related and project related, but somehow I just don't really feel like doing anything. I guess it's just like the army, the ORD mood has set in. Haha. Yet at the same time, I feel stressed, cos I still have work to do. It's quite contradicting, and very confusing too, but I know that I should start working, no matter how much the "pig" in me wants to adopt a horizontal position...

Well, if you are stressed like me, or when you get stressed in the future, you might want to try this new treatment for stress using blindfolds (or mindfolds as they are called). The treatment involves putting on a pair of black plastic goggles over your eyes and leaving it on for 72 hours (3 days). During this time you'll still be required to do your everyday stuff like eating, bathing, changing etc, without aid, well mostly without aid.

Supposedly, this treatment "aims to open the inner eye by boosting serotonin levels and activating the dream part of the brain, encouraging visions". By inducing such visions or hallucinations, the participant will hopefully feel less stressed, and after wearing the goggles for 3 days, he or she will also hopefully see the world differently.

This is called the Darkness Visible course and is run by the The Sacred Trust Shamanic group. This course is actually helps to fulfil one of the primary aims of becoming a shaman's - to see the world 'as a sea of energy'. And according to the author of the article, it definitely changed her view of the world. It made her notice details she never saw like "the tiniest hair on the outside of a leaf" and notice how brilliant sunlight actually was and how it makes the surroundings glow with radiance.

Well, I doubt I could afford to go to the UK for the actual course, but I'm thinking of trying to do this for a day, just 24 hours would probably do. I doubt I would be doing much with the blindfold on other than sleeping, but I still think it would really be a great experience. Haha. Unfortunately, I think this idea won't go down too well with my mom - she'd probably scream at me and ask if I was crazy. Ah well... guess I'll just have to find some other way to destress, like disturbing some giant mutant cat who likes rice.

Dorothy Thompson, the leading anti-fascist campaigner in Thirties America, had a good line about darkness: 'Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light.'

People are negative about the dark - we'd rather have sunshine than gloom. Unless, that is, you're interested in the latest way to escape the stressful world of constant information, noise and traffic - the 'go, go, go' of modern life. If you are, then spending three days 'blind' - wearing a mask - could have its attractions.

Instead of yoga retreats, extreme sports holidays or pricey spa breaks, the latest advice for the fast-living executive is to try to block out the seeing world. Young professionals are signing up for retreats where participants are blindfolded in order to induce hallucinations.

Click here for the full article.