Today there is a need for release from the ever-increasing pressures of modern society. College students are depressed and discouraged by the mounting demands of their courses. Businessman are burdened by their work load and the decision-making responsibilities inherent in business life. And even harried housewives become distraught with the multitude of duties involved in maintaining a home and rearing a brood of active youngsters.

What is the answer to all this? How do we escape? Where is the place of rest and release? Is it found in turning tail and scuttling away from our responsibilities? Can we find lasting release by drowning our troubles in alcohol or by deadening nervous tension with tobacco or tranquilizing drugs?

No! None of these false expedients solve anything. They only entangle us more deeply in the toils of material sense and make it more difficult to demonstrate genuine freedom.

It is never our schoolwork, the prospect of impending examinations, or the demands of our job that tie us up in knots. The real culprit in every case is the ignorant belief that man is a brain-centered ego wholly dependent upon his own limited, fallible resources. In other words, the pressures of modern life have their birth in negative, material thinking, not in outside circumstances and conditions. It is our attitude toward our duties, not the duties themselves, that burdens us.

What, then, is the correct mental attitude? Christian Science teaches that the perfect remedy for all human problems is a scientific understanding of God and of the real man's relationship to Him. This conscious awareness of Truth acts as an alternative in the human mind and progressively frees it from the egotism and fear that are so often the cause of tension and stress.

Christ Jesus was one of the busiest individuals who ever lived, yet because of his deep understanding of Life he remained tranquil, serene, and rested—unhurried and undisturbed by the constant demands made upon him. At one time he said: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." ^{Matt. 11:28-30;}

The Master's humility made him supremely aware of his oneness with God. He meekly recognized the Father as infinite Love, the tender Mind that literally constituted his life, substance, intelligence, and action. This understanding imparted to him a sense of heavenly rest, a genuine release from the pressures that constantly bore in upon him. He knew that the material sense picture of persons and events was a mesmeric dream, a mental mirage, and he silenced its insistent demands by mentally denying them and consciously realizing the all-encompassing presence of the one I AM, or Life.

In pointing out that the Christ is unconscious of matter and evil, Mary Baker Eddy tells us: "Hence the human Jesus had a resort to his higher self and relation to the Father, and there could find rest from unreal trials in the conscious reality and royalty of his being,—holding the mortal as unreal, and the divine as real. It was this retreat from material to spiritual selfhood which recuperated him for triumph over sin, sickness, and death."  ^{No and Yes, p.36;}

Each one can find a refuge from overwhelming pressure by resorting to his "higher self and relation to the Father." When one feels tension mounting, instead of swallowing a pill, let him pause for a few moments and refresh his thought by quietly realizing the presence and power of divine Love, the only Mind, or Life. He can feel his strength and tranquillity returning as he recognizes that weariness and stress are unknown in the universe of Truth. Right here and now the fathomless vitality, the tireless energy, the frictionless harmony of the one Life are reflected by our real selfhood; and the joyous, grateful recognition of these facts will lift the sense of burden.

The spiritually mental process that brings release is beautifully described by Mrs. Eddy in these words: "The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it away: revealing, in place thereof, the power and perfection of a released sense of Life in God and Life as God." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 189;}

It is obvious, then, that there is no chemical shortcut to peace of mind. Drugs of any kind only serve to deaden one's spiritual perception and prevent one from finding the native tranquillity that is his birthright as the son of God.

On the other hand, as the individual actually shows forth the life-giving qualities of patience, gentleness, humility, tenderness, and purity, he is in a very real sense expressing his true identity, and he will feel "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding." ^{Phil. 4:7.}

Alan A. Aylwin