How Stress Constricts the Mind: The Spiritual Roots of Anxiety and the Path to True Calm

In a previous article, we discussed how essential and beneficial deep relaxation is. To understand how to reach this desired state, we must first explore the effects of mental stress, whose painful consequences we’ve all experienced.

When worries accumulate and overwhelm us, the mind tightens and “contracts” inward. This is not just a metaphor. In the words of King David (Psalms 4:2), “distress” is described using the Hebrew word “tzar” (narrow), indicating that worry narrows the mental space and restricts the mind’s ability to think clearly. In Kabbalistic language, this condition is called “meitzar”—a state of internal constriction.

This mental process unfolds in several stages, depending on the number and severity of worries:

1. A stressful thought enters the mind. The brain, faced with news or events that contradict its goals and expectations, tightens. Its ability to process information begins to decline proportionally to the severity of the worry. The mind becomes overloaded.

2. The brain stores this distressing information, and if it has no healthy way to cope with it, it switches to emergency mode—functioning reactively rather than calmly, focusing only on short-term survival rather than long-term clarity.

3. The brain tries to separate thoughts from emotions to prevent total system failure. Because this is not a healthy form of emotional regulation, it results in emotional detachment. The heart no longer syncs with the brain. Emotional centers become disconnected.

When this process unfolds, the person loses their internal balance. They become forgetful, unable to concentrate, and disconnected from their emotional core. Joy becomes difficult to access. In extreme cases, they lose control over their actions. This emotional shutdown can lead to both mental and behavioral collapse.

Worry combined with panic is especially damaging. Think of someone fleeing in a panic—they might trip or run into something harmful as the loss of composure increases the danger. Compare this to someone running with presence of mind, for a noble reason, like fulfilling a mitzvah or learning Torah. Their quick movement doesn’t damage their calm, but fuels it.

A story is told about Rabbi Aharon of Belz, who fled during World War II. At one point, while running for his life, he suddenly stopped in the middle of the danger zone, sat on a rock, and quietly reflected. Only after those few moments of thought did he agree to continue fleeing. He later explained: “The entire purpose of this frightening experience was to break my inner calm and throw me into panic. Once I realized that, I chose to reclaim my composure right there, at the very spot where fear had tried to steal it.”

The Spiritual Concept of "Mitzrayim" (Egypt)

In Kabbalistic thought, this process is referred to as “Mitzrayim”, the same Hebrew word for Egypt, but also related to “meitzar”—narrowness, or constriction. The teachings of the Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria) explain that the real exile in Egypt was psychological: an inner exile, in which Pharaoh’s oppressive rule—through forced labor and humiliation—was designed to rob the people of Israel of peace of mind and emotional clarity. The goal was to keep them so mentally and emotionally constricted, that they would lose their sense of identity and agency.

The Israelites stopped thinking like free people. They became slaves, not just in body, but also in thought. Instead of acting with intention, they became like machines, mechanically executing the will of their taskmasters. The Torah describes this state with the word “lachatz” (pressure): “The pressure with which Egypt pressed them” (Exodus 3:9).

The Inner Pressure We Carry Today

In the same way, many of us walk around with downcast faces and furrowed brows, carrying inner stress that hides our natural joy deep inside. Every worry we carry chips away at our emotional resilience, clarity of thought, and mental well-being.

To return the soul to a healthy and fully functional state, we must reach the root of the issue:

• What are the worries weighing us down?

• How can we dissolve them instead of letting them dominate our lives?

• More importantly, how can we make relaxation a lasting, stable reality, rather than a fleeting experience?

Real Relaxation Doesn't Mean Escape

True relaxation does not result from running away from life’s responsibilities, but from developing inner stillness and mental resilience. Relaxation is achieved by restoring calm thinking, by reconnecting the mind to its deepest source—the Divine, the Root of all wisdom, and the Source of all goodness.

Sadly, many people who haven’t received a proper spiritual education associate the words “G-d,” “Torah,” or “mitzvot” with stress, when in fact, these can be the deepest sources of peace, clarity, and joy.

Rabbi Yehuda Weingarten is the founder and chairman of the Institute for the Foundations of Chassidut and the “Yesodot HaChinuch” organization.