What is stress? Take just a minute to think about that. You probably chose one of the “top ten” stressors: death of a spouse, divorce, separation, jail, death of a family member, injury or illness, marriage, loss of a job, marriage reconciliation, and retirement. You’ll notice that some of those things are happy events.
Unfortunately, none of those are stress; all these events are things that can cause people to be stressed, but, by themselves they are not stress. Some people thrive in all the situations mentioned above… We all have an Aunt Bessie that kicks in during an emergency to take care of everything, and that is her time to shine. She’s better during the time everyone else is stressed out than at any other time in her life.
Imagine you’re walking down a dark street and you see a man leaning in a doorway, breathing heavily. You pull out your pepper spray, cross the street and never take your eye off him until you get in the car. By the time you get home to tell your family about it, the guy was 12 feet tall with big teeth, a chainsaw in one hand and an ax in the other and he chased you 6 blocks and the hook is still hanging in the car door!!!
I walk down the same street and see the same man. I realize he’s having an heart attack and rush to his aid, calling 911 and giving him CPR thereby saving the life of Bill Gates and I never have to work again!
Stress is a physiological reaction to an external event. Perception is everything. How you perceive the external event will determine how much stress you feel about that event. Stress doesn’t occur out there in the big bad world. It occurs inside you ( at the real center of the universe!), and is your personal reaction to what happens in your life. Everyone responds to life in a unique way. Some people can’t bear to leave the house, some can’t stand food, some must have a certain object with them at all times, and some have to be actually engaged in a battle for their life before they feel any stress at all.
Caveman Ogg is strolling down the path when he notices a tiger behind the bush. The human body is a wondrous design and has a plan for exactly this situation. Ogg’s brain pumps a load of hormones into his bloodstream which cause his heart rate to accelerate, his breathing to become shallow, his circulation to slow as his blood supply goes to protect his internal organs, his metabolism and digestion stops, and he becomes hyper-alert. Of course, all this happens in an instant and Ogg has run far away before you finish reading this paragraph. If, in fact, he is able to outrun the tiger, he does a happy dance and goes merrily on his way. The running away and dancing burn off the “chemicals” his brain dumped on him, allowing the fight/flight/freeze response.
The next day Ogg is strolling the same path and he sees the same tiger behind the same bush. His brain has the exact same reaction, dumping chemicals into his blood and Ogg grabs his pointy stick and prepares to battle the tiger. (Ogg doesn’t have a lot to offer the gene pool.) The ensuing fight and Tigers digestive process burn up the chemical in Ogg’s blood.
The next day Ogg’s son is strolling the same path and sees the same tiger behind the same bush. (There’s that gene pool at work!) Oggel’s brain dumps the same chemical load into his bloodstream, but, being neither fast nor brave, Oggel faints dead away. The tiger sniffs poor Oggel and doesn’t think “He was alive 10 seconds ago and that makes him fast food.”, he thinks he’s dead and goes in search of a better lunch.
Here’s where the animal kingdom has an advantage over humans. If you watch a video of an animal in Oggels situation you’ll see that after the tiger goes away the prey has a seizure: convulsions, legs flailing, bleating and screaming. The seizure burns off the chemical load in it’s bloodstream.
A couple of years later you are driving the 91 and, Oggs descendent, Mr. Ogg, driving his SUV the size of Nebraska pushes into the 4 feet of space you’ve left between you and the car in front of you. Your brain dumps the same chemicals into your bloodstream enabling the same fight/flight/freeze response.
If you’re smart (after you get your car under control) you will scream and pound the wheel and make rude gestures and call rude names and threaten to track down the guy’s whole family and give them a good spanking; that would burn off the chemicals. But what probably happens is you drive on to work fuming and when you get there you tell Wanda in accounting all about it over coffee. Unfortunately, that’s too little, too late, and those chemicals stay in your body.
Your body is designed to accommodate acute stress, like tigers and SUV’s, and a little of this kind of stress is actually good for you. Your body responds exactly like it is supposed to and protects you in emergencies.
Chronic stress is another matter. The designs calls for that burning off period. If you don’t get rid of the nasty chemicals they start causing problems. Remember, these chemicals are designed to speed up your heart, slow your breathing and stop your metabolism. They go on doing their job even if you don’t need them. They also cause those little knots in your neck and between your shoulders that you don’t notice until you can’t turn your head.
Chronic stress contributes to every disease and medical condition we deal with every day. If you have a cold , you’ll have it longer; if you break your arm, it will heal slower. Chronic stress depresses your immune system, and if you don’t treat the stress, you certainly will end up treating some other condition that your body can’t handle because it’s too busy fighting off tigers.
There are many choices for managing stress: meditation, exercise, massage, laughter. Basically, anything that works for you; anything that gives you some time for yourself and some relief from tigers. I urge you to get a plan for dealing with the stress in your life and stick to it. Take an hour for you once in a while now, or take a few months to recover from your heart attack later. And watch out for those tigers!
About the Author
Carolyn Smith owns Hired Hands Therapeutic Massage, and has been
practicing massage in Riverside, California for 9 years.
