Stress touches everyone. Demands at work,
family crises, guilt, and uncertainty about the future, dissatisfaction with
the past-these all are hard enough.
Optimism and hope often are crowded out of
our lives by our busy schedules. We can become so focussed on things and work ,
even good and necessary activities and we loose out on how we can grow up in
all aspects of our lives.
Researchers; Thomas H. Holmes and Richard
H.Rahe developed the social readjustment rating scale, which lists life events
with corresponding stress values for each: the death of spouse --- 100, personal injury or illness---
53,change in residence-- ;etc.
A person accumulating 200 or more points at
any given time runs 50 percent chance of becoming ill, some one accruing 300 or
more will reach a point of crisis.
Moderate amount of stress are necessary to
increase performance, but beyond a point, stress becomes a health hazard.
How to manage stress
1.
Bringing relief to others.
Fundamentally being selfless. In majority of cases,
the pressure brought about by work, relationships , money, etc., is self centred.
Focusing on others (rather than on oneself ) is a good way to remove personal
pressure.
People who engage in voluntary work,
community projects, etc. report greater feelings of well being and satisfaction
than people who do not.
John D. Rockefeller (1839--- 1937) provided
an example of how to survive stress by moving focus from oneself to others. By
1879 his company, Standard Oil, handled about 90 percent of the refining in the
United States. By the age of 50, he was the richest man alive. But in 1891, he
had a nervous breakdown and was near death. However he recovered from his
illness in just a few months.
How?
Apart from a simple diet, rest, and
exercise, he decided to give a way his fortune and spent the remaining 40 years
of his life as a philanthropist. Early
in the twentieth century, his personal fortune peaked at nearly $900 million.
At the time of his death, his estate was valued at $26 million. His donation
did a lot of good in the world. And as for himself, he extended his life by
nearly another fifty years, living in contentment to the age of 97.
2. Sleep. Eat. Sleep again. Eat again. And
engage in intense physical exercise. How interesting that that proper sleep,
exercise and a healthy deity often are prescribed to control psychological
stress.
A common treatment for mood disorders is
called activity scheduling. It consists of developing a rigid time table that
contains pleasant and purpose full activities that will force a depressed
person to organise, anticipate, and carry out events, such a regimen helps the
person to fill time positively and avoid self pity. Physical exercise is often
included in the activities, because it helps to produce endorphins, morphine-like
natural chemicals that enhance mood and temporarily relieve depression.
3. Laughter and Healing
Norman Cousins, the author of a book called
Anatomy
of an illness, was the editor of a popular magazine in the United States
for about thirty years. In 1964 he was struck down by a disease that affected his collagen, the body’s connective
tissue. He suffered great pain. He had a hard time moving his figures, his
limbs, even his jaw. He found it hard to turn over in bed. Meanwhile, lumps
started forming all over his body, as well. Ounce the diagnosis was made the
doctors prescribed all sorts of pain killers and sedatives, things like aspirin
and codeine, and other drugs, including many sleeping pills.
At one point his body started to have a
reaction to the drugs, and he broke out in hives that were even more pain full
than the disease itself. Things were looking bad for Norman, especially because
only one in about five hundred patients ever recovers from this disease.
Finally fed up with all these medications
and their bad side effects, he started to watch a popular TV show called Candid
Camera. In bed he would Lough and Lough at the antics. Almost immediately he
noticed a change. The more he laughed the better he felt. The nurse would
sometimes read him humorous stories that would make him howl and glee. Over
time, the tests showed that he was getting better. Before long, the lumps on
his body began to shrink, and he returned to his job. Soon after the man who had found it hard to turn over in
bed was playing tennis, playing golf, riding horse and playing the piano.
Though no one is saying that laughter is
the solution to all our medical problems, there is no question that a good
attitude can have a positive impact on our health.
Yes there are physical benefits to laughter
and joyful thinking. Laughter exercises the lungs and stimulates the
circulatory system. As a result, increased oxygen enters the blood.
Laughter acts as a relaxant, and in the
long term it can be associated with mild decreases in blood pressure.
Laughter increases the production of the chemical endorphins
that sooth and relax the mind, relieve pain, elevate the mood, and
increase immune cell activity. This optimism and merry heart will be entirely appropriate,
because they are founded on the knowledge that God is in control.
We know that it is not possible or feasible
to be happy and laugh continuously. we can ,however, seek to have a positive
attitude.
Take
a good look at your own health habits. What are you eating and drinking? What
kind of exercise programme are you on? how much leisure time do you have? What
changes can you make that could help you feel better emotionally, as well as
physically? Though in some cases people have very serious psychological needs
that must be professionally be addressed, many times a change in life style
habits can make a big difference in how we feel.
“Satan has taken advantage of the weakness
of humanity. And he will still work in the same way. Whenever one is encompassed
with clouds, perplexed by circumstances, or afflicted by poverty or distress,
Satan is at hand to tempt and annoy. He attacks our weak point of character. He
seeks to shake our confidence in God, who suffers such a condition of things to
exist.” Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 120
For a few seasons, TV watchers were
subjected to a show called Fear Factor, in which contestants would be placed in
various fear ful situations: from sitting in a pit filed with scorpions or rats to walking through a
building that was on fire— all in order to see how well they would deal with
fear.
Of course, one doesn’t need to manfure
fear.Life itself,in this world, is full of things that cause us to be afraid.A
seventeenth century British political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, wrote that
fear was the prime and motivating factor in all human life and that humans
created governments for the main porpose of protecting us against those who
would do us harm.No matter who we are, where we live,how good and safe we might
feel, we all face things that cause us to fear
Fear,though, in and of itself , isn’t always bad.
Fear is natural and necessary emotion that
helps humans cope with danger and helps them survive.This emotion and instiict
is necessary in a world subject to
accidents , crime, disease , terrorism, and war.
Sure there are many things that to make us
afraid of this world.So often we, though we find , we find ourselves fearing
things that never come to pass.Fear is averry stressful emotion,one that can take
a powerful toll on our bodies.
In other wards fear is not merely limited
to what it does to our mind; it can have a very deleterious effect on our
physical health,as well.No matter who we are,where we live or what challenges
we face, fear is an ever present part of our lives.
He question
for us, then should be, How are we to deal with it?
1.
The power of faith
A young child lay dying in a hospital bed when his teacher visted him and
gave him some school work to do.”Here, Micheal,” he said , “are the lessons on
verb s and adverbs.Do the best you
can,”The teacher though,though could not help but sense the futility of it all
because the child seamed so lethargic, so empty,so resigned to death.Yet ,right
after that, the child had a remarkable turnround.Before the progonosis was not
good,and he now seemed well on his way to recovery, when asked about what
happened,about why the school work seemed to have changed him so much,he
replied, “They wouldn’t give a dying boy work on adverbs and verbs, would they?
No question, the
link between our mind,our attitude,and our
bodies is very powerful.Though science cannot fully explain how that
link works, it recognises that the link is there, and this can make a world of
difference in our overall health.
Studies around the
world have shown that religious faith brings with it clear health benefits,
that those who belive in God tend to live longer, to suffer less depression,
and to deal better emotionally with traumatic events.
And while we certainly can not rule out the supernatural
and miraculous power of God to bring healing in our lives,that is not
necessarily what is only involved here.Instead
the peace, the assurance, the hope that faith gives belivers no doubt
can bring mental attitude that will impact our overall health.
A merry heart
can, indeed, be like medicine--- even better,because so often medicine can come with deleterious side effects.
How power full influence our mind has on our bodies.
Coniviced that he was a victim of an evil
spell, a patient came to a physician with symptoms unrelated to any known
disease or syndrome.The doctor then
placed two glass tubes,one filled
with hydrogen peroxide , the other filled with plain water, though both looked
indentical .He then drew blood from the patiente and mixed it with hydrogen
peroxide.The mixture immediately started to buble and fizz, which the patient
believed was the work of the evil spell.
The doctor then gave thee patient a simple
saline injection telling him that this would break the spell. After a while, he
then drew blood from the patient and mixed it with plain water in the other
glass.There was no bubbling or fizzing, proof that the spell was broken.The
patient left feeling cured,so much so that he brought all his friends to the
doctor to be cured as well.
This story shows how powerfulan influence
our mind has on our bodies.