Stress and Dis-ease

 Just as consciousness can cause disease, it can also create good health and well-being.

Erin Fall Haskell

Stress and Disease

Stress is a strange and powerful thing to consider when we look on our life experience and realize we are indeed "stressed".  I often talk about the implicatons stress has on the body.  How I see trapped trauma memory , more so than genetics, as the cause of this "invisible" thing I have going on with my ticker, the cause of the knots in my body that are manifesting as painful "somethings" in areas of concern. 

Stress, I believe, is the greatest causative factor of all disease. Fight, flight and freeze reactions lead to sudden changes in  "chemistry" in the body...the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine that speed up heart rate, cause muscle contraction in preparation for action that seldom comes, increase blood pressure, delay the immune and digestive responses ( because the body just does not have time for them) and demands that adrenal glands exhaust themselves in order to keep up the cortisol production needed at these times.  This response gets turned on when no apparent threat to our physical survival is before us. And ,  most of us in this part of the world,  do not know how to shut this stress system off once it is turned on. We live in states of chronic stress.

The Mind turns on the Stress Response

So what does the turning on and the turning off?  The mind.  

It is the mind and all our thoughts, our judgments, our perceptions and intrepretations...that turn on the stress response. It is the mind that tells us something is dangerous, bad, wrong .  The mind tells us to fight, resist, avoid what Life offers in a moment.  It is the mind that tells us Fear is real and that we must "react" accordingly. This fear response is hard on the body and if fear (in its many forms: frustration, anger, resentment, blame, anxiety, dread, sadness, grief, despair etc) is trapped inside rather than released, as it is in many of us, it reeks havoc on the body.  How we think, then, is the leading cause of disease.

The Mind can turn off the Stress Response

If that is the case, then  only by controlling of that mind  will we be able turn off the stress response.  Controlling the mind is not an active process, as may be imagined as someone gripping with all their might on a large hand brake as they are dragged along with their heels screeching against the earth. Controlling the mind is actually more of an allowing and observing of the mind as the key instigator of our negative experiences.  

Notice the Body in Stress Mode

Just step back away from the experience that you erronously believe to be causing the stress and watch your reaction.  Notice how your body is responding to that stress...the area in the belly...the key intuitive center may feel tight, "off", contracted . You may feel tension in jaw, neck, shoulders .  You may notice you are breathing fast and shallow, your heart is beating fast. You may notice your hands in fists and your upper torso leaning forward. As soon as you notice this...know it is the mind doing it. The body is just responding to its commands. Then take a big slow breath in and out. Release the stress through trembling, activity, walking, yoga, kick boxing if that works for you. Let this stress work its way out of the body before going back to the mind.

Notice the Mind in Stress Mode

Then still yourself and observe what the mind is doing. . Don't resist, struggle or actively try to stop the thinking...just see it as it is ...mind activity.  

Then continue to focus on  breath and connect to the moment you are in, the only time worth investing in. Allow...allow the body to relax, allow the mind to relax.

Do this not as a reaction to stress but as a proactive preventive measure for avoidng the damage stress can have on us.  Things are going to keep happening around you...life will continue to do what life does but instead of reacting in a harmful way to events, and memories...we can learn to respond with a committment to releasing both mental and physical tension from the body. The Stress Response will automatically shut off then. We will be on our way to better health!

All is well! 

Erin Fall Haskell (2017) Awakening. Kindle Edition