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is something we all desire. But staying healthy
and feeling good can be quite a challenge, especially
with the stresses that pervade every aspect of our
lives today.
Everyone is aware that
regular exercise and eating healthily are two essential
steps to well being.
In this
series, you'll learn about a third step, relaxation.
Not just sitting around but some specific
activities that trigger your body's relaxation
response. You'll learn about the importance
of deep relaxation for reducing the harmful
effects of stress, along with a series of
easy to do relaxation skills.
And
through our weekly questionnaire, you'll
gain an awareness of how stress may be affecting you.
So get a paper and pencil ready and join us as we
take the next step to well being.
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Few of us are aware of how
stress erodes our sense of well being.
In this program, you'll find out what causes stress. This
week's questionnaire will help you recognize how
stress is affecting you and we'll show you what you can do
about it.
Eli Bay,
Director of the Relaxation Response Institute in
Toronto is a pioneer in the teaching of relaxation skills for
stress management.
Eli: Stress is
not all bad. In fact, we need a certain amount of stress to get out of
bed in the morning. Without stress, we wouldn't
be alive. Stress is the fuel that gets things
done. It motivates us to live and to work in the world
efficiently.
Too much stress,
however, excessive stress becomes a problem. And
it really affects every aspect of our life including
our health right through to our relationships.
The
term stress was first coined by the late Dr. Hans Selye from the University of
Montreal. And Selye analyzed
1000s of research studies that sort of looked
at how the body reacts to injury,
to excessive stimulation, to unusual work
demands. And he discovered that our bodies react
to all of these different demands in much the same
way. Like most animals, humans have a built-in stress alarm system
called a fight or flight reaction. And its
purpose is to help us to react quickly to life threatening
events. It's automatic. It mobilizes
our body to protect itself
by fighting or running away from the threat.
In
either case, your blood pressure rises, your heart beat speeds
up, your muscles contract. It's a whole arousal
state. And when this arousal
state is turned on, that medically is what stress is.
Deepak: So what does this stress response
have to do with our daily lives? How often
do we face life threatening situations
where we have to take flight or fight for our
lives.
Dr. Posen: Well it's an interesting thing because
I've actually heard the phrase that the stress response is dumb.
You get the same reaction
no matter what the trigger or stimulus.
So it's like a computer switch,
it's either on or its off. And the body in a sense
only has one way of responding. It can
be a severe reaction or a mild one. But the
reaction is the same every time.
The interesting
thing is, when we know that anything that is
life threatening, this physical
danger, will result in a stress reaction. But the same thing
happens when you feel your self esteem to be threatened.
So if somebody yells at you or criticizes you or
if you have an argument, and you start to feel not good about yourself
or insecure with that person, that threat to your
self esteem or identity
will actually for some people be as threatening
as if it were life threatening in a physical way.
And then the other thing is,
when people have an on-going stress
reaction, whether it's -- and most things aren't life
threatening -- your body is in a state of arousal,
ready to fight or run away from danger.
In most cases, fighting and running away are not
appropriate responses.
So what happens
is the stress response, the state of arousal continues. And if
it goes on for minutes or hours, it can result
in actually physical
or psychological symptoms. It's almost
like if a muscle is tense long enough,
it will become sore and stiff. And that's what happens throughout
the body in a stress reaction, but not only to the muscles, but in terms
of internal organs and digestive upsets
and so on.
Deepak: Many of us are
so bombarded by stressful situations that by
the end of the day, our bodies are reacting as if
we had just been through a life threatening situation.
Even though our brains know that our lives are not literally
in danger, our bodies apparently don't.
But why
does this stress continue to build up? If the body is
smart enough to turn the fight or flight response
on, isn't it smart enough to turn it off at the end of a stressful day?
Eli: We would
almost be better off if the stressful events were life threatening.
If the source of stress is identifiable, then it's obvious
when the danger has passed and the body can naturally relax.
Our problem in this technological age is that stress
comes from many sources. The source
of our stress is so undefined, so ambiguous, so
prolonged, that our bodies never know when its
over. So our stress mechanisms don't turn
off.
As a result, most of us are in a state of
chronic stress and we are not even aware of
it.
Sheila: About 6 months ago if you had told me
that I was stressed, I wouldn't even had known it. I would've said, "No that's just
me. That's the way that I respond to things."
But now I can
actually feel the difference. I know when my body is
relaxed. I know when my mind is relaxed and I
know when it's not.
Dr. Posen: Raising people's awareness
and consciousness of how stress shows up for
them has several important benefits. First of
all, they become aware of their stress where often they
weren't. In other cases, it helps them monitor
their stress. Because once you know how it is showing up for you, you can know when it is
getting better or worse if you know what to watch for.
But another thing that is very interesting
that blocks people from dealing with stress
is the problem of denial. A lot of people find it
very difficult to admit when they are experiencing
stress, and they just won't admit it, they
will deny it. And it's the sub-conscious process. And to
get through that barrier, having people actually
look at check-lists, sometimes brings
to their awareness things that are impossible for
them to ignore. If they said yes to 14 questions,
then it's pretty hard to say, "But I don't have stress."
Eli: Actually the very best way to determine how
well you are dealing with stress is to listen to your own body.
But that's a fairly sophisticated awareness that takes some time to
develop.
There are other ways.
There are in fact research scientists over the past several decades
that have been exploring and trying to figure out ways
to help us develop understanding about the stress in our
own lives. And over these 8 programs, we are going to be
looking at a number of different stress tests
or questionnaires or evaluations, and you'll
have an opportunity to test yourself and
see how well you are dealing with stress.
Each
test will spotlight a different aspect of stress.
Deepak: Ahh, so we'll be able to evaluate ourselves?
Eli: Yes,
that's the objective -- to be able to get an understanding, a
self-evaluation of various aspects of stresses in your life.
In today's test,
it's a test that's going to look at just life change and
not looking at the macro changes, the changes in the culture of the technology.
But just life changes, day to day things that we all
experience in various times in our life.
Drs. Holmes and Rahe, a couple of medical researchers at
the University of Washington Medical School developed this
test roughly 25 years ago. And they've tested it on
10,000's of people. And they found it to be an extremely
accurate predictor of illness. That the more change that one
has in a short period of time, the higher the statistical
probability that one will develop an
illness as a result of those changes.
Deepak: So by taking
this test, we're going to find out whether or not we'll get
sick?
Eli: Well, no. We are going to look at statistical
probabilities. The more change, the higher the
probability.
Trend is
not destiny. It's not a question of you becoming
ill as a result of this test. Although it's an indicator and
certainly one should be aware that if you score highly on
this test, there is really a high probability of becoming
ill.
We'll talk about that once we've done the scoring.
Deepak: OK, so let's take the test. Can you tell us how it works?
Eli: Yes, you are going to be presented with a list of
life events that have been weighted according to the amount of adjustment
or change that is required to deal with that event.
For example,
if your spouse died within the last 12 months,
you would get 100 change units.
The researchers have discovered that universally, cross culturally,
that the death of a spouse is the most stressful event.
In fact, researchers have discovered that from up to
two years after a spouse dies, the surviving spouse's immune
system is about half the strength of what it should be.
So if your spouse
died, write down 100 on the piece of paper. If your spouse didn't
die, then you don't write anything down.
If you had a close family
member that died within the last 12 months, you get
63 change points. If you had two close family members
that had died, you'd get 63 * 2.
Deepak: It
sounds like we are going to be adding these numbers up.
Eli: Yes, so as each event occurs
for you, write down the
number so that you can total it up at the
end. And don't worry if you don't have a pencil and paper handy.
Just pay attention to the event so that you get a sense of the
life changes that have occurred in your life in the last year, to
give you some sense of the kind of stresses that you are experiencing.
Some of which may come as a real surprise to you.
Also,
this test is contained in the home study package, so you can
refer to that in more detail.
The first
question, death of a spouse. If your spouse died within the last
12 months, give yourself 100 change points. Write it
down.
If you had a close family member that passed away
within the past 12 months, give yourself 63 change points.
If you had a friend that died within the last year,
37 change points.
Now, let's look at change in marital
status. If you were divorced within the last year,
73 change points -- it's a
major, stressful event.
If you were separated within the
last year, 65 change points.
If you were
married within the last year,
you get 50 change points.
Now marriage seems an anomaly here.
You can certainly recognize the other events as being stressful.
Marriage is perceived as a positive, at least in the
beginning. And yet marriage here is rated as
an extremely stressful event because of change.
Again, if you understand
nothing else but the equation change equals stress, you'll go a long
way towards understanding both the nature and the problem of stress in our time.
So even a positive event like getting married
can be an extremely stressful event.
If you had a marital reconciliation in the last year,
give yourself 45 change units.
If you had
sexual difficulties, 39 change units.
The next category is the change in
family relationships. If you were pregnant within the
last year, you get 40 change units.
If
you gained a new family member in the last year,
39 change units.
Deepak: Eli, I've got a problem
with this one. Because
my daughter is 12.5 months old and I'm not sure whether to count this
one or not.
Eli: Well Deepak, that's a very good
question and the answer I'm going to give you
applies to all of the questions. We aren't talking
hard and defined lines, it's
roughly. You are looking at the amount of adaptations that have occurred in roughly
the last year. So you can apply that to all of these.
Deepak: So
she is in!
Eli: She's in.
So the next
one, son or daughter leaves home -- 29 change
units.
If you've had trouble with your
in-laws in the last year, 29 change points.
If you've had a change in the number of arguments with your spouse, that could be
fewer arguments as well as more, 35
chance points.
Here
is another area, encounter with the legal system.
If you had a jail term within the last year, you get
63 change units.
If you had a minor
violation of the law such as as speeding ticket, you
get 11 change points. If you had
5 speeding tickets, let me remind you, it's 11 times 5.
If you had a personal injury or illness
in the last year, 53 change units. If you had a
change in the health of a family member in the last year,
44 change units.
Now
there is another area here, change in work situation. If you were
fired from your job in the last 12 months,
give yourself 47 change units. If you had a
business readjustment, say you had to lay staff off,
39 change units.
If you changed to a different
line of work, 36 change units.
If you had a change
in your responsibilities at work, 29 change
units -- for example if you were promoted.
If you have trouble with your boss, 23 change units.
If you had to change the number of work
hours or conditions, even if you work
less, 20 change units.
If you retired within the
last year, 45 change units.
The next
area is major financial changes.
If you are carrying a large mortgage, we're looking at
38 change units.
If you had a mortgage
greater than 1 years income,
then give yourself 31 change points.
If you had a
foreclosure of a mortgage, 30 change points.
If your spouse
began or stopped work in the last year, give yourself
26 change points.
If you are
carrying a small mortgage or a loan,
17 change points.
Another
area -- change in routines. If you had a
change in living conditions in the last year, 25 change points.
If you changed your personal
habits, say you stopped smoking, give yourself
24 change points.
If you had a change in
residence, if you moved, 20 change points.
If you
changed your school, also 20 change points.
If you had an outstanding personal achievement,
28 change points.
That's another surprise for people. Most people
don't associate something positive like this with stress. But
again, we are looking at change and stress being related to one another.
Even in the next area,
change in activities, it's even more dramatic. Change in recreational patterns, 19
change points.
So if you took up tennis in the
last year, we are looking at 19 points.
If you had a change in church activities -- if
you are going to church less than you did a year earlier,
we're looking at 19 change points.
If you've had a change
in social activities, you've taken on new friends,
18 change points.
If you've changed
your sleeping patterns, you are commuting now and you have to get up an hour earlier and go to
bed an hour later, we're looking at 16 change points.
If you had a change in the number of family
get-togethers in the last year, 15 points.
If you
had a change in your eating habits, so for example if you decided
to give up or cut down on your red meat,
15 change points.
Things that you
wouldn't normally consider as being stressful
are on this test. They aren't major, but
they do impact in total on us.
And this last segment, deals with holidays. If you had a
vacation within the last year, give yourself
13 change units. You
may be surprised to say vacation as a cause of stress -- that's how
I deal with my stress. And yet if any of you have ever left
a nice, cold climate and flown
south to a warmer climate and changed your diet,
changed your routine, and gotten sick
while on holiday or sick soon after returning where that change however positive and
well deserved kind of just tips the balance of
health and illness.
And even here
the last question is Christmas.
If you experienced Christmas within the last year, you get 12 change points.
And everybody experiences Christmas.
Deepak: In one way or another I suppose.
Can I add up my scores
now?
Eli: Let's leave that for later. I'd rather look at the implications
now.
Researchers have found that the higher
the score, the more serious the illness.
And in fact, after working with 10,000s of people over many
decades, the research is quite precise. And they found
that if you score over 300 change points in a 12
month period, there is an 89% chance
that some illness will develop within the next 2
years.
If you score under 300 but more
than 150, sort of the mid-range, there is roughly a
50 - 50 chance that you'll get some illness within the next couple of years.
And if you score under 150, there is
roughly a 37% chance that some illness will emerge.
Deepak: Now that's fascinating.
If I understand the test correctly, the combination of a
few things such as a death of someone close to
you, the purchase of a new house and the mortgage that goes with it,
and a promotion, it could add up to a serious possibility
of getting sick in the next couple of years.
Eli: Yes, and these things can creep up on one very quickly.
Research has shown that the higher the score, the
more serious illness likely results. And it could
be anything from a cold to a flu, right through to heart
disease to strokes to arthritis to even
cancer.
Deepak: Eli, while you were
talking, I added up my score and came
up with 179.
Now that puts me in the middle range
right here and that means that I have a better
of even chance of getting sick in the next two
years?
Eli: That's right.
Deepak: How serious is this? Should
I plan for it now?
Eli: No. Trend is not destiny.
What you should be aware of though
is your body is undergoing a great deal of
strain and stress as a result of these changes.
And that there are things that you can do to prevent that stress
from building to the point of illness.
Deepak: So what can we do?
Eli: We can learn to turn on the body's natural
anti-stress mechanism, the relaxation response.
The relaxation response
was first identified by Dr. Herbert Benson at Harvard
Medical School back in the early 1970s.
Benson, one of the world's foremost cardiologists,
discovered in the course of his research
that built into every single body was a natural
anti-stress mechanism that is equal to
but opposite of that of the body stress response.
In fact,
the model that Benson identified, I think I can
best illustrate very simply -- if you imagine
that my torso is the body's autonomic
nervous system, we all have an autonomic nervous
system. The autonomic nervous system handles the so called automatic
functions. You don't have to think about digesting your food or about breathing
or having a heart beat. Those are conducted automatically
by the autonomic nervous system.
The autonomic nervous system has two branches,
it has the sympathetic branch and a para-sympathetic
branch. They are equal but opposite.
When
we experience stress, it is the sympathetic
branch of the autonomic nervous system that is turned on --
it's an arousal state. It's the same reaction if a cat
were standing with its back arched, hair on end, ready
to fight or to run.
That same reaction in us is what is literally called the body
stress mechanism. It's the arousal of the sympathetic
nervous system.
What we are going to be
learning to turn on is the opposite, the
para-sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.
It's a measurable and scientifically defined shift in the body
-- and when it comes on, it literally
shuts down the body stress mechanism.
Again, it's measurable, your blood pressure drops, your heart rate slows
down, your muscle tension is reduced, your metabolism slows down.
Even your brain waves slow down.
And when
you turn on the body's relaxation response, it literally shuts down
the body's stress response, right at the level
of stress hormones.
Deepak: Now how do I do that?
Eli: There are many ways that you can learn to turn on the relaxation
response and that's what the intention of this whole series is about,
to present you a number of practical
effective techniques that will enable you to pretty
much at will shut down the body stress response
so the body can rest and recuperate properly.
I want to show you a very simple technique, a
breathing exercise that will enable you to control
the levels of
stress in your own system right at the level of stress hormones.
Deepak: Now breathing is something I do every day, how can it
cure all of my ills?
Eli: Well I'm not sure I can say that it will cure all of your
ailments but it will certainly give you a handle
on the stresses that you experience in your day to day life.
Breathing
is a rhythm that is with us from the moment we are born until the moment that we
die. And very few people ever pay attention to their
breathing. But it's important to realize that breathing and emotions are
intimately connected.
When we
are tense, frightened, angry, our breathing is short and shallow and
located in our chest. When we are relaxed, our breathing is easy and
deep and located in our abdomen.
And just the very act of breathing as if you are
relaxed, enables you to become relaxed. It
reflects the flow of hormones through your entire endocrine
system. And by breathing slowly, deeply
into the abdomen, the way a child breathes, you
start to become relaxed regardless of the
situation.
Deepak: Yeah, that's just like my daughter's breathing --
you can see her tummy rise and fall.
Eli: All children do it like that, we used to breathe
like that. In fact, that's really our
birth right.
When we are children, we start to breathe into the
abdomen and as we accumulate stress and tension through our
life, the breathing shifts up into the chest.
And
most adults tend to be chest breathers unless they've had woodwind
training or theater training of
voice training. Most adults tend to breathe in their chest
which is related to stress.
And one of the most
easiest and practical ways to control the
stress in your life is to be able to breathe as if you are
relaxed.
Would you like me to show you
an exercise?
Deepak: Please.
Eli: Get
comfortable. And for those of you at home, you get much more out of this
program by actually doing the program with us rather than just watching. So follow
along with us.
Put
one hand on your best and the other hand on your
upper abdomen. Just focus your attention
into your breathing and just be
aware and see which hand is moving -- is your
upper hand moving or your bottom hand moving?
Are you breathing into your chest or into your
upper abdomen?
So you are breathing into your chest? Most adults
tend to breathe into their chest. And
the very simple act of just breathing in through
your nose and guiding the air down into your abdomen, letting your
abdomen rise and fall with each breath is really all that you need to
do. So just in through the nose, letting your belly
rise.. letting
your belly fall.
You don't want your upper hand to move, you just want
to consciously direct the air
into the bottom part of you lungs, so that
as you bring in the abdomen rises, and as you breathe out the
abdomen falls.
Deepak: It's
pretty simple.
Eli:
I've seen this simple exercise transform people's lives.
If you just
remember that when you breathe as if you are relaxed,
you start to become relaxed. This breathing exercise affects the flow of
hormones through your whole body
and literally has an effect on turning on the body's relaxation
response which affects every aspect of your
body. It affects you physically, mentally, emotionally.
It affects every system of your body, digestive system, cardio-vascular
system, respiratory system.
And you can do
the same. You can do this travelling on the bus
or the subway. You can do this in the car even when you are
driving as long as you do it with your eyes
open.
You can do it anywhere. It's
unobtrusive, you could stand in front of 100s of people
and do it. And I only invite you to try it and do it
for 10 or 15 minutes and just observe
and see what kinds of changes happen.
Most people are
really truly amazed at how practical and
effective this is. If I had time to come and teach people only one
exercise out of the 100s that I know, this is the one that I
would teach. It is profound in its effects.
Don't be put off because it's so simple. Who
said it had to be difficult?
Now
just to be able to breathe in this way all the
time is a goal. If people
practice this for 15 minutes a day over a period of 4 - 6 weeks,
there is literally a re-training of the breathing
apparatus so that at the end of a month or month and a
half, most people are naturally
reconnected with their diaphragmatic
or abdominal breathing.
And your whole
baseline of stress changes. When you are breathing as if you are relaxed
all the time, you stay at a lower level of
stress.
Deepak: Well I'm certainly going to do this. But tell me,
how does this exercise fit in the series? You are going to show us a
number of exercises?
Eli: Yes, we are going to look
at a number of different practical techniques that people can
carry away with them.
Deepak: Are they all going to be as
simple as this?
Eli: Maybe not quite as simple, but some will be.
We're going to be looking at a range of different approaches. There
are physical techniques, there are mental techniques, there are
breathing techniques.
Generally people tend to find that one method
works better for them than the other. Although of all the methods that I'm
familiar with, the diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing
exercise that we just did is really
perhaps the universal most popular exercise
because it really works.
Deepak: Well you've convinced me
to make the experiment Eli. I'll read breathe through my tummy
for a while and report back to you on how I
feel.
Eli: You don't have to report back to me. It's
yours. Use it and enjoy it.
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Program Length: 26:50 min
About the Program:
Program 1 Feeling Better, looks at the mechanism of stress and introduces deep relaxation as a method of dealing with the changes and challenges in life that stimulate the body's stress reaction.