Well Being Program 2: Healing Better
Interactive Transcript
Click on a word to move the video to that point.
Deepak: Well being is
something that 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.
regular exercise and eaten healthily are two essential
steps to well being.
series you'll learn about a 3rd step, relaxation.
Not just sitting around, but some specific
activities that trigger your body's relaxation
response.
importance of deep relaxation for reducing the harmful
effects of stress, along with a series of easy to
do relaxation skills.
weekly questionnaire, you'll gain an awareness of
stress may be affecting you.
paper and a pencil ready and join us as we take the
next step to well being.
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
stressors in our lives. Stressors
are the situations and events that put us under
stress.
this program we are going to find out the part that
stress plays in our health. Few of us realize
how destructive stress can be.
We are going to go through a questionnaire that will help you recognize
the signs of stress in your body and find out what you can do
about it.
Relaxation Response Institute in Toronto is a pioneer
in the teaching of relaxation skills for
stress management.
reaction of the body that automatically prepares us for
instant action to cope with the challenges that are before us, or to
defend ourselves. It's the fight or flight
reaction that we talked about last time.
healthy balanced life necessarily involves some
stress. You can't avoid stress, it's part of the territory.
And stress has been implicated in a wide range of
physical or psychological disorders.
It's estimated that about 80% of all illnesses are
stress related.
we can learn to manage it. And this is where relaxation
can play a very important role.
stress so that we don't have to think about it.
We can run faster and we can stand and punch harder if we are
caught in a corner, simply because of the stress and the stress
response that we have in our bodies.
for hustle. On the other hand, if you have constant hustle and
constant pressure and constant anxiety without the relaxation,
you will burn out very quickly.
have to be able to recognize what stress is. Our environment
is very stressful. We have to learn to manage it, manage
the environment, manage the stresses that are put
upon us.
our body will react to all the stresses, leading
to disease. Our body goes into an arousal
state as a consequence of all of these stresses put upon
it.
is, we response the same way. So if exercise is a
physical stress, you could be just the same as
the death of a loved one.
in the body in a state of arousal? You'll have a release of
hormones from the hypothalamus. These
hormones will result in a release of another hormone
called adrenalin and noradrenalin. Adrenalin
augments the sympathetic nervous system to
increase heart rate, to increase blood pressure, to increase
the strength of the contraction of the heart. And it
affects the immune system, a release of a
hormone called cortisone in a stressed environment
can cause a reduction in our ability to fight
infection.
many of you probably recognized your guts
aching. And this is a consequence of a sympathetic
system closing down the blood supply to the intestines --
diverting the blood to the muscles.
other things that are going on
are triglycerides can increase. These are the fats that are
used for energy, for movement, for making our body
go from one place to another. They come into play after we
use up our body sugar. They are important for
long-term exercise.
can be increased especially if the stress continues.
environment. They are not a good thing if they continue to take place
day after day, month after month.
sitting behind a busy work station and you aren't having any
exercise, all of the body's responses are quite dangerous. Cholesterol
rising is a classic
example. In the modern setting, we don't burn off that cholestoral,
it just sits there in the blood stream. And decade after
decade, what ends up happening is it will eventually crystallize out in the
linings of our coronary arteries.
happening is people have a big problem with heart
disease, it's our number one killer.
continue to release the hormones. We cannot continue
to put up with a chronic
stimulation of the gut with a reduction of blood flow.
our body breaks down.
ago, I would be the person who was saying to my friends that
I don't suffer from stress because I just handle it really well and it doesn't
bother me. And then I got sick, and I found out that I
did suffer from stress and it did bother me.
way of managing this stress, releasing the
stress. And then just coming
to realize that you do suffer from stress when you didn't
think you did, that's the important thing.
any test that you can do or any
book that will help you to learn about stress, to recognize
it, I believe is very helpful.
from stress but we are really not aware of it.
Would you say that we are out of touch with our bodies?
touch and don't recognize when their body is telling
them to slow down, because they have too much stress. Most people take these symptoms,
the feedback from their bodies as kind of the irritating prickles of
life.
as a message from your body saying, you've got
too much stress. And that's something that we have to learn and become
aware of.
now which lists a whole range of symptoms. And it's a
long questionnaire so make sure that you have a paper and pencil
handy. If you don't have a paper and pencil handy, don't worry,
just pay attention to the questions
because I believe that of all
the tests, this is probably the best indicator of how well you are dealing with stress.
stress -- that this is the manifestation of stress
in your body.
questions. Let's look at the first question to see how to
score this. If you had tight muscles or muscular aches in the
last 6 months, rate yourself on a scale of 1 - 3. If you didn't have
any problem, it would be 0. If it was just a minor
discomfort, it would be a 1. If it was a little more sever it would be a
2. And if it was really quite severe, give yourself
a 3.
tics or twitches. If these have been a problem for you over the last
6 months, again rate yourself on a scale of 1 - 3.
shaky voice.
or find that your forehand is wrinkled a great deal, again
rate yourself on this scale.
questions. If you've experienced tension headaches in the
last 6 months, rate it on a scale of 1 - 3.
And again, I just want to say that tension headaches are
very common and very much related to stress. And something like
80% of all visits to doctors offices involve tension
headaches. And really of all the problems that
I've seen responding to relaxation training, I would say that
tension headaches are one of the problems
that response best to relaxation training.
your teeth? Again rate yourself on a scale of
1 - 3.
trembling or shaking.
pacing a lot or tapping your fingers or your
toes, again rate yourself on the scale of 1 - 3. With
3 being severe discomfort, 1 being very minor.
back pain. And of course back pain is a very common
problem. And a study of North American
men, they found that back pain was the second greatest
fear right after cancer. So it's a big issue for a lot of
people
and for many of you 3 would be probably a
low number for you to rate your own
back pain.
appetite? Are you eating more or less? Again,
rate yourself 1 - 3.
nausea. Again if you don't experience
nausea, then you rate it 0. Minor, moderate
or severe, rate yourself 1 - 3.
you have gas pains, or cramping.
stomach or heartburn -- very common problems. A lot of people
don't realize that they are stress related.
group of questions.
Constipation?
Diarrhea.
impotence. Again rate yourself on a scale of 1 -3.
symptom of stress.
pressure, 1 - 2 - 3 - - 3 being
severe and if you don't have any problem with
this, then 0.
is the next question.
palpitations.
palms or increased perspiration. Many people under
too much stress will find that they perspire a great deal or
that their hands are always wet.
hands and feet. Many people experience
cold hands and feet and think its a signal that they have poor
circulation, but in fact, cold hands and feet is a classic
symptom of excessive stress. That when your body
is prepared to fight or to run, the blood that normally goes to your
hands and to your feet is redirected away from your
extremities to feed your muscles. And over time that tends
to lead to cold hands and feet.
energy.
population suffers from migraines.
pains.
of breath. If you find that you are constantly
panting and even walking up just 2 or
3 stairs, your breathe is short.
next group of questions. Do you feel that things are
out of control.
or panic attacks. Again these are becoming
increasingly common in our urban North American
lifestyle. I've seen just an exponential
growth in anxiety attacks in the last few years.
Again rate yourself, 3 is really sever, 2 is moderate and
1 is minor.
irritation -- you come home from work, you scream at your children,
you kick your dog. Rate yourself on that
scale.
next group of questions. Do you find
yourself desperate or hopeless.
rate them on a scale of 1 - 3 where 3 is
severe, 2 moderate and 1 minor.
with depression. Rate yourself over the last 6
months.
this is an issue for you, mark it down.
great deal of the time?
restless? Do you find yourself coming home from work and you
can't sit still, you have to keep going? Think about it and
rate yourself on the test.
poor memory. Do you find that your memory is not what it
used to be? Do you find that your memory is suffering?
And stress and memory are intimately connected.
find that you daydream a great deal?
indecisive?
mentally confused a great deal of the time, or a little bit of the
time, or not at all? Again, rate it on a scale of 1 - 3.
turn out for the worst?
group of questions. Do you suffer
from racing thoughts? You get into bed and your mind just races
away and you can't calm down and go to sleep.
sleeping, rate yourself 1 - 3. Actually
about one third of the North American population has difficulty
sleeping. So it's really quite a severe
problem. And a lot of people don't see the connection
between your stress and your sleeping problem.
judgments? You bought something -- "Why
did I buy it? I didn't need it." Are you finding that
happening more and more, rate yourself from 0 - 3.
read the same thing over and over again and it
doesn't sink in.
with thoughts? You can't stop thinking about certain problems. You carry away
with you, you get into bed, you are on
vacation -- OK, rate yourself on this.
your body? Have you gained 20lbs in the last
year?
of skin rashes or pimples. In fact, skin
conditions are very much related to stress.
see the next one here, dermatitis or psoriasis. If these have been a
problem for you, rate yourself on a scale of 0 - 3.
people don't see that there is a relationship between their stress and
their fatigue. So rate yourself 0 - 3.
you experience excessive thirst?
have you noticed changes in your skin color?
frequent colds.
flus that linger all winter and won't go away.
infections that kind of linger also.
reactions over the last 6 months, these are also considered
stress related.
say I can buy all of these other things, but when you tell me my allergies are
stress inducing, that's more than I can absorb. Because I
know that my allergies are a result of pollen in the
air. What are you telling me stress?
yes the pollen in the air set off an allergic reaction. But
why? And research now is quite
clear that stress throws the immune system out of
balance. And it's when the immune system that is out of
whack, it over reacts to the potential threat --
in this case the allergen, the pollen in the air -- and you
get your allergic reaction.
now are considered stress related.
just rate yourself on the scale of 0 - 3.
questions. Do you find yourself feeling generally
unwell? Life is a struggle.
experienced mouth sores.
strep throat.
had mononucleosis in the last 6 months, rate this.
finally, herpes. If you've had herpes in the last
6 months, rate
it 0 - 3.
do it later when you have more time. Let's better spend the time
now just looking at the implications of this test.
10 on this test, that's an indication that you are
experiencing some stress
in your life. And certainly the higher the score, the more serious the
stress is. Certainly anything over 25 should flag a
warning for you.
score over 25 on this test. I'm sure I went
over that. It's should a long laundry list of ailments.
by no means an exhaustive list. I was involved with a
study that had 90 stress symptoms, so
this is not all.
question about one of the questions. And that's the
one on fatigue.
2 on that, and I'm not sure that it really in my
case has anything to do with stress.
I've been putting in some overtime hours lately, and I'm a
bit tired. That doesn't have anything to do with stress.
period of time, even just a couple of weeks, I think you'll be amazed how
effective the relaxation is in helping you get rid of the fatigue.
are affected by relaxation, I would say
that fatigue is one of the issues that you can
almost say with some degree of certainty that
you will be able to reduce if not eliminate in just a few
weeks with relaxation.
and fatigue are related to stress. Now what about
my age?
one gets older, these symptoms will become more manifest. Because
we accumulate stress over time. You can handle certain stresses in your
20s, but by the time you are in your 40s,
that stress has been building and building. It's a
kind of wear and tear in your system.
what stress is, stress is fight or flight. It's an
arousal state. Your blood pressure is up. Your heart rate is up. Your body is
straining. It's a strain that builds over
time.
your belt, as you get older, the stress symptoms become
more manifest.
is really a list of messages from the body?
These are the early warning signs.
deal with the early warning signs?
stress pretty much at will. They are a whole
range of simple, practical techniques that enable us to
shut down the body stress mechanism and allow the body to rest, repair and
recuperate itself.
it integrates the stress and allows the body
to maintain an inner balance. And balance
is what is missing in the lives of most of
us.
Chicago back in the 1930s discovered
that when your muscles are relaxed, you can't experience
mental anxiety. That muscle relaxation and mental anxiety
are incompatible. And one of the most
effective and practical ways to get into a relaxed state and shut down
your body's stress mechanism is to alternately
tense up and let go of the tension in the major
muscles of the body.
through this exercise. And for those of you at home, you
get much more out of this program by actually doing the exercise with us
rather than just watching. So follow along
with us.
first really tightly. Clench it tighter and tighter
and study that tension right up into your forearms.
And bend your elbow and tense your
bicep -- tight, tight, tight. Study the tension,
and let it go.
your fingers and arms slowly straighten out. And let all of the tension just drain
out of your arms and out of your hands.
first really tightly. Tight, tight, tight. Study the tension and
let the tension move right up your arms into your forearms, into your
upper arms, bend your elbow, tense your biceps.
Push your elbow into the chair. Tense your triceps.
Tight, tight, tight and
let it go.
arms slowly straighten out. Feel
the difference. And it's very important to become aware of the feeling between
tensing up and letting go. And also
watch your emotions when you tense up and when you let go.
together, really tightly. Let that tension move right up your arms, into your
forearms, into your upper arms. Tight, tight,
tight. Study the tension.
And then let it go.
arms in a comfortable position. And let all of
the tension just drain out of your arms and out of your
hands. Put your full concentration into your upper
arms and let your upper arms relax and
all the tension drain out.
become aware of your forearms. And let all of the
tension drain out of your forearms.
And let all the tension drain out of your hands. Let your arms and hands completely
relax.
toward your ears. Pull your shoulders right
up tight. Feel the tension in your shoulders in your
upper back. Tight, tight, tight.
And then let it go. Let your shoulders
drop and let the relaxation deep into your
shoulders. Let your shoulders relax.
up all of the muscles in your face. Close your eyes tightly.
Tense up all the muscles
tightly. Tight, tight, tight. And then
let it go. And feel the relaxation all over your
face. Feel the relaxation on your forehead
and on your eye lids
and on your checks and
jaw and lips and tongue.
face.
stomach out. Make your stomach hard. Push it out
and make it hard. Now pull it in
tightly, right in tight. Study the tension.
Tight. And then let it go.
into your stomach and let go of all of the
tension in your stomach.
your buttocks and curl up your toes and
push your heels down into the floor, and just feel the tension all up your whole
lower body. Tight, tight,
tight and then
let it go. And relax and feel the difference.
whole body. So begin
to clench your fists real tight and let the tension
move up your arms and pull your shoulders up to your ears, and scrunch up all of the muscles in your
face and pull your stomach in and tighten your buttocks
and lower body. Tight, tight, tight. And then
let it go and just let go of all of the tension in your facial
muscles and
your neck and shoulders, and your arms
and hands. And just let your body breathe
itself.
go and touch with the natural flow of your
breathing. Watch the air coming in and going out of your
nostrils.
And just enjoy the
feeling of relaxation. Now this is an exercise
that should ideally be done over 15, 20, 25
minutes -- slowly going through each part of the
body, tensing, studying the tension. Knowing
what it feels like. Becoming aware of the
release.
just so important. And you develop a body awareness.
So you can catch it. You can catch the tension building.
You head it off at the pass before it develops into
problems.
practice, in the home study package is a tape that is
25 minutes, a training tape, that will take you through a longer
version of this exercise so that you can really use it to
develop a deep profound body awareness.
breathe. Hold it. And
then exhale.
And very slowly, little bit by
little bit, slowly open your
eyes.
do you feel?
That is so simple.
simple, but not simplistic. It seems to strike
right at the Achilles heel of stress. And that's what
all these exercises, they are simple but they are very profound in their
implications.
all of those diseases in the questionnaire?
I can tell you from experience from working with thousands of people
and a wealth of research, that you can reduce
many of those symptoms and in fact even eliminate many of them.
certainly one of the major strategies to help us prevent
illnesses from emerging. And along with proper
exercise, proper diet, proper mental attitude, it's
one of the four pillars of well being or wellness which they
call it these days.
certainly a major strategy and one that I invite you to experiment
with and see for yourself. You don't have to believe in
it, you just have to do it.
tie in with the others?
this series is introducing you to a range of different
techniques. This is but one technique, it's a very popular
technique. It's a very good beginners technique. Especially
people who have difficulty focusing their mind and
concentrating, find this one really works well --
tensing up, letting go -- you can approach it with ease.
Last week we worked with breathing. The next
program we are going to be working with another variation
on a theme. All of these techniques work
to turn on a switch. They turn on the body's
relaxation response which I remind you literally
turns down the body's stress mechanism.
Thanks Eli.
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
something that 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 eaten healthily are two essential
steps to well being.
In this
series you'll learn about a 3rd 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
stress may be affecting you.
So get a
paper and a pencil ready and join us as we take the
next step to well being.
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
Last time we learned of the many
stressors in our lives. Stressors
are the situations and events that put us under
stress.
In
this program we are going to find out the part that
stress plays in our health. Few of us realize
how destructive stress can be.
We are going to go through a questionnaire that will help you recognize
the signs of stress in your body and find out 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 a natural
reaction of the body that automatically prepares us for
instant action to cope with the challenges that are before us, or to
defend ourselves. It's the fight or flight
reaction that we talked about last time.
Now a
healthy balanced life necessarily involves some
stress. You can't avoid stress, it's part of the territory.
But there is such a thing as too much stress.
And stress has been implicated in a wide range of
physical or psychological disorders.
It's estimated that about 80% of all illnesses are
stress related.
But we can't avoid stress, but
we can learn to manage it. And this is where relaxation
can play a very important role.
Dr. Hanson: Physically our body is incredibly well setup to handle
stress so that we don't have to think about it.
We can run faster and we can stand and punch harder if we are
caught in a corner, simply because of the stress and the stress
response that we have in our bodies.
There is a time
for hustle. On the other hand, if you have constant hustle and
constant pressure and constant anxiety without the relaxation,
you will burn out very quickly.
Dr. Goode: We
have to be able to recognize what stress is. Our environment
is very stressful. We have to learn to manage it, manage
the environment, manage the stresses that are put
upon us.
If we don't,
our body will react to all the stresses, leading
to disease. Our body goes into an arousal
state as a consequence of all of these stresses put upon
it.
It doesn't matter what the stressed environment
is, we response the same way. So if exercise is a
physical stress, you could be just the same as
the death of a loved one.
What happens
in the body in a state of arousal? You'll have a release of
hormones from the hypothalamus. These
hormones will result in a release of another hormone
called adrenalin and noradrenalin. Adrenalin
augments the sympathetic nervous system to
increase heart rate, to increase blood pressure, to increase
the strength of the contraction of the heart. And it
affects the immune system, a release of a
hormone called cortisone in a stressed environment
can cause a reduction in our ability to fight
infection.
In response to stress,
many of you probably recognized your guts
aching. And this is a consequence of a sympathetic
system closing down the blood supply to the intestines --
diverting the blood to the muscles.
Some of the
other things that are going on
are triglycerides can increase. These are the fats that are
used for energy, for movement, for making our body
go from one place to another. They come into play after we
use up our body sugar. They are important for
long-term exercise.
Other fats, [inaudible]
can be increased especially if the stress continues.
These are all good things in a stressed
environment. They are not a good thing if they continue to take place
day after day, month after month.
Dr. Hanson: If you are
sitting behind a busy work station and you aren't having any
exercise, all of the body's responses are quite dangerous. Cholesterol
rising is a classic
example. In the modern setting, we don't burn off that cholestoral,
it just sits there in the blood stream. And decade after
decade, what ends up happening is it will eventually crystallize out in the
linings of our coronary arteries.
So what ends up
happening is people have a big problem with heart
disease, it's our number one killer.
Dr. Goode: Over a long period of time, stress can cause a breakdown. We just
continue to release the hormones. We cannot continue
to put up with a chronic
stimulation of the gut with a reduction of blood flow.
We can't keep up with a high heart rate,
our body breaks down.
Cheryl: If I were to look back about a year
ago, I would be the person who was saying to my friends that
I don't suffer from stress because I just handle it really well and it doesn't
bother me. And then I got sick, and I found out that I
did suffer from stress and it did bother me.
So I had to take a look at myself and say, I've got to find a
way of managing this stress, releasing the
stress. And then just coming
to realize that you do suffer from stress when you didn't
think you did, that's the important thing.
Dr. Goode: Recognition of stress is so important that
any test that you can do or any
book that will help you to learn about stress, to recognize
it, I believe is very helpful.
Deepak: Eli, it seems that most of us are suffering
from stress but we are really not aware of it.
Would you say that we are out of touch with our bodies?
Eli: Without question. Most people are really very much out of
touch and don't recognize when their body is telling
them to slow down, because they have too much stress. Most people take these symptoms,
the feedback from their bodies as kind of the irritating prickles of
life.
But in fact, that have to be recognized
as a message from your body saying, you've got
too much stress. And that's something that we have to learn and become
aware of.
We are going to look at a questionnaire
now which lists a whole range of symptoms. And it's a
long questionnaire so make sure that you have a paper and pencil
handy. If you don't have a paper and pencil handy, don't worry,
just pay attention to the questions
because I believe that of all
the tests, this is probably the best indicator of how well you are dealing with stress.
I don't care how well you think you are dealing with
stress -- that this is the manifestation of stress
in your body.
Here is the first group of
questions. Let's look at the first question to see how to
score this. If you had tight muscles or muscular aches in the
last 6 months, rate yourself on a scale of 1 - 3. If you didn't have
any problem, it would be 0. If it was just a minor
discomfort, it would be a 1. If it was a little more sever it would be a
2. And if it was really quite severe, give yourself
a 3.
Next question, nervous
tics or twitches. If these have been a problem for you over the last
6 months, again rate yourself on a scale of 1 - 3.
Stuttering, 1 - 3.
I you experience strained or
shaky voice.
If you frown
or find that your forehand is wrinkled a great deal, again
rate yourself on this scale.
Next group of
questions. If you've experienced tension headaches in the
last 6 months, rate it on a scale of 1 - 3.
And again, I just want to say that tension headaches are
very common and very much related to stress. And something like
80% of all visits to doctors offices involve tension
headaches. And really of all the problems that
I've seen responding to relaxation training, I would say that
tension headaches are one of the problems
that response best to relaxation training.
Next questions -- do you grind
your teeth? Again rate yourself on a scale of
1 - 3.
If you experience
trembling or shaking.
If you find yourself
pacing a lot or tapping your fingers or your
toes, again rate yourself on the scale of 1 - 3. With
3 being severe discomfort, 1 being very minor.
If you have jaw or
back pain. And of course back pain is a very common
problem. And a study of North American
men, they found that back pain was the second greatest
fear right after cancer. So it's a big issue for a lot of
people
and for many of you 3 would be probably a
low number for you to rate your own
back pain.
Next question. Have you had a change in your
appetite? Are you eating more or less? Again,
rate yourself 1 - 3.
Do you experience
nausea. Again if you don't experience
nausea, then you rate it 0. Minor, moderate
or severe, rate yourself 1 - 3.
If
you have gas pains, or cramping.
Acid
stomach or heartburn -- very common problems. A lot of people
don't realize that they are stress related.
Do you have urinary difficulties?
Next
group of questions.
Constipation?
Diarrhea.
Frigidity or
impotence. Again rate yourself on a scale of 1 -3.
Dry mouth or dry throat is another symptom.
You have difficulty swallowing is another
symptom of stress.
Do you suffer from high blood
pressure, 1 - 2 - 3 - - 3 being
severe and if you don't have any problem with
this, then 0.
Dizziness
is the next question.
Heart
palpitations.
Sweaty
palms or increased perspiration. Many people under
too much stress will find that they perspire a great deal or
that their hands are always wet.
Cold
hands and feet. Many people experience
cold hands and feet and think its a signal that they have poor
circulation, but in fact, cold hands and feet is a classic
symptom of excessive stress. That when your body
is prepared to fight or to run, the blood that normally goes to your
hands and to your feet is redirected away from your
extremities to feed your muscles. And over time that tends
to lead to cold hands and feet.
Rapid heartbeat.
Sudden bursts of
energy.
If you suffer from migraines. And actually 20% of the
population suffers from migraines.
Chest
pains.
Shortness
of breath. If you find that you are constantly
panting and even walking up just 2 or
3 stairs, your breathe is short.
The
next group of questions. Do you feel that things are
out of control.
Anxiety
or panic attacks. Again these are becoming
increasingly common in our urban North American
lifestyle. I've seen just an exponential
growth in anxiety attacks in the last few years.
Frustration.
Again rate yourself, 3 is really sever, 2 is moderate and
1 is minor.
Anger,
irritation -- you come home from work, you scream at your children,
you kick your dog. Rate yourself on that
scale.
Feeling trapped or helpless.
next group of questions. Do you find
yourself desperate or hopeless.
Again if in the last 6 months, if these have been a problem for you,
rate them on a scale of 1 - 3 where 3 is
severe, 2 moderate and 1 minor.
Same
with depression. Rate yourself over the last 6
months.
Or feeling guilty. If
this is an issue for you, mark it down.
Do you find yourself feeling self-conscious a
great deal of the time?
Are you
restless? Do you find yourself coming home from work and you
can't sit still, you have to keep going? Think about it and
rate yourself on the test.
Next question --
poor memory. Do you find that your memory is not what it
used to be? Do you find that your memory is suffering?
And stress and memory are intimately connected.
Do you
find that you daydream a great deal?
Do you have a hard time making decisions? Are you
indecisive?
Do you find that you are
mentally confused a great deal of the time, or a little bit of the
time, or not at all? Again, rate it on a scale of 1 - 3.
Do you have the belief that everything is going to
turn out for the worst?
Next
group of questions. Do you suffer
from racing thoughts? You get into bed and your mind just races
away and you can't calm down and go to sleep.
If in the last 6 months you've experienced difficulty
sleeping, rate yourself 1 - 3. Actually
about one third of the North American population has difficulty
sleeping. So it's really quite a severe
problem. And a lot of people don't see the connection
between your stress and your sleeping problem.
Would you consider yourself having poor
judgments? You bought something -- "Why
did I buy it? I didn't need it." Are you finding that
happening more and more, rate yourself from 0 - 3.
Do you have trouble concentrating? You
read the same thing over and over again and it
doesn't sink in.
Do you feel yourself preoccupied
with thoughts? You can't stop thinking about certain problems. You carry away
with you, you get into bed, you are on
vacation -- OK, rate yourself on this.
Next group of questions. Have you experienced changes in
your body? Have you gained 20lbs in the last
year?
Do you experience arthritic joint pain?
Or do you have menstrual difficulties?
Or have you had out-breaks
of skin rashes or pimples. In fact, skin
conditions are very much related to stress.
And
see the next one here, dermatitis or psoriasis. If these have been a
problem for you, rate yourself on a scale of 0 - 3.
Fatigue. A lot of
people don't see that there is a relationship between their stress and
their fatigue. So rate yourself 0 - 3.
Infertility.
Water retention.
Do
you experience excessive thirst?
Or
have you noticed changes in your skin color?
If over the last 6 months you've had
frequent colds.
Or bouts of flu -- you have
flus that linger all winter and won't go away.
Or low-grade
infections that kind of linger also.
Or even allergies. If you had allergic
reactions over the last 6 months, these are also considered
stress related.
Now many people respond and
say I can buy all of these other things, but when you tell me my allergies are
stress inducing, that's more than I can absorb. Because I
know that my allergies are a result of pollen in the
air. What are you telling me stress?
But the reality is,
yes the pollen in the air set off an allergic reaction. But
why? And research now is quite
clear that stress throws the immune system out of
balance. And it's when the immune system that is out of
whack, it over reacts to the potential threat --
in this case the allergen, the pollen in the air -- and you
get your allergic reaction.
And almost all allergies
now are considered stress related.
Even hives are considered stress related. So
just rate yourself on the scale of 0 - 3.
And the last group of
questions. Do you find yourself feeling generally
unwell? Life is a struggle.
Or if you've
experienced mouth sores.
Or
strep throat.
Or if you've
had mononucleosis in the last 6 months, rate this.
And
finally, herpes. If you've had herpes in the last
6 months, rate
it 0 - 3.
And that's the end of the test.
Deepak: OK. Should I add up the scores right now.
Eli: No, I'd rather you
do it later when you have more time. Let's better spend the time
now just looking at the implications of this test.
If you scored anything over
10 on this test, that's an indication that you are
experiencing some stress
in your life. And certainly the higher the score, the more serious the
stress is. Certainly anything over 25 should flag a
warning for you.
Deepak: 25? That shouldn't be hard to
score over 25 on this test. I'm sure I went
over that. It's should a long laundry list of ailments.
Eli: And this is
by no means an exhaustive list. I was involved with a
study that had 90 stress symptoms, so
this is not all.
Deepak: Well I have a
question about one of the questions. And that's the
one on fatigue.
I scored myself a
2 on that, and I'm not sure that it really in my
case has anything to do with stress.
I've been putting in some overtime hours lately, and I'm a
bit tired. That doesn't have anything to do with stress.
Eli: It isn't? Let's just say that if you work with the relaxation for a
period of time, even just a couple of weeks, I think you'll be amazed how
effective the relaxation is in helping you get rid of the fatigue.
In fact, of all the problems that
are affected by relaxation, I would say
that fatigue is one of the issues that you can
almost say with some degree of certainty that
you will be able to reduce if not eliminate in just a few
weeks with relaxation.
Deepak: OK. Over-worked
and fatigue are related to stress. Now what about
my age?
Eli: Certainly as
one gets older, these symptoms will become more manifest. Because
we accumulate stress over time. You can handle certain stresses in your
20s, but by the time you are in your 40s,
that stress has been building and building. It's a
kind of wear and tear in your system.
Remember
what stress is, stress is fight or flight. It's an
arousal state. Your blood pressure is up. Your heart rate is up. Your body is
straining. It's a strain that builds over
time.
So by the time you accumulate the decades under
your belt, as you get older, the stress symptoms become
more manifest.
Deepak: So this questionnaire
is really a list of messages from the body?
Eli: Exactly.
These are the early warning signs.
Deepak: So how can we
deal with the early warning signs?
Eli: We can learn to turn off the
stress pretty much at will. They are a whole
range of simple, practical techniques that enable us to
shut down the body stress mechanism and allow the body to rest, repair and
recuperate itself.
It absorbs,
it integrates the stress and allows the body
to maintain an inner balance. And balance
is what is missing in the lives of most of
us.
Dr. Edwin Jacobson at the University of
Chicago back in the 1930s discovered
that when your muscles are relaxed, you can't experience
mental anxiety. That muscle relaxation and mental anxiety
are incompatible. And one of the most
effective and practical ways to get into a relaxed state and shut down
your body's stress mechanism is to alternately
tense up and let go of the tension in the major
muscles of the body.
So I'd like to now just guide you
through this exercise. And for those of you at home, you
get much more out of this program by actually doing the exercise with us
rather than just watching. So follow along
with us.
OK, begin to clench your right
first really tightly. Clench it tighter and tighter
and study that tension right up into your forearms.
And bend your elbow and tense your
bicep -- tight, tight, tight. Study the tension,
and let it go.
Now feel the difference. Let
your fingers and arms slowly straighten out. And let all of the tension just drain
out of your arms and out of your hands.
Now clench your left
first really tightly. Tight, tight, tight. Study the tension and
let the tension move right up your arms into your forearms, into your
upper arms, bend your elbow, tense your biceps.
Push your elbow into the chair. Tense your triceps.
Tight, tight, tight and
let it go.
Let your fingers and
arms slowly straighten out. Feel
the difference. And it's very important to become aware of the feeling between
tensing up and letting go. And also
watch your emotions when you tense up and when you let go.
Now do both fists
together, really tightly. Let that tension move right up your arms, into your
forearms, into your upper arms. Tight, tight,
tight. Study the tension.
And then let it go.
Just place your
arms in a comfortable position. And let all of
the tension just drain out of your arms and out of your
hands. Put your full concentration into your upper
arms and let your upper arms relax and
all the tension drain out.
Now
become aware of your forearms. And let all of the
tension drain out of your forearms.
And let all the tension drain out of your hands. Let your arms and hands completely
relax.
Now pull your shoulders up
toward your ears. Pull your shoulders right
up tight. Feel the tension in your shoulders in your
upper back. Tight, tight, tight.
And then let it go. Let your shoulders
drop and let the relaxation deep into your
shoulders. Let your shoulders relax.
Now scrunch
up all of the muscles in your face. Close your eyes tightly.
Tense up all the muscles
tightly. Tight, tight, tight. And then
let it go. And feel the relaxation all over your
face. Feel the relaxation on your forehead
and on your eye lids
and on your checks and
jaw and lips and tongue.
Let go of all of the tension in your
face.
Now push your
stomach out. Make your stomach hard. Push it out
and make it hard. Now pull it in
tightly, right in tight. Study the tension.
Tight. And then let it go.
Let your stomach relax. Put your full concentration
into your stomach and let go of all of the
tension in your stomach.
Now just tighten
your buttocks and curl up your toes and
push your heels down into the floor, and just feel the tension all up your whole
lower body. Tight, tight,
tight and then
let it go. And relax and feel the difference.
And finally, we've got to tense the
whole body. So begin
to clench your fists real tight and let the tension
move up your arms and pull your shoulders up to your ears, and scrunch up all of the muscles in your
face and pull your stomach in and tighten your buttocks
and lower body. Tight, tight, tight. And then
let it go and just let go of all of the tension in your facial
muscles and
your neck and shoulders, and your arms
and hands. And just let your body breathe
itself.
Just let
go and touch with the natural flow of your
breathing. Watch the air coming in and going out of your
nostrils.
And just enjoy the
feeling of relaxation. Now this is an exercise
that should ideally be done over 15, 20, 25
minutes -- slowly going through each part of the
body, tensing, studying the tension. Knowing
what it feels like. Becoming aware of the
release.
And it's that awareness of tension and release that is
just so important. And you develop a body awareness.
So you can catch it. You can catch the tension building.
You head it off at the pass before it develops into
problems.
Now with just a little bit of
practice, in the home study package is a tape that is
25 minutes, a training tape, that will take you through a longer
version of this exercise so that you can really use it to
develop a deep profound body awareness.
Now take a deep
breathe. Hold it. And
then exhale.
And very slowly, little bit by
little bit, slowly open your
eyes.
How
do you feel?
Deepak: Terrific.
That is so simple.
Eli: It's
simple, but not simplistic. It seems to strike
right at the Achilles heel of stress. And that's what
all these exercises, they are simple but they are very profound in their
implications.
Deepak: And this exercise will prevent
all of those diseases in the questionnaire?
Eli: Well certainly
I can tell you from experience from working with thousands of people
and a wealth of research, that you can reduce
many of those symptoms and in fact even eliminate many of them.
As to preventing illness, it's
certainly one of the major strategies to help us prevent
illnesses from emerging. And along with proper
exercise, proper diet, proper mental attitude, it's
one of the four pillars of well being or wellness which they
call it these days.
But yes, it is
certainly a major strategy and one that I invite you to experiment
with and see for yourself. You don't have to believe in
it, you just have to do it.
Deepak: So how does this exercise
tie in with the others?
Eli: Well what we are doing in
this series is introducing you to a range of different
techniques. This is but one technique, it's a very popular
technique. It's a very good beginners technique. Especially
people who have difficulty focusing their mind and
concentrating, find this one really works well --
tensing up, letting go -- you can approach it with ease.
This is but one.
Last week we worked with breathing. The next
program we are going to be working with another variation
on a theme. All of these techniques work
to turn on a switch. They turn on the body's
relaxation response which I remind you literally
turns down the body's stress mechanism.
So it's a trigger.
Deepak: I've enjoyed that very much.
Thanks Eli.
Eli: My pleasure.
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
[music]
Program Length: 26:50 min
About the Program:
Program 2, Healing Better shows how the stress reaction is activated in the body and explains how relaxation can alleviate health problems and symptoms directly related to stress.