Lessen the Stressin'

Have you noticed that a lot of things are happening in the world today that make us worry or feel sad? The events of 2020 have brought stress to our minds for months! When we experience chronic, day-after-day stress bad things can happen physically and mentally. This episode will help you cope with the stress as you “Lessen the Stressin'.”

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Transcript

My Dad was a power napper. He owned a construction supply business and opened the office at 7:00 each morning. At lunch on most days, he would come home, have a bite, settle into his recliner. After a 20 minute nap, he returned to his company for a long afternoon of dealing with problem employees, sales, inventory delays and unpaid invoices. Was my Dad lazy, or was he ahead of his time in dealing with the stress of life?

Welcome to this episode of Tracks for the Journey. I’m Larry Payne, your host to explore greater well-being. I use my training as a minister, chaplain, and counselor to explore topics that bring a better life. Today’s episode is called, “Lessen the Stressin.’” Let’s find how we can survive a stress-filled world.

Before we talk about the answers, we should understand the extent of the problem. Millions of Americans are experiencing chronic stress. Chronic stress is defined as a persistent state of physiological arousal. For example, chronic stress happens when we worry day-after-day about getting sick from a life-threatening virus, feeling isolated from our social network, have concerns about our jobs, are forced to teach our children algebra, or feel distraught over civic conflict. Wait—this describes everyone’s life over the past year, doesn’t it? The idea of chronic stress is a reality with your life and mine today.

What does this mean for our health?

When stressed the body floods with adrenaline, making the heart pump faster, lungs work harder, muscles tense to deal with danger, digestion slows, and sweat glands activate. This is exactly what we need to happen when there is one sudden stress, like a loud noise waking us up in the night. It gets us ready for action. But all these stress hormones bring troubles if the stress continues on and on. The body enters a state called allostatic load, where the hormones keep the body aroused, like an engine running a full throttle. The long-term presence of the hormone cortisol is detrimental. Long term physical effects can include weight gain, heart problems, gastrointestinal distress, elevated blood pressure, sexual dysfunction, or persistent headaches. The weakened immune system makes us more susceptible to infections. One study showed that women under the stress of caring for an Alzheimer’s patient take nine days longer to heal from a small wound than the person without the stress.

What about our mental state? This is also affected by the failure of the body to relax. One possible reaction is sustained anxiety. Concentration and memory acuity declines. Anger emerges as we carry a sense of unspecified threat. It doesn’t take long for those around us to notice that we are on edge, snappy, easily frustrated, and generally unhappy. We get messages from our loved ones that we need to calm down, chill, or take a vacation. Another response when our hormones are out of balance from stress may be a prevailing sadness that robs us of happiness. We may feel lethargic, hopeless, fatigued, on the verge of tears, or wanting to stay in bed for hours. This is a depressed mood that feels like a black cloud is hovering overhead. Our loved ones lose patience and tell us to snap out of it, look on the bright side, or point out how much worse it could be.

If I’ve described you, dear listener, welcome to the club of the chronically stressed!

The story of Hannah in the Hebrew Testament is a classic description of depression due to chronic stress. She lived around 1100 BCE. She was childless, the ultimate shame in the Hebrew tribes at that time. 1 Samuel 1:8 “Her husband would say to her, ‘Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? What are you downhearted?” These words let us know that the stress she felt from this failure had brought a depressed mood that pushed her to the breaking point.

How can we deal with all the stress we feel so we can be healthy in the today’s world? Modern psychology and traditions of faith point us to some important answers. 

A helpful message comes from the pages of the Bible. The book of Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul while he was under house arrest in Rome. That sounds like a stressful situation, doesn’t it? Yet in this letter is an admonition about anxiety. He wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) His formula for dealing with stress can be distilled into two actions. First, we reduce our emotional response to the problem. Then we enhance a transcendent perspective of trust in the work of God. From these choices our bodies can relax and our mental state find calmness. 

It is interesting that this process is in line with modern research. Therapy today works to help anxious persons deal with thought patterns and emotions. As I work with clients, I first aid them to acknowledge the feelings. Feelings are not facts, just opinions held in our body. These body reactions usually come automatically, without any choice on our part. When the emotion floods our body, we are wise to accept it for what it is, yet not letting them control us. We feel the feelings without self-reproach, then release these emotions. Anxiety is a body reaction that comes naturally but being anxious is a choice. For example, most everyone has experienced the body reaction when we hear that a deadly virus is in the community, perhaps even among our friends. We have an automatic tensing of muscles and tightening of the stomach that we call anxiety. But being anxious is a choice. We can actually choose to face the danger, seeking wisdom to deal with the situation. This choice will de-escalate the feeling. 

The choice is to create thoughts which are rational and realistic about the situation. It’s easy for distorted thoughts to mislead us. We might rush to catastrophic conclusions, assume we can read the thoughts of someone else, or just focus on all the negative news. In the example of the virus, we can choose to learn about the danger and act responsibly. We choose to wear a mask, minimize social contacts, maintain distance, wash hands, and so forth. We are choosing to not be anxious as a state of mind.

Considering Paul, his letter reveals he acknowledged that his anxiety was real. Then he calmed his anxiety by turning to his supporters, fostering his trust in a divine plan, and making a choice to stay active. He knew the legal decisions were out of his control and God was working. So, he kept working on the Gospel mission as much as he could. He integrated emotions and realistic thought. 

I express this in a simple mantra, “Act on the facts, do less commotion with emotion.”

In our last few minutes, let me share some practical ways to lessen the impact of stress on our body and mind. I won’t burden you with all the research that supports the power of these actions. You can find the evidence if you’re interested. Here are the building blocks to handle the stress in your life.

• Accept your limitations- It’s okay to admit you are human. You are not God, all-powerful or all-knowing. Most of the future is out of your control. What you are worried might happen probably won’t. In the same way, the past is out of your control. You cannot change it. Stop the reproach and regret for what is past. Choose to focus on the Now and what you can control.
• Do some exercise - Aerobic exercise releases multiple feel-good chemicals in your brain. Light to moderate walking, yoga, swimming, or biking are a few of the good things to do. A total of 150 minutes per week is a great goal but it’s even more important to be consistent.
• Practice Meditation- Spend a few minutes every day with quiet surroundings, measured breathing and concentrated attention toward the inner person or spiritual insights. Your body will reduce the elevated hormones that hurt our cells. Calmness can replace worry, and happiness dislodge depression when we utilize any of the varied types of meditation. Even just five minutes of slow breathing can calm emotions which have been stirred up in a crisis. These physical actions are vitally important to convince your body the situation is safe and the hormones can return to normal.
• Socialize with trusted people- We are social creatures. Isolation is deadly. Choose to connect with other folks to laugh, love or help someone. Even just seeing a smile triggers the good hormones in your own brain. Healthy people are connected people. 
• Sleep properly- This may be the most neglected aspect of stress reduction. The goal is 7-8 hours of sleep. The important steps to achieving this are well-known. Keep a regular schedule,  minimize electronics and relax your body an hour before bed, and cut out the extraneous light. By the way, if you snore, you are shortening your life span, so get medical help. Good sleep will heal your body and your mind.  
• Enjoy something- Each of us has something that gives us healthy pleasures. Some play sports, some quilt, some play video games, some dig in flower beds to find that zone where time seems suspended. Play is essential to children and senior adults alike. 

I mentioned Hannah, the depressed woman in the Hebrew Testament. Her depression lifted when she had a transforming faith experience in worship, hearing the priest predict that God would answer her prayer for a child. The Scripture records the change, “Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast” (1 Samuel 1:18). We can assume her relief from stress affected her ovulation, made her more appealing to Elkanah, and soon little Samuel was running around the tent! 

We live in a stress-filled world. But we have the power to overcome the pressures. Use these simple actions to lessen the stressin’ on a path to holistic health.