toward you, intent upon making you dinner, the threat was very obvious! That threat produced rapid changes in your body chemistry and you were immediately prepared for action. This would lead to your doing the appropriate thing. If you felt you had a chance, you stood your ground and fought it out; if not, you ran. Either way, the challenge was resolved by a period of intense physical action that was followed through to a definite conclusion. You would then be free to relax, either licking your wounds or basking in success.
This sequence flowed with the rhythm of a simple life and it left no adverse aftereffects. Any fears that did remain were healthy ones based purely on instinct and self-preservation. Such fears did little to lessen the quality of life or lead to any physical symptoms. Animals in their natural state still demonstrate the appropriateness of this fight-or-flight response in a physically oriented world.
However, for us humans living in modern times, things are no longer so simple. The challenges we face now are rarely of a purely physical nature and frequently are complex indeed. Most, if not all, of our challenges nowadays are emotional or mental in their origins. However, an even greater problem is that frequently they are difficult to resolve.
So when the boss is overbearing and demanding, or the neighbor disturbs our sleep early on Sunday morning with his lawn mower, we react in the same old way. We take that short little gasp and tense our muscles. Our body chemistry changes rapidly, preparing us for action. But can we punch the boss’s nose or wrap the neighbor’s lawn mower around his ears? Not if we want the paycheck that we need to meet our commitments; not if we want to remain socially acceptable in our community! Often then, taking the action we might feel inclined to take instinctively is inappropriate and so our response is stifled. Worse still, we can have the situation where we do act reasonably, we do take what seems to be the appropriate action, and yet, even so, the challenges in our lives remain unresolved. We do all we can to reduce the mortgage, but it still remains, nagging away and causing us fear and worry.
When we do have an unresolved challenge, people tend to react in one of two general ways. The first is to accept the situation, let it go, and get on with life. No problem. The other is to stew on it, hang on to it, worry over it. Big problem! Common problem!
If we are one of the many people who do stew on things, then the problem is that every time we face that same situation or even think about it, the physical changes in our body chemistry are reinforced. Feeling that there is no obvious resolution or conclusion to our problems, having no way of finding an adequate release, there is no return to our basic, healthy body chemistry. We are locked into a situation where the fight-or-flight changes in our body chemistry persist.
A crucial point here is that the changes in body chemistry we are discussing and that are associated with the fight-or-flight response are fine in the short term. They are an appropriate preparation for a short period of intense activity. Where they are not appropriate is when they persist for long periods.
This brings us to another important point. Some people who are intent on de-stressing and getting well worry if they get an occasional fright or a even a brief moment or stress. Let us be really clear about this. In the short term, the fight-or-flight response is no problem and, in fact, can be quite helpful. It is when the biochemical changes that accompany the response become chronic and stay with us long term that we develop real problems.
If the changes in our body chemistry persist, we experience what is known as destructive stress. This type of stress is a challenge that leads to a prolonged untoward effect on a person. Stress occurs when there is an inability to take appropriate action in response to a challenge and so release it. Therefore, stress is an unresolved challenge.
It is easy to appreciate that stress is a very personal thing. It is really determined by how we respond to a challenge, rather than by the nature of the challenge itself. What may be an easily resolved challenge for one person may produce profound stress for another.
Stress and Cancer
The next key is that persistent stress affects the body chemistry in such a way that the body’s immune system is depleted. It is the changes in hormonal levels particularly that reduce the body’s immune function, along with its ability to maintain and repair itself. And so, with time and other factors such as poor diet, stress leaves the way open for many diseases to precipitate. The American Academy of Physicians states that stress-related symptoms lead to two-thirds of all visits to American family doctors. Stress is a major contributor, either directly or indirectly, to absenteeism, coronary heart disease, lung conditions, accident injuries, cirrhosis of the liver, suicide and a host of lesser ailments. I am convinced that stress is a major causative factor in cancer.
Virtually all the many thousands of cancer patients I have asked believe stress was a major factor in the development of their disease. Most recognize that first there was a chronic level of stress in their lives. But, more important, they generally identify readily with a psychological profile common to cancer patients. In about 95 percent of patients asked, this profile involves one particularly severely stressful experience precipitating a drastic drop in their well-being. The stressful event invariably occurred well before the cancer was diagnosed but its untoward effects continued. This highly significant factor will be discussed in detail in the chapter dealing with the causes of cancer (chapter 15).
Recognizing Stress
For the moment, though, how do you know when stress is a problem? If it is not patently obvious, as it often is, muscular tension is a good guide. If you suffer from stress, one of the body changes it will produce is physical tension. Your body can be your guide. If you are free of muscle tension, feeling relaxed and well, then you almost certainly have no problems! If your brow is knotted, your jaw clamped shut, if you have a persistent knot in your stomach, your shoulders are rigid or your hands clenched tightly, if you feel physical tension—beware! It is a warning signal. However, with appropriate action we can transform this, avoid future problems and generate healing.
Relieving Stress With Meditation • The Theory
Understanding the stress cycle makes it easy to understand how to deal with stress. It is not necessary to avoid stress totally, just deal with it appropriately. What we need is a means to release it. All successful people who cope well with potentially stressful situations have their personal means of finding release, of relaxing, of letting go.
But based on more than thirty years of experience assisting people with cancer, the easiest, the safest and the most reliable method—the best method for relieving muscular tension and stress—is the specific meditation technique we call mindfulness-based stillness meditation (MBSM). Because this type of meditation concentrates on a profound relaxation of the body and mind, it provides the opportunity for release—it allows us to let go! It allows us to regain a healthy balance in our body chemistry.
To learn how to achieve this, we begin by meditating formally and learning how to relax body and mind. The release found in these initial periods of meditation soon flows on to become an integral part of our life. As we return to a more relaxed state, we return to that healthy balance of body chemistry that is essential for promoting healing and maintaining good health.
Moreover, once we understand the stress cycle, we can understand why meditation for healing needs to be so simple and so uncomplicated. We can understand why it needs to begin with the relaxation of body and mind, and advance to include the release that comes with inner stillness.
For it is by entering this state of simple stillness that we enter a state of profound rest. When we are still, everything comes to rest—profoundly! And in that state of deep rest, we return to a natural state of balance. It is this state of balance we call good health. Good health is a state where we are in balance—a state where balance involves body, emotions, mind and spirit.
For
