the chemical changes found to take place in the brain in response to stress, sometimes within seconds, are increased production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, epinephrin (what used to be called adrenalin), acetylcholine and dopamine, all of which increase the excitability of nerve cells.
It is therefore abundantly clear where we need to focus our attention if we are to avoid those aspects of ill-health which relate to stress. As the Lancet puts it: ‘The efforts of psychologists, counsellors and indeed general practitioners may be of more value … were they to concentrate on improving coping skills and increasing people’s sense of self-efficacy … for fortunately all these procedures [learning of coping skills] can be taught.’ So, according to the most respected medical opinion, we can learn to handle stress and many of its negative influences on the body chemistry and immune function.
A variety of techniques exist in this field, some more suited to a particular person than others. The main aim of this book is to enable the reader to find those methods that best suit him or her, and to explain how important their regular use is in regaining and maintaining health. Whether active or passive relaxation methods are employed, or whether meditation alone, or together with creative visualization and guided imagery, is found to produce the desired results, is immaterial.
What matters is that we learn to harness the mind’s latent force towards positive rather than negative goals, and that the mind/body complex is insulated, as far as possible, from those internally and externally generated stresses which, left unchecked, will first weaken, then cripple and finally destroy the body.
Health and disease, and all the grey area between, are states which reflect the ability, or otherwise, of the body to maintain equilibrium (known as homoeostasis) in the face of a host of environmental threats and hazards. At any given time the individual represents a culmination of all that has been inherited, and all that has been acquired and developed up to that moment. The degrees of susceptibility and of resistance that the body can demonstrate, will be absolutely unique to him or her. With so many variables, it should be obvious that no one method, system or prescription can apply to everyone, even if similar outward manifestations of ill health are evident.
Because of this, less emphasis should perhaps be placed on outward signs and symptoms of ill health. Whilst these are important, they indicate no more than how the individual is responding to a health threat. The same symptoms (e.g. headache) can result from a variety of causes. The same apparent cause (e.g. anxiety) can produce quite different symptoms – say insomnia in one person, palpitations in another and headaches in a third.
Treatment of the symptoms alone can never bring more than short-term relief. To remove the symptoms and ignore the cause is patently wrong, for they or other symptoms will surely re-show themselves sooner or later. Only by improving the general level of function of the total organism and by removing, where possible, the causes of the condition, can a successful outcome be anticipated.
Since causes of anxiety are often outside the control of the individual, it is necessary to provide ways of altering the ways in which such problems are viewed. In addition, techniques are necessary whereby, even if such stress remains to some extent constant, the individual can nullify and counteract its ill effects by positive action. This is where relaxation, meditation and other exercises of the mind come in.
Additional methods, which will be explained in Chapter, are derived from the work of a remarkable researcher, L.E. Eeman. The approaches which he evolved include application of the knowledge that we all have what appear to be specific ‘polarities’ in different parts of the body, and that it is possible to use this fact in a practical way in order to enable deep relaxation to be achieved.
Using electromagnetic terminology, Eeman proved that ‘when different parts of one human body, or different or similar parts of different human bodies are connected by means of electrical conductors, such as insulated copper wires, these bodies behave as though (using an electromagnetic analogy) they were bi-polar.’ The polar opposites which Eeman identified most strongly were the head and base of the spine, and the right and left hands. The effect achieved by holding a piece of insulated copper wire in one hand, attached to a copper grid lying under the spine or head (with no connection whatever to external electrical supply) is to produce either an increase in relaxation or tension, depending upon whether the hand and the part of the body involved had similar or opposite polarities.
For example, should the right hand (of a born right-handed person) be linked with the base of the spine (these being polar opposites) the result is a ‘relaxation circuit’, while connection of the right hand with the base of the head (here the polarities are the same) causes a ‘tension circuit’. ‘The relaxation circuit automatically promotes relaxation of the voluntary muscles and stimulates functional activity. It fosters sleep, recovery from fatigue and disease, capacity for work and health in general. The tension circuit reverses these effects, more or less. Both circuits affect not only organic, but also nervous and mental health.’
In Chapter a number of useful methods, based on Eeman’s work, are described, including two self-help approaches, one of which calls for the use of copper wire and gauze, and another which does not.
Stress-proofing is all about choices. No one pattern of relaxation exercise can possibly suit everyone, and this is the reason for the presence in this book of a wide variety of options. Try the ones that appeal to you. Drop those that do not work easily, and hold fast to those that do. There is certainly no sense in trying methods which just do not appeal or those that you feel uneasy with. Remember, though, that there is a rule of thumb which, stated simply, insists that until you know how to breathe adequately relaxation is difficult, if not impossible, and that it is virtually impossible to use the methods of guided imagery and visualization until you can meditate.
This means that whichever choices you eventually make in terms of which methods, or patterns, of relaxation, meditation and visualization you use, there is need for that sequence (breathing-relaxation-meditation-visualization) to be respected, if good results are to be hoped for.
The individuality of each person must be recognized; this leads to a realization that the particular factors which enable successful adaptation to the environment will vary. Stress-proofing involves gaining understanding and insight into the nature of the problems of stress, as well as a determination to make changes, alterations, modifications and efforts in accordance with this knowledge. Through this apparent maze, I would urge you to hold fast to one concrete thought: given the chance, the body is a self-healing, self-repairing and self-regenerating organism. The aim is to give it that chance, and at the same time to erect barriers which will provide protection against future hazards.
The Causes and Nature of Stress
Stress-induced illnesses now cause more deaths and diseases than do infections, which used to be the predominant killer in industrialized countries. Among those conditions now known, in many instances, to involve the interaction of stress and particular personality ‘types’ are arthritis, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer and depression. It has also been shown beyond doubt that ‘noxious’ factors, such as negative emotion, anxiety, grief, loneliness and depression are actually immune suppressive, contributing in large part to subsequent illness and often death.
Excitingly, and of major importance in our quest for better health, research has also revealed that whatever it takes to create a ‘distress-free’ mind produces as a consequence beneficial immune-enhancing effects. Indeed, just as Ader was able to show that he could condition
