Читать книгу Relaxation and Meditation Techniques: A Complete Stress-proofing System - Leon Chaitow, Leon Chaitow N.D. D.O. - Страница 8

Stress-induced illnesses have now replaced infectious diseases as the most prevalent health afflictions affecting the industrialized nations. Many of these illnesses, including arthritis, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer, depression etc., seem to be associated both with stress (and other factors), and particular types of personality. Aspects of the equation require attention of course, and stress reduction and stress-proofing, as well as personality or behavioural modification, all present ways in which the individual can evade the consequences of stress.

Stress can be seen to be most harmful when there is an inappropriate response to it. When, for example, a man strolling in a field is confronted by a charging bull, his sprint to the nearest gate can be seen to be entirely appropriate as a response to the stress factor. He judged and matched the required response and no ill effects would result from the incident. On the other hand, the individual’s judgement of what is an appropriate response may be faulty, for example when anger is generated and maintained in response to a minor incident. Attitudes, beliefs and habitual patterns of behaviour can be seen to be the arbiters of whether the individual responds appropriately to a particular stress factor and, therefore, of whether there is consequent harm in terms of physiological stress.

There are a number of defensive tricks which the mind can play in response to any challenge or stress. These include repression of thoughts and memories which might prove stressful, as well as ‘rationalization’, in which the individual makes up an account of his behaviour in response to stress, the true explanation of which would produce anxiety. Such common defences, if producing anxiety states or personality changes, require professional psychotherapy to provide insights into and a resolution of the problem.

It is self-evident then, that what is to one individual, a major stress factor, may to another be only a minor irritant. The difference lies in the individual’s attitude towards the stress factor. For one person, for example, the meeting of a deadline, the need to be at a particular place at a fixed time, is of vital importance, and the prospect of being late, of failing to meet the deadline, generates a great deal of tension and anxiety (i.e. stress). To another person, such deadlines are mere guidelines, and no particular worry is felt at their being missed.

Attitudes depend upon the individual’s concept of reality. The world as he sees it is his own reality, and when this comes into conflict with the external environment, stress results. To some extent, all change represents stress. Anything that calls upon the mind-body totality (the individual) to adjust or change from that which is normal, represents stress. The individual’s concept of what is normal, what is right, how things ought to be, is therefore the sounding board on which the external environmental factors operate. Beliefs and attitudes often determine the degree of stress, anxiety etc. experienced. For example, the death of someone close is undoubtedly a major stress factor, and yet to someone whose beliefs include a certainty of an after-life or of reincarnation, the death will be seen as part of a continuous process, not an end, and therefore the amount of stress will be minimized.

It has been possible to grade the potential of events or changes in an individual’s life. In the following chart, scores have been allotted to each event so that the degree of susceptibility to the effects of stress can be estimated. This can be valuable in alerting individuals to pay extra attention to dealing with those elements of health maintenance which are within their control. Some such methods will be dealt with in Chapter 5.