Let me use the word 'he' to help me describe a situation. Okay. He was walking home from his night class, calm and relaxed, enjoying the quiet moonlit evening. His heart was beating quietly about 70 beats a minute. His breathing was slow and regular. He was at peace. Suddenly a large man with a handkerchief around his face rushed out of the shadows toward him. Fear sent an impulse to his brain exciting his autonomic nerves. An alarm reaction flashed out from his brain to all parts of his body. The adrenal glands poured out extra amounts of a powerful hormone called adrenalin, which had widespread effects in his body. His heart beat faster, his blood pressure rose, his breathing speeded up to supply more oxygen, his digestion stopped (it can wait until the crisis passes), the pupils of his eyes got larger in order to see better, and his mind become more active. He was ready for a fight or a flight, whichever was the wiser choice at the moment. This chain of reactions was normal and necessary for him whenever he faced a real danger.
If you then, are awakened at night by a thief in your house, or if you are faced suddenly with a speeding car in the highway, this alarm reaction may save your life. As soon as the danger is past, your body returns to its normal state. However, if the stress is greatly prolonged, you would eventually suffer complete exhaustion. Under extreme condition of stress itself, in an unhealthy person, the person can result in death.
If a person sits at home and allows his mind to think about such things as thieves breaking in or fear of an oncoming disaster or disease, or if he is angry or bitter with another person, his body will go through the same alarm reactions as if he were in actual danger. An excessive and frequent production of these reactions over weeks and months results in harmful effects and produces a set pattern of disturbing sensations. The person is living in an anxiety state. When we become more concerned with our own physical symptoms than with the initial problems, we become anxious and nervous. Keeping the body under continual stress is like running an engine at high speed without let-up. Eventually something has to give. When the body is stressed, all parts are exposed to tension. The part that breaks down happens to be that which is the weakest in that particular person. Neither the body nor the mind can take too much wear in the same place. Thousands are in trouble because the same thought, the same problems, the same fear and frustrations has grown deeper and deeper until the mind becomes unbalanced. Overloaded minds, like overloaded electric circuits, have a way of blowing a fuse.
It is not possible to avoid stress entirely, but it is possible and very important to control your reaction to it. It is the body's faulty reaction to stress which causes the so called "stress disease". Tension does not come from the outside. It is something you produce; therefore you can control it.
The Voice of Prophecy
If you then, are awakened at night by a thief in your house, or if you are faced suddenly with a speeding car in the highway, this alarm reaction may save your life. As soon as the danger is past, your body returns to its normal state. However, if the stress is greatly prolonged, you would eventually suffer complete exhaustion. Under extreme condition of stress itself, in an unhealthy person, the person can result in death.
If a person sits at home and allows his mind to think about such things as thieves breaking in or fear of an oncoming disaster or disease, or if he is angry or bitter with another person, his body will go through the same alarm reactions as if he were in actual danger. An excessive and frequent production of these reactions over weeks and months results in harmful effects and produces a set pattern of disturbing sensations. The person is living in an anxiety state. When we become more concerned with our own physical symptoms than with the initial problems, we become anxious and nervous. Keeping the body under continual stress is like running an engine at high speed without let-up. Eventually something has to give. When the body is stressed, all parts are exposed to tension. The part that breaks down happens to be that which is the weakest in that particular person. Neither the body nor the mind can take too much wear in the same place. Thousands are in trouble because the same thought, the same problems, the same fear and frustrations has grown deeper and deeper until the mind becomes unbalanced. Overloaded minds, like overloaded electric circuits, have a way of blowing a fuse.
It is not possible to avoid stress entirely, but it is possible and very important to control your reaction to it. It is the body's faulty reaction to stress which causes the so called "stress disease". Tension does not come from the outside. It is something you produce; therefore you can control it.
The Voice of Prophecy
No comments:
Post a Comment