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How to Master Stress and Profit From It

Master stress and make it work 4 you
Defining stress and its dangers
The ‘’Fight or Flight’’ phenomena

By: Pierre Milot, Ph.D.

I strongly believe that stress is an important contributing factor in our life’s discomforts and thus I recognize the need to learn to overcome, master and make that ”inevitable” stress work for us.  To that effect, I am inviting you in the next nine articles, to share my efficient, quick and easy stress management program. 

The program is highly efficient, and in it, you will learn how stress works, relaxation and dynamic breathing exercises, mental control/reprogramming techniques and proper nutrition to build resistance against stress. 

Since forever, we’ve been talking about the dangers of stress and how it affects our daily lives.  What do we do or think regarding stress?  How do we defend and protect ourselves from it?  Not always easy.  Difficult even.  I have personally attended numerous seminars on the subject, but most were too theoretical and lacked constructive and easily applicable methods to fight stress on the short term. 

Frankly, let’s admit that it is virtually impossible to eliminate stress completely from our lives.  It would even be a mistake to do so, because if the energy generated from stress can be destructive at times, it can also be constructive and a very powerful tool if we know how to use it. 

Action and knowledge

Ericksonian clinical hypnosis teaches us that we must not attempt to block a ”resistance”, but rather should learn to utilise it to our advantage.  It is with this concept in mind that you will learn to use simple and practical natural methods which targets action in the ”here and now” whenever an urgent need arises, while encouraging intellectualisation for the ”future”.  Knowledge and understanding are the first steps towards the mastery we want to achieve.

Creating defence mechanisms

The program alerts the participants to the inherent risks of stress.  Therefore, while allowing you to identify your level of stress, its goal is to help create defense mechanisms and to profit from them.

Methods used

The program is holistic (global) in nature and comprises elements that are as physical  (nutrition, physical and breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, etc.) as psychological (meditation, visualisation, affirmations, positive reasoning, etc.).

Now, let’s start with a short description of what stress is.

Defining stress in general and its dangers

According to Hans Selye, the dean of stress, ‘’ Stress is the body’s non-specific response to any demand placed upon it, be it pleasant or not’’.   A passionate kiss can be as stressful as sitting on a dentist’s chair; after all, the reactions are the same: the pulse and breathing accelerate, the heart is beating wildly, and every part of the body is placed on alert.

The body reacts in three stages: the alarm, the resistance, and the exhaustion.

For example, when a person falls into icy water, a state of shock is initiated, than the body starts to adapt, thus resisting to the initial numbing.  Nevertheless, if that person stays in the water too long, the body will no longer be able to resist the cold and will die of exhaustion.

The alarm

In this phase, an enormous and sudden stress can go as far as causing death.  But, most often, it is the ‘’counter-shock phase that installs itself in response to a continuous stress.  Thus, the autonomous and endocrinal systems increase their resistance and the urgency defense mechanism of the ‘’Flight or Fight’’ is activated.

The resistance

In this second phase, it is the local and more specific means like the psychological and physiological defenses that take over.  The latter eliminates the need that the body had until now to mobilize the general activity of the nervous and glandular systems.  Once in this stage, two things can happen: the defense system wins the battle or, if the stress is too intense and continuous and that the defenses are inadequate, it is the exhaustion phase that installs itself.

The exhaustion

When this phase is triggered, the endocrinal and nervous systems are once more solicited: the hormone secretion level rises again and the physical counter-shock symptoms start to reappear.  At this level, the body’s resistance capability diminishes constantly and, if nothing is done to change this situation, disease starts to appear and gains strength progressively.

Let’s talk now about the ‘’Fight or Flight’’ phenomena, which is basic to everything related to stress.

When we are afraid or feel sufficiently threatened, the ‘’Flight or Fight’’ reaction is triggered.  Psycho-Cybernetics tells us that the central mind does not differentiate between a real physical situation and an imaginary situation, that one is as real as the other, and that the subconscious mind reacts as strongly to either one of them.

Thus, the mind not making any difference between a real or an imaginary situation, will activate a host of physiological reactions in an effort to respond to the demands of the ‘’Fight or Flight’’ state.  In order to fight or to flight, the mind determines that we need an increased quantity of energy and oxygen in our muscles.  The oxygen, being transported by the blood requires the latter to travel more rapidly in order to bring the necessary oxygen to the muscles, which prepare for action.

Evidently, in order for that blood to travel more rapidly, the heart must beat faster and the lung functions must accelerate to supply a larger volume of air.  The rhythm of the heartbeats is accelerated by the adrenaline, a hormone that is secreted by the suprarenal glands located just above the kidneys.  The latter is in return triggered by the pituitary and thyroid glands, which declare the state of emergency.

We possess only a limited quantity of energy, and when a specific part of the body suddenly needs more of it, in order to respond to an emergency situation, it will be borrowed to a system that needs less energy at that time.  Generally, it is the digestive system that will be solicited at first, and digestion will be slowed momentarily (this may explain the legendary upset stomach of nervous people).

For instance, let’s imagine a real life situation.  As you walk along leisurely, a large dog suddenly appears and menaces you. Instantaneously, the systems trigger an alert (your heartbeat and breathing accelerate), while you rapidly evaluate the situation; should I stay and fight or should I flight?  Eventually, whatever you decide, the situation will resolve itself and the systems will return to normal.  

But what about an imaginary situation?  In this instance, the subconscious mind will not try to determine if the moment is real or not and will react automatically by triggering the ‘’Fight or Flight’’ reactions.  Nevertheless, it is not so simple here, as an imaginary stress tends to be related to negative life events that are not easily resolved in the short term.  As a result, the ‘’Fight or Flight’’ mechanisms are maintained permanently and the overtaxed body in the long term will rapidly exhaust itself. 

Let us now go over our first breathing exercise, which will serve as your first line of defense against stress.

Without crossing your legs, sit down comfortably on a chair, hold your back straight and let your hands rest on your thighs. Close your eyes and direct your thoughts on the air that is coming in and out of your lungs while directing the breathed air towards the top of your nose in the olfactory zone. Now, start breathing slowly while counting from one to three.  Then, hold the air in your lungs while you count another time up to three.  Once this is done, breathe out slowly while counting up to three again, then extend your breath to force out the air left in your lungs.  In order to accomplish this, contract your stomach muscles to crush the diaphragm, then start breathing again up to three, and start once more from the beginning.

At first, start with 3 to 5 minute sessions and increase the length gradually to reach 15 to 20 minute sessions at a time.

In the next part/article, we will add our first self-relaxation exercise as a second line of defense.  We will also explain the concept of vital energy, which is contained in the air that we breathe.

Make stress work 4 you.

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