How Does Stress Affect Us?

Let us consider the most common emotion of this century—anger. What happens when you are angry?

Thirty-six chemicals pour into the blood: Lethal chemicals like adrenaline and histamine. The heart and pulse rates shoot up. The rate of breathing increases. The body gets ready to fight or flee. Digestion is switched off. All parts of the brain, except the primitive 'lizard brain'is switched off. Primitive man who was confronted by a tiger needed this state of high alert to survive in the jungle. Today, this desperate Mayday response, this most primitive survival response, is used frivolously, not to save life, but in response to office politics or a traffic jam.

As the blood rushes through the heart, during an anger attack, it raises blood pressure. The force of blood-flow in an enraged person causes minute tears in the tender fabric of the arteries. Fatty deposits find a convenient place to park themselves to repair the tears—cholesterol, the plaster of Paris of the body, slowly builds up to occlude the artery. Soon the tender flexible artery becomes stiff and hard, preparing the stage for a heart attack.

Stress The Killer: Beware

The twenty-first century will be the century of the Mind. The Mind is man's last unconquered frontier. The Upanishads describe it as fast, fickle and uncontrollable, like a dozen swift horses travelling at breakneck speed. Mankind is paying a steep price for failing to learn more about the Mind before embarking on the race for success in the new millennium. Stress is the price we pay for success. Stress stalks the precarious climb up the corporate ladder.

The Five Stress-Triggering Emotions

Any of the big five emotions—Kama, Kroda, Madha, Lobha, Matsarya (lust, anger, arrogance, greed, jealousy) respectively can flood the body with the chemicals of stress. Stress is destructive. Stress is ageing. Stress is a killer.

Excerpts from 'The Happiness Quotient'

Energy and Enthusiasm

It is energy that causes all beings to act in this world. The higher the level of positive energy, the greater the accomplishments.

When we are tired, our energy level plummets and we do not feel like doing anything. When the field around is negative with hurt, anger, possessiveness, greed, jealously, fear and abhorrence, we are less able to act with speed, effectiveness and efficiency. These emotions suck the energy and life force out of us. All beings have within them, the all-pervading life force, the same force or energy that creates and sustains life in the universe and nourishes it. It is the universal nature of energy that binds and connects all creatures in a single, networked web. That is why it is difficult to be completely happy while hurting others. The universal life energy acts and lives in all created matter. It is necessary at all times to make sure that the creation of a negative field is carefully avoided.

Relationship with Self

Why are you mean and unkind to yourself? Why do you talk to yourself in that cruel, cutting way? What is that tape, running in your head? Here are some suggestions on adjusting your emotional attitude towards yourself:

Loving another equal and an adult, is transforming—tune in.

Listen to yourself, nurture yourself.

Discipline gives you true freedom.

Forgive yourself.

Live in the present. Now. Every minute.

Love and work are the most precious gifts you can give another.

A gift of yourself is the greatest gift you can give another.

Ask for help. Network.

Do not pretend to be in total control.

Periodically reinvent and renew yourself.

Try hard to keep promises and commitments—your internal sense of justice will punish all infractions.

Cacti can be as beautiful as a rose bush. Love them anyway.

Explore the concept of acceptance of self.

Love yourself. Accept yourself, your body and mind, as you are.While trying to improve both, affirm and love yourself as you are today, here and now.

Accept your whole life, as a divine gift, good and bad as it is now.

Love others. You are the mirror, in which all your loved ones see themselves. You can soothe and inspire them by reflecting back an image that is lovable and competent. Calvin Cooley, renowned sociologist has described the Mirror Image thus: ‘I am what I think, you think I am.’ If you are constantly putting down others, they can be mentally destroyed. Their unhappiness can harm your mindscape.

Accept your family as they are. Unrealistic expectations about your child can put unrelenting pressure on him. Mills and Boon expectations of your spouse can make them feel unloved and inadequate. They can then become cranky and difficult.

You do not need revenge. Let go. Go forward and live. Compete only with yourself. Take pleasure in others’ growth and achievement.

Keep the child in you alive, stroke and liberate the playmate, cuddle the baby in you.

The Negative Field

If some people in the group feel excluded, they cannot contribute good ideas or a happy atmosphere. They may even change the nature of a positive field by their unhappiness. Just as a drop of cyanide can poison a clear pool of water, so too the unhappiness of a single person can poison the field in a home or a company. They give off toxic waves of hostility and can turn a flourishing field into a desert.

A negative field is toxic with distrust. In the negative field, individuals are afraid to think differently; new ideas wither before they are formulated. In such a field, only the most obvious ideas, which appear practical and sensible will be shared. All but the most obvious ideas will be rejected. These ideas will be of little use because they are probably centuries old.

A child who is never praised or complimented turns into an insecure adult with little self-esteem, he does not want to say or do anything that others will laugh at. Continued exposure to the negative field can cause many health problems.

It is easy to identify the negative field in your home or organization. Danger signals may range from a lack of enthusiasm and interest to gross outbursts of rage. Being part of a group belonging a negative field can be a soul sapping experience. The symptoms of such a field are sour looks and suspicion. Politics and manipulation will have a free run. You can identify such a field when the Big Five:- Lust, Anger, Obession, Greed and Jealousy roam like wild beasts in the garden of your life. You can change the field by first changing yourself and filling the field with the positive emotions like love and compassion.

Excerpts from 'The Happiness Quotient'

Be Silent: Listen To Yourself

In the silence, become aware of yourself. Be aware of your body as full of health and energy. Visualise peace, tranquility, prosperity and fulfillment. Be silent. Be aware of your breathing, the beating of your heart. Once you are aware of your body in silence, in peace and tranquility, then you begin to notice immediately, the destructive effects of stress. You become aware of the first, imperceptible symptoms: the tightening of the jaw, the clenching of muscles in your throat and abdomen, the speeding of the heartbeat. Once you become aware, you can consciously decelerate. Be completely aware of the shift of feelings from moment to moment. Knowing exactly how you feel can help you make better emotional decisions.

Excerpts from 'The Happiness Quotient'

Prana and the Positive Field

Prana is the life force that flows in all living things. When the life force leaves the body, the body dies. Kirlian photography has captured pictures of the pranic aura.

Meditation and a calm attitude cause prana to flow through all our activities smoothly.

When prana is in full flow, the person is full of vitality and energy and enthusiasm.

Prana is nurtured by freshly cooked, healthy food.

Pranayama is very pro-prana.

Prana is fed by breathing pure fresh air.

Moderate exercise and yoga helps develop the life force.

Eating too much, consuming stale food, exercising till you are ready to drop dead, constant arguments, overworking, getting emotionally upset, breathing polluted air, all interfere with the smooth flow of prana. Moderation is the rule.

Prana enhances the positive field and the vital life force flows freely through it. It creates a powerful positive field—a field of all possibilities where any seed of an idea will develop rapidly.

.

Excerpts from 'The Happiness Quotient'