How speed = stress
In his latest book, In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed, Canadian journalist Carl Honore touts the benefits of slow living.

Honore claims that the old paradigm “time is money” is being replaced by the “slow movement” model. Slow living produces more pleasure and better health. The slow city movement is fostering personal connection over speed. He makes a good point about how holistic medicine is inherently slow. Apparently, Italians have even expanded the “slow movement” into sex.

As I mentioned before, slow work is producing higher production. Multi-tasking is not productive. From the workplace to the home, Honore claims slowness is growing.

How speed = stress
Stress reduction needs to integrate slowness for our kids, too. In his book, Honore reports about kids lacking spark and passion because they’re being pushed with homework and extracurricular activities.

Fortunately, a lot of us are putting the brakes on our speed. We’re making conscious choices to have a richer, whole life by traveling through it slowly.

There are places where speed is good. Having faster Internet connections certainly increases production and reduces stress. The unconscious conditioning around speed that we created in our lives is not good, though. Being mindful of where speed serves us, and where slowing down serves us, will enrich our lives. As my mother used to say to me, “What’s the hurry?”

Second to colds, the most likely reason you’ll visit a healthcare provider will be back pain. Fifty percent of Americans report back pain each year.

Are you in pain right now? Is your movement limited? Are you reducing your activities because of the pain or the fear of the pain? Let’s look at why.

A lot of back pain comes from overexertion. If that’s you, you’re lucky. Your pain will go away once your body recovers from being pushed. And there’s a good chance it won’t return—unless you overdo it again. In time, you’ll be fine.

For pain due to overexertion, traditional remedies work well. Cold compresses can reduce swelling. Warm, moist heat helps muscles that feel tight. Alternating the two can be beneficial. And of course, massage and gentle stretching relax the tightness, and the movement prevents further stiffness. Rest always supports the body in healing, and topical ointments will give you warmth and local pain relief.

Chronic Back Pain
Chronic back pain is a different animal. Pain often occurs without physical exertion; it just shows up. As the frequency and intensity of episodes increase, each incident leaves a tension residue that sets up the next attack of pain. Pain pills and muscles relaxers can help, but many people don’t like their side effects. One thing is clear: just treating the symptom is not enough—particularly when the problem is likely to return.

Prevention and Treatment
The best way to treat chronic back pain is to prevent it. Learn to lift using your legs. Sit on your sits bones. Stop slouching! It will all reduce back strain. Use ergonomic furniture that adjusts to your unique body, instead of forcing your body to adapt to the furniture. Moving helps, too – get up and walk around, take breaks.

And the most critical behavior—the one we never think—about is breathing. I know, you are breathing. The question is how well.

When I taught Mindfulness Stress Reduction courses in Scottsdale, AZ, the principal reason people came to us was back pain. At the time, we were the largest company offering these courses in the country. Most of our students for the 8-week course were referrals from hospital networks or corporate clients.

We taught the students to breath. As easy as it might sound, the first few weeks were tough. Doing very simple relaxation exercises would actually create stress. The students’ old habits prevented them from relaxing and breathing fully. Once they realized how tense they were, they saw and how much they were limiting their breath—even when they believed they were relaxed. With daily homework and coming to the weekly class, their awareness and breathing increased as their stress and pain declined.

What does this mean for you? If these very tense people can dramatically change their stress and pain in 8-weeks, so can you. The first step is to become aware of how you hold your body and your breath. If you are holding one, you are holding the other. As your breath becomes fuller, slower and more relaxed you begin to train your body not to hold stress, but to release it.

In keeping with letting go, I suggest to my clients that they do not do “back strengthening” exercises. I have not seen a back that was muscularly weak; I see many that are structurally weak. Our bigger back muscles are not meant to be posture muscles, they are designed to move us, not hold us. The constant holding makes them tighter. Rather than getting stronger form sit-ups or back extensions, practice breathing and stretching.

On top of all this, the media is telling us children with ADHD have smaller brains. But Mike Adams points out that the study the media is quoting about the “small brain phenomenon” was done on children taking ADHD medication. Further, he references a longitudinal study proving that children on these meds experience stunted growth. All these study results raise more questions than they answer.

I had ADHD as a child, I had it as an adult, and I’ve had dozens of children and adult clients with it, so I speak from personal experience. To address this issue, to get at the root cause, I believe the first thing we need to do is step back from all the hype. Let’s take a hard look at the culture our children are growing up in. The expectations, constant stimulation and projections from their parents continue to increase. Our children are simply stressed out.

What cured me of my ADHD was dealing with my stress – my old, stored stress – and learning not to reproduce it. I have found that, for most children and adults suffering from ADHD, their way of dealing with stress produces the ADHD responses.

A growing number of studies demonstrate that Mindfulness practices reduce ADHD symptoms. In one study, 78% of participants reported a reduction in total ADHD symptoms when using Mindfulness techniques.

We need to teach our children—and ourselves—to experience stress in a healthy manner. We all need to learn to accept its present effect on us, then release the stress or tension in the present moment. With this conscious response to it, stress does not build. The released stress does not find another means of expression, such as ADHD behavior.

ADHD is only one manifestation of the effects of constant stress; we are seeing more incidences of everything from childhood obesity to violence. Repressing the symptoms of ADHD with a time-release amphetamine is not dealing with the cause. When we finally deal with that root cause—the stressful environment our children live in—our children will be calmer, healthier and blissfully unmedicated.

The Times article points out something obvious to those of us who practice Mindfulness: studies show some people get worse with Mindfulness therapy. That is true. Some people do get worse—but usually right before they get a lot better. With repressed emotional pain, you must recognize the emotion—and the physical symptom it’s causing—allow yourself to experience that emotion, and accept the emotion before you can release it. The good news is, once you accept and experience the old feelings, you’re done with it. That pain is gone for good.

Old stress frequently leaves the way it went in. For example, if you lost someone whom you cared deeply about, but didn’t allow yourself to fully, deeply feel and release the pain, the pain can turn into tension. That tension in turn creates physical symptoms. Using Mindfulness to treat that pain, the tension lets go. And as that happens, some of the “stored emotions” will release to be experienced in the present moment. But once you’ve caught and released that pain, you’re free of it—physically and emotionally.

As we continue to catch-and-release our emotions, we lighten our load of tension. We also teach our bodies and minds to experience and release on their own. Letting go becomes the default behavior. That is the biggest gift of Mindfulness.

If you stress out about being deathly ill, you may want to read this post. Most aches and pains are just that – aches and pains. Yet, there are times when those pains are telling us something. Us macho men are the worst at avoiding our bodies signals.

This blog post gives you 7 pains you should not avoid – so if your pain is another pain – chill out.

Chest pain could be pneumonia or a heart attack. But be aware that heart conditions typically appear as discomfort, not pain. “Don’t wait for pain,” says cardiologist Jerome Cohen, MD. “Heart patients talk about pressure. They’ll clench their fist and put it over their chest or say it’s like an elephant sitting on their chest.”

You thought it was bad before, but it’s getting worse. According to a new American Psychological Association (APA) study, a third of us are experiencing extreme stress: “nearly half [of Americans] believe stress is damaging their health, their relationships, and work productivity, and that it has got worse in the last 5 years.”

As our society evolves, the effect of stress increases. Being constantly assaulted by information from the media, pressing decisions, and unending stimulation (which we mistakenly believe is an escape from the other stressors) is causing our stress to grow. All this is occurring as we experience a decrease in resources of time, energy and possibly money. We are squeezed.

Decrease the Irritation

Your first tendency is to change your external world – you try to remove or reduce the stressors in your life. Go for it. Unfortunately, experience has taught me that manipulation of these variables have a limited effect. What you need to change is how you respond to stress, or how you frame it.

A secret to generating a new stress response in yourself is this: give up an old believe or behavior pattern. Maybe you created myths that are not serving you. A common one is: “I should have it all.” This begs the question, what is “all”? If you can redefine your “all” based on what you really need and want, your stress will change.

The myth that “I have to know” or “I must stay informed” sets you up to fall prey to the media’s constant barrage of stress stimulation. Implicit in this myth is that there is always more to know, so you are hooked to your media dealer. Recent research on dreams and stress support this as well as how the news sets up post traumatic stress for children. Because most of society operates under the effects of these myths, it’s easy to miss something insidious: the constant media exposure keeps your nervous system on alert.

By addressing these myths and their behaviors, we remove irritating stimuli from our lives.

Operate from New Beliefs

Go beyond focusing on what you don’t want to what you want. Create beliefs that serve you. Tim Ferriss’ popular book, The 4 – Hour Workweek is one of many advocates of leaving quantity of things for quality of life. The rapid growth of the Slow Food movement supports you leaving fast food to enjoying the experience of eating.

Focusing on being rather than doing is a simple statement. The faster you travel through life, the less aware you are of your experiences. The more hyped you are, the more you look for the next extreme experience that you can really feel. As you allow yourself to go through withdrawal from over-stimulation and constant arousal, you need less intense and less frequent stimulation to feel alive. If you constantly over-salts your food, you never get to experience the true flavor of what you’re eating.

A difficult belief to leave behind is one the belief that you don’t deserve healthy relationships. Do a survey of you relationships and ask yourself, “Am I losing or gaining energy from this relationship?” If you’re putting more in than you’re getting out, make a shift in that relationship. Speak what you truly feel and want. As you hold true to yourself, the relationship will either shift, or end. But either outcome is for your benefit.

As you take risks to speak your truths, take risks to pursue your passions. Yes, this can be stressful. The stress from moving forward in life tends to have a different effect than being at the mercy of life. It’s analogous to the stress of getting in shape—painful at first, perhaps, but the process becomes fun, and the results are always enjoyable.

I invite you to transform your extreme stress into extreme pleasure. Find role models for this; there may not be many, but they are out there. Often these are people who walked away from “success” to pursue a deeper desire. Ultimately, you may prove to be role model for others.

1. Take the controllable stressors out of your life

2. Eat the foods that are right for your body

I said simple–not necessarily easy.

Let’s look at the first one:

I have managed to eliminate or certainly get to manageable levels, the source of most stress for most knowledge workers, which is basically getting everything out of my head and managing externalized systems so that my extended brain is kept pretty intact and current.

David Allen the founder of Getting Things Done (GTD), interview with the Web Daily Worker blog

In this post, David Allen offers his personal stress reducers, which I highly recommend. Also, check out his GTD system to manage your information overload.

As for Number 2, eating right, Allen mentions Eat Right for Your Type, a diet/nutritional book that teaches how to choose food based on your blood type. As strange as this might seem, it works. I have tweaked my diet to fit my blood type for 10 years. From the start, I had more energy. After what I experienced for myself, I have recommended this approach to over a hundred clients. Those who adopted it saw improvements in allergies and their energy levels.

So it’s really very simple: reduce your stress by keeping your body happy, and your mind clear. With the tools listed above, that’s as simple as it sounds.

Accused of being a quack, the physician Hans Steles who put stress on the map had to move to Canada to practice. Today his work forms the foundation of our understanding of stress and its effect on our bodies. 

Fibromyalgia, suffering the same plight is now being honored with its first drug. Pfizer in a new television ad touts the value of its drug Lyrica for fibromyalgia. I am glad that the suffers of this often misunderstood condition are getting recognized. So often, I have seen people who are told that either they are imagining their symptoms, they are depressed (inferring crazy) or to just get over it. 

The cause of fibromyalgia

The downside of this drug release is it further diverts the focus from the real cause – stress and toxicity. Just like with Prozac and depression we will likely see the abatement of symptoms for some, no effects for others and an adverse reaction by others from this drug. 

Many have cured themselves of both depression and its sibling, fibromyalgia through releasing their chronic stress and learning not to recreate it. There are few problems with this approach. First, it requires personal responsibility and commitment. Often it requires stepping beyond the traditional models and their treatment regimes. At some point as the stress starts to leave a person’s body the emotions that were associated with its imprinting are felt. 

 When these emotions first occurred, usually in childhood, we did not have the permission or the tools to express them, so we stuffed them. These emotions became stress, which became tension, which wears us out frequently causing depression, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. As we begin to accept the stress so we can release it, we are accepting the former unacceptable emotions. This is not easy – but it is required if we are to get well. 

Original fibromyalgia doc is cynical

In 30 years, I have never seen anyone truly get well from these conditions without dealing with their stress and emotions. The drugs maybe great at suppressing some of the symptoms; no drug removes the cause – stress. “Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the director of the National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases and the lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined the diagnostic guidelines for fibromyalgia, says he has become cynical and discouraged about the diagnosis. He now considers the condition a physical response to stress, depression, and economic and social anxiety.” – as quoted from the New York Times. 

The New York Times article finishes with – “Still, Dr. Wolfe expects the drugs will be widely used. The companies, he said, are ‘going to make a fortune.’” Let’s hope all this attention validates the pain many suff and supports them in healing the cause of the pain.

You want to decrease your stress – align yourself with your instinctual self. The psychologist Carl Jung over a hundred years ago directed us towards parts of ourselves that are our psychological DNA. Joseph Campbell picked up Jung’s work to lay out how throughout history we have viewed and experienced life from four primary archetypes.

When you acknowledge and then use these deep parts of yourself, you shift from struggling with instinctual needs to using these needs to as your ally. I invite you to go on a personal archeological dig to excavate these valuable aspects of self.

Here are the four archetypes that show up across cultures and time:

Lover

The lover is the part of you that appreciates others and life. It is the part where compassion lies. Through open hearted communication, this archetype comes alive. Through taking the risk to express your feelings, you allow your lover to show up. By allowing old grief and sadness to be release the empathy and joy of the lover deepens.

When the lover is present, you are happy – you are experiencing what it is to be human. You are relating to others, feeling and expressing those feelings. It may take expressing a backlog of unexpressed feelings to be present with your current feelings. Once current, the innocence of a child shows up with his or her joy

Magician

Magic happens when you expand your realm of experience and knowledge. Trusting in something bigger than what existed previously allows you to begin to use more resources to survive as our primitive ancestors did. As your mastery improves, so does your ability to use these skills to create success.

When you surrender to the unknown and to your felt sense (what you body tells you) you open yourself to more awareness. This increase awareness reconnects you to lost parts, the parts that stress took out when you were a child.

Stepping beyond the fear of the uncontrolled opens you to a vista of new experiences. Excitement replaces fear. You now have more resources to draw on.

Warrior

The warrior needs to show up to hold your boundaries – to say no. Without boundaries, you are violated. All the small and large violations you experience can be your biggest stressors.

The righteous warrior performs right and certain actions for his or her sovereign. This warrior holds and defends the innocence of others and self so all may experience life in its beauty.

As the doer of the four archetypes, you want your warrior doing what serves you. The most common take out for the warrior is anger. The repressed anger that can store as frustration or rage accumulated from times as a child when you couldn’t express those justified feelings. Without expressing your feelings and setting your boundaries volitions occurred. You were victimized, maybe only subtlety. Expressing your feelings, maintaining your boundaries prevents you from being a victim. You develop the innate confidence to handle what life presents.

King/Queen - Sovereign

Is your realm thriving? Do you have a vision of what you want? Are you going for it? If any of these qualities of your sovereign is weak, your life will lack direction or purpose. Without focus, you become more vulnerable to stress.

Your king or queen may not do a lot. He or she may just hold the vision of what you want from a state of being rather than doing. Without the power and vision of your sovereign, you have a void that is easy for other desires rather than yours to show up in. You are more likely living someone else’s life, that is always stressful.

Take the time to create the vision for your life. Enlist the other three archetypes to serve that vision your king or queen will hold. The stress that results from working towards what you want is healthier then the stress from having a life that is at effect.

Reunite with your ancestors

When I first was exposed to the four archetypes I said, “sure.” It was difficult for me to believe that, much like our genes, something as amorphic as deep behavior tendencies could be passed on from our ancestors. Today in my own life as well as my clients’ and students’ I see constant illustrations of how, when one of these aspects is weak, our life suffers.

Explore the teachings of Joseph Campbell. He will show you how throughout history and literature these four parts of our always existed. We can learn from our past. We may live in different times, but our ancestral parts are still connected to ancient ways and needs.

Explore your archetypes. Observe them or their absence in others. Call forth their qualities to lead a richer life. These parts of you are your allies that are there to serve you.