Stress and Your Body
STRESS
Mayo Clinic
80-85% Of their cases are related to worry and anxiety
70% Could cure self if they got rid of it
25 Million have high blood pressure – adding 1 Million more each year
8 Million have stomach ulcers
112 Million take medications each week for stress related symptoms
STRESS IS YOUR FAULT
Stress comes as a result of unmet expectations, out of frustration when other people do not think and do as we think they ought or should do. It bothers us when we either lose or cannot seem to gain control, either of ourselves or other people. Nothing can really stress you without your consent! Years ago it is reported in one study that a young boy was tested for stress to see what effect it had upon his body. He had come to the doctor’s office angry about something that happened at school. At the time, he was being observed by a clinic because he his throat had been burned so bad in an accident that he had to take in food through an opening in his neck. A strange chemical was found in his stomach and scientists injected this substance into rats. Their lifespan is normally about five years, but these rodents aged in a matter of weeks, sporting white hairs and suffering from arthritis.
Do you get upset when someone cuts you off on the highway or get caught behind that slow moving bus? Then scientists believe it is taking hours, days or years off your life and destroying your health. Is it worth it? We can all agree that in the broad scheme of things, most of what we get angry at may matter but is resolvable – there are solutions. Anger and stress are not among them. Neither one solve the problem. Most of the time they add to it, causing more damage in the process.
Pr 23:7 Circumstances do not cause us stress – it is our interpretation of them
Ga 5:22 Fruit of the Spirit
2Pe 1:5-7 Self-Control part of growth/maturity
What you think affects how you feel and determines your behavior
Pr 16:32 Ruling ones spirit better than taking a city
Ro 12:2 The mind must be transformed
A (event) + B (belief about the event) + C (consequent emotions resulting from the event)
2Co 10:5 Thoughts cause feelings and feelings can be controlled by our thoughts
Some feelings come automatically – preprogramed in our minds Daily thoughts are affected by our core beliefs (deep within our personality) One must become a student of themselves to find out what they are, it is called meta-cognition where we think about thinking i.e., introspection.
INDUCTIVE REASONING AND STRESS
Inductive reasoning is the ability to derive general principles from specific events in order to change ones core beliefs. Introspection is critical – tracing specific thoughts back to general beliefs. Some may go back to your childhood.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FILTERING
Negative Filtering is to filter out the good things that happen to us and focus on what we believe to be the bad things. A husband might blame his wife for criticizing him for one thing while ignoring her praises for all the good that he has accomplished. The husband feels that he is a loser but overlooks the fact that he was promoted three times and has a wife and four children who love and look up to him.
Positive filtering can lead to faulty thinking, in that you see things with rose colored glasses and ignore the truly negative things that affect you or others. For example, the wife that sees only the wonderful way her husband treats her when he is sober but ignores the emotional and physical abuse to her and perhaps her children when he is under the influence.
