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STRESS MANAGEMENT
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Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that "demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." Many of our patients are very stressed when they arrive. Their lives have become unmanageable and they have been forced to seek help. They may be suffering from a fatal medical condition. The fear of suffering or dying causes a lot of intense feelings.
Our strategies consist primarily in helping to alleviate any pent up emotions such as pain, sadness or anger. We then endeavor to help create an understanding of what belief system or set of expectations has lead to this feeling of being overwhelmed.
In your daily medical visits you will learn to identify the key sources of stress in your life. You will learn to recognize your patterns of reaction to perceived stressful situation and learn to undo these reactions and replace them by watchful awareness. In addition, you may be introduced to methods such as humor and laughter.
Related articles:
- WHAT A LAUGH
- The Healing Power of Laughter and Tears - LAUGH YOUR WAY TO HEALTH
- IS JOY AND PLAY ENOUGH MEANING TO LIFE?
- THE MYSTIC ROSE LAUGHTER AND TEARS MEDITATIVE THERAPY
- THE CLEANSING VIRTUE OF TEARS
WHAT A LAUGH
When things are looking bleak for your health... at work... or in your personal life, it's difficult to see anything funny about anything. But there's a school of thought that says that's just what you should do -- use humor to reduce stress and encourage physical and emotional wellness and healing.
To get the inside scoop on humor in healing, I spoke with Allen Klein (aka "Mr. Jollytologist"), MA, incoming president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor and author of The Healing Power of Humor. Klein gives speeches and conducts workshops around the world to teach people how to use humor to deal with changes, challenges and the not-so-funny stuff, from everyday trials to triumphing over tragedy.
Medical Fact or Fiction?
There are many theories to explain how humor promotes physical and emotional well-being. In a study by Lee Berk, DrPH, MPH, at Loma Linda University in California, the immune-suppressing hormone cortisol was found to be less prevalent in people's blood when they laughed. Another theory is that laughter triggers the secretion of pleasure-inducing endorphins, although this has never been proven.
While no one knows the precise connection between humor and healing, Klein points out that we do know that laughter...
Raises and then lowers our heart rate and blood pressure, similar to aerobic exercise.
Relaxes our muscles.
Oxygenates the blood, so we think better after a laugh.
Of course, a lot of the evidence linking humor with healing and health is anecdotal. Klein advises that you ask yourself, how do I feel when I laugh? Chances are, you feel pretty good. Just as anger and hostility are bad for your heart and health, humor and laughter are good for you.
Open up Your "Humor Eyes"
"Humor is all around you," says Klein. "All you have to do is open your eyes and ears and look." He advises that you try to reframe challenging situations using your "humor eyes." When you find humor in trying times, one of the first and foremost changes you experience is that you see your problems in a new light. Suddenly, you have a fresh perspective and may see new ways to deal with them.
Klein tells the story of a woman who was depressed and suicidal. Standing on a bridge, she was tempted to hurl herself off it, when suddenly she looked down at her new $150 shoes and said, "No way." This made her laugh, turn her back on the bridge and seek counseling.
Humor can play a role in situations from the sublime to the ridiculous. In traffic jams, Klein blows bubbles out the window. While you may not want to carry your sense of humor this far, there are small steps you can take to start lightening up in your own everyday life. For example, keep a funny cartoon or photo on your desk at work. Or when the going gets tough, call an old friend or family member and make them tell you the childhood story that always makes you laugh.
Klein advises that you have a "humor mantra" on hand to repeat to yourself at stressful moments. Make up your own or use one of his following suggestions...
I have no time for a crisis my schedule is full.
Oh, what an opportunity for growth and learning!
I refuse to be intimidated by reality.
Take it back. It's not what I ordered.
I'd rather be ____________ (dancing, skiing, jogging, etc.).
Beam me up, Scotty.
Research has shown that people who volunteer often live longer. Another important part of Klein's philosophy is sharing humor with others. When he sees a person in trouble, he tries to help. For example, recently his plane was delayed for several hours, so he gave the flight attendant one of his red clown noses (which you can usually purchase at a costume or party-supply store) to wear. Next thing he knew, many of the aggravated passengers were smiling once again, and some of the uncomfortable tension drained out of the situation.
Fill Your World With Bright Colors
According to Klein, your attitude is like a box of crayons that color the world. Constantly use gray colors, and your picture will always be dark and depressing. Use humor to add bright colors, and your picture begins to lighten up.
In his experience, humor has played a role in even the most difficult circumstances. Klein has worked with people with cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer's -- among others -- and all have found some humor to give them the courage to go on.
The Healing Power of Laughter and Tears
LAUGH YOUR WAY TO HEALTH
It is now widely accepted among medical circles that laughter cures and that one who laughs lives longer.
A California hospital is providing a "living-room" for their patients to play. In several retirement homes in California, elderly residents take regular "humor medicine", they read funny books, poems, cartoons, and they watch movies and performances by stand-up comedians. Associations like "The Humor Project" directed by Joel Goodman give stress management workshops all around the country. Laughter can relieve stress, help recover from disease and can also prevent it.
Laughter has been said to have effects similar to physical exercise. It is a "stationary jogging" as Fry says. "When you laugh, your chest, thorax and abdominal muscles, as well as your diaphragm, heart lungs and possibly your liver contract. A belly laugh can make your systolic blood pressure soar from an average of 120 to a hypertensive 200, and it can double your pulse rate from 60 to 120 beats per minute. Laughing also pumps extra adrenalin into your blood stream. After a good laugh all systems return to normal or even a little below normal, resulting in less stress, hypertension and muscle tension headaches, as well as an all around good feeling.
Laughter can also cure. That was the spectacular discovery of Norman Cousins. In 1964 he was diagnosed as suffering from a degenerative disease of the conjunctive tissue. Orthodox medicine gave him a 1 in 500 chance for survival. He left the hospital, booked a hotel room and took massive amounts of vitamin C and watched funny movies. After each laughing episode he experienced two hours of painless sleep. Sedimentation rates taken before and after the session, showed a drop of at least 5 points. (This test measures signs of inflammation in the body, a major characteristic of Cousin's Illness). "The drop by itself was not substantial but it held and was cumulative," says Cousins in his book "Anatomy of an Illness".
His "miraculous" recovery inspired scientists to research the chemistry of laughter.
It was recently discovered that a good belly laugh prompts the brain to block the manufacture of immune suppressors such as cortisone or that it speeds up production of immune enhancers such as beta-endorphins. (Endorphins are the body's natural painkiller.) That would explain why laughing suppresses pain. It also shows that the heart, the brain and the immune system work as one unit; a feeling of joy or happiness combined with laughter creates a chemical response in the brain. Therefore, it makes sense to get AIDS and cancer patients to laugh as is the case today in several hospitals throughout the country. Carolina Health and Humor association directed by Hamilton, works with cancer patients at the Duke University Medical Center. In Houston Texas, a room is devoted to help patients counteract the negative emotions that go with their illness. In Albany, New York, the AIDS council of Northeastern New York has recently received a grant to explore ways that humor can help AIDS patients.
IS JOY AND PLAY ENOUGH MEANING TO LIFE?
Seriousness, leading to depression in its pathological form, is every adult's disease in our society: as a child grows older his natural spontaneous wild energy is suppressed and he is being conditioned to behave as a quiet person in control of himself. A child is never bored, always creative with his energy, playing and having fun. Laughing goes with an uplifting energy, a feeling of aliveness and well being, and a presence in the moment, an explosion, a release, and a pleasurable sensation in the body. This feeling of having fun and enjoying oneself enhances the will to live and erase any question about the meaning of life. It is an answer in itself.
It is this feeling of playfulness that Dr. Weinstein's Play-fair Inc., association tries to recreate with children games reviewed for non-competitiveness.
Seriousness identifies us with our ego. Humor gives us detachment. In his book "Handbook of Humor and Psychotherapy" Mindess describes the freeing from our own conforming stabilizing systems of self-control that have distanced us from our authentic, spontaneous self." Detachment is also what Annette Goodheart has been teaching in her therapeutic work for over 20 years as the title of her book and thesis indicates: " How to laugh about everything in your life that isn't really funny."
Raymond Moody MD, author of "Laugh after Laugh the Healing Power of Humor" refers to a cosmic sense of humor. "A person with a cosmic sense of humor is one who can see himself and others in the world in a somewhat distant and detached way. Such a person has the ability to perceive life comically without loosing any love or respect for himself or humanity in general."
Olson a psychologist from Reisterston, Maryland describes different levels of humor (Prevention, April 1981).
"There are three levels of humor, sarcasm is one, but that's destructive; the second a good pun that gives you a twist of expectancy has positive qualities. And so does the third level, cosmic humor, which is an appreciation of the paradoxes and absurdities of life. The person who has this level of humor, is the more likely to be flexible and able to take in stride what life dishes out. I like level three the best for my patients."
Maybe a hearty laughter has the mysterious power to connect us with the inner and outer life source, making us part of the whole. Its quality would be similar to sexual orgasm: both take us out of our ego, into the here and now, giving us a short experience of ecstasy. Maybe ecstasy is the state of consciousness that creates laughter in the legendary laughing Buddha's. They must glance at polar opposites at once and laugh at the cosmic joke that is life.
This ancient story illustrates the different paths possible. Heraclites the philosopher had fallen into a deep depression because of his serious contemplation of the sad lot of humanity. "He wept and railed against heaven for the foolishness, pain and insanity of his fellow human beings. Democritus, on the other hand in response to similar thoughts, laughed at humanity's foolishness, useless pain and general insanity. The people of his native town of Abdera thought he was mad and sending emissaries to Hippocrates, pleaded that the famous physician not delay in curing their townsman" counts Robert Burton.
Hippocrates comes and during the visit, compliments Democritus for his happiness and leisure, commenting he doesn't have time himself being busy with all worldly affairs. "At this speech, Democritus profusely laughed," continues the story. Hippocrates asked the reason why he laughed, he told him: "At the vanities and the fopperies of the time to see men so empty of all virtuous actions, to hunt so far after gold, having no end in ambition…When men live in peace, they covet war, detesting quietness…When they are poor and needy they seek riches, and when they have them, they do not enjoy them, but hide them underground, or else wastefully spend them… Others commend courage and strength in wars, and let themselves be conquered by lust and avarice… And now, methinks, O most worthy Hippocrates you should not reprehend my laughing, perceiving so many fooleries in men."
When the villagers inquired of Hippocrates what he thought about him he said that the world had not a wiser, a more learned, a more honest man, and they were much deceived to say that he was mad.
THE CLEANSING VIRTUE OF TEARS
The sad philosopher and the fool are within all us and we are also the neutral point in between those extremes watching it all happen. What we have said for laughter could be said for tears. They differ in that they are polar opposites; tears give us depth where laughter gives us lightness, but they are very similar in their physiology and function.
Sobs give a shake to the diaphragm, the breathing goes deeper, and the whole upper part of the body gets a work-out. Many times after a good cry the whole body feels more relaxed and the mind feels at peace.
Crying has the function to release us from accumulated emotional stress and keeps us open to the experience of joy. Without crying we start suffering. It can have a role in keeping us healthy. As mentioned in "Self" June 1981, "If crying can relieve stress, then it may be that repressing tears makes one more susceptible to many of the major stress related diseases, ranging from asthma to heart disease, to ulcers."
William Frey, author of "Crying the Mystery of Tears" and director of the Dry Eye and Tear Research Center at Saint-Paul Ramsey Medical Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has proven scientifically that the chemical composition of emotional tears differed from tears caused by the irritation of the eye by onion vapors. Emotional tears have a 24% higher protein content. Whether the increased protein content of emotional tears is in fact a by-product of stress in our system is a subject for further research. He suggests "Weeping, like other excretory processes, removes toxic substances from the body and that tears have a precise role in this process. Emotional stress alters the chemical balance of the human body and conversely, changes in the chemical balance can effect an emotional change. From a biochemical viewpoint, people who are sad or depressed could be suffering from a chemical imbalance, an altered homeostasis that is restored, at least partially, by the excretion of certain substances in tears. I agree with Darwin that emotional weeping helps relieve suffering, but I submit that the excretion of tears is central not incidental, to the relieve mechanism."
THE MYSTIC ROSE LAUGHTER AND TEARS MEDITATIVE THERAPY
In our clinic we may use a modification of the mystic rose laughter and tears meditative therapy. We adapted this 3 week long meditation to fit our programs and we introduced a one hour and a half group or individual session.
The regular therapeutic meditation practiced at Osho University involves 3 hours a day of laughing for seven straight days. This is followed by three hours a day of crying for seven days, which is then followed by three hours a day of Vipassana meditation.
The instructions are to have as little interactions possible and to find one's own source of laughter and tears. As in Vipassana meditation, the process consists in watching what is happening; there is no talk or trying to understand. The group leader is on the same level as the participants: if he reaches out to somebody it has to be with his own laughter and tears.
I participated in the meditation and was struck by its powerful cleansing effects. I conducted 15 in-depth interviews among the participants and in the analysis the following themes appeared most often:
The process was followed by:
a much deeper relaxation
More vulnerability
More spontaneity
More awareness
More playfulness, less seriousness
More authenticity
One person who had asthma was cured.
In the description of the process, a particular recurrent theme attracted my attention: the crying was releasing pictures of war, fields, burning of the witches, suffering of the planet. It was like tears shed in a meditative way, were giving access to the collective unconscious or to past life memories.
This hypothesis, that there is a collective unconscious, which can be accessed and amplified through meditation, has been suggested by Greg Dubs in "Common boundaries between Spirituality and Psychotherapy." The Mystic Rose Meditation observations seem to confirm it. They also show that cathartic therapy and meditations can be integrated to reach deeper and more effective results.
The physiology of the Laughter and Tears Meditative Therapy.
In particular an electroencephalogram should be taken to control whether in the crying period the brain is showing alpha and theta waves, as is the case in a traditional meditation like Vipassana.
Are those specific effects of past life memories due to the fact that the participants studied were experienced meditators, or are those effects also happening with non-experienced meditators?
If laughing and crying strengthen the will to live and the immune system, what would be the result of its continuous use with cancer and AIDS patients?
Would it help cure chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension?
What would be its effect on depressed patients?
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HAWAII NATURAL DRUG REHABILITATION
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Holistic Natural Residential Rehabilitation Programs for freedom from addiction to legal and illegal substances -
drawing from Naturopathic and Detoxification medicine, Behavioral and Psychodynamic therapy approaches, Meditation, Yoga and Spiritual practices.
Note: We take only a small amount of clients, and our programs are individually designed. Our use of the ocean, the recreational activities & natural approaches facilitate recovery.
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I had been doing drugs heavily for 16 years and no rehab or therapist could change me.
I was too full of toxins for the twelve-step program to ever work on me. I needed to clean my body out so that I could feel normal enough to fight the desire to do drugs.
Dr. Baylac awakened me.
I have remained cocaine free now for 2 years (2008)....
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