liveonearth | Entries tagged with stress

To learn which questions are unanswerable,
and not to answer them:
This skill is most needful in times of
stress and darkness.

— Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Left Hand of Darkness.”

Crossposts: https://liveonearth.livejournal.com/1441037.html

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity.
- John Muir

Crossposts: http://liveonearth.livejournal.com/1421736.html

I am a lover of what is, not because I'm a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality. We can know that reality is good just as it is, because when we argue with it, we experience tension and frustration. We don't feel natural or balanced. When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.
~ Byron Katie

Crossposts: http://liveonearth.livejournal.com/1421351.html

“Everything is interconnected. Gratitude improves sleep. Sleep reduces pain. Reduced pain improves your mood. Improved mood reduces anxiety, which improves focus and planning. Focus and planning help with decision making. Decision making further reduces anxiety and improves enjoyment. Enjoyment gives you more to be grateful for, which keeps that loop of the upward spiral going. Enjoyment also makes it more likely you'll exercise and be social, which, in turn, will make you happier.”
--UCLA Neuroscience researcher Alex Korb

Four Rituals that Make You Happy:

(in summary, and as suggested by science to date)
1. Be grateful.
2. Name negative emotions.

3. Make good enough decisions.

4. Touch people.

SOURCE: http://theweek.com/articles/601157/neuroscience-reveals-4-rituals-that-make-happy

This epidemiologic analysis revealed that mortality rates are increasing in the middle-aged white male population, largely due to preventable conditions like poisonings and overdoses.

Reductions in mortality were seen in other racial groups.

( ARTICLE from Medpage, primary care )

SOURCE

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/GeneralPrimaryCare/54456

When I have a morning at home alone I work on my lists and I fall into my practice more easily. The sun is streaming in and I am doing triage on piles of "urgent" items which have become buried under a stream of distractions and amusements like my nonstop study of public health. One observation this morning is that the strong balancing poses which I find so elusive when surrounded by empty air and other students are more accessible when I am alone in my office. Here I can step into a warrior 3 knowing that the sunny windowsill is right there to hold me up, and yet confidently not needing it. This strength and balance that I find in my own small office is something I would like to take with me into the world.

I've been trying to be polite. I am more dedicated to my own practice than to any teacher. I've studied under many teachers, and in many schools. Some new teachers were far better than some veterans. Every teacher teaches me something. Every school has taught me something.

Sometimes the thing I learn is a negative. Part of growing up and separating from your parents is deciding "I don't want to ever do that." What I have been learning recently is that many teachers are so busy teaching that they don't take the time to breathe. That is to say, the best teachers are the ones who are truly present with us in the practice, and not simply filling airspace with instructions.

My yoga practice involves tuning in to my own inner voice, and being present with my breath and body. This was a great learning for me, because I grew up very American, unaware of my body, or worse, in denial of it.

( Exhale, inhale... )

Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.
--Lily Tomlin

These notes from the Oct 15, 2013 Grand Rounds at OHSU in the Psychiatry department. Watching it online, it's about "what you need to know about the new DSM".
( notes )

Notes from this talk on pediatric neuroendocrinology by Mary Bove: http://naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=8&article=331
( notes from audio )

Sleep well. A gland in the command
center releases its yellow hornet
to tell you you're missing the point,
the point being that getting smacked
by a board, gored by umbrellas, tongue-
lashed by cardiologists, bush-wacked
by push-up bras is a learning experience.
Sure, you're about learned up. Weren't
we promised the thieves would be punished?
Promised jet-packs and fleshy gardenias
and wine to get the dust out of our mouths?
And endless forgiveness? A floral rot
comes out of the closet, the old teacher's
voice comes out of the ravine, red-wings
in rushes never forget their rusty-hinged
song. Moon-song, dread-song, hardly-a-song
at all song. Let's ignore that call,
let someone else stop Mary from herself
for the 80th time. It's never really dark
anyway, not even inside the skull. Take
my hand, fellow figment. Every spring
we'll meet, definite as swarms of stars,
insects over glazed puddles, your eyes
green even though your driver's license
says otherwise. And yes, mortal knells
in sleepless hours, hollow knocks of empty
boats against a dock but still the mind
is a meadow, the heart an ocean even though
it burns. As long as there's a sky, someone
will be falling from it. After molting,
eat your own shucked skin for strength,
keep changing the subject in hopes
that the subject will change you.

( turns out Schor and I agree: DSL is a bad idea )

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html

This is the latest Ted Talk to cross my viewscreen. It's Richard Wilkinson, speaking about the differences between societies with wide vs narrow differences between the highest and lowest income groups. The finding is intuitive, but the specific data that he pulls together, and the way he makes sense of it, is very interesting. At the end of brings it all together with some science about stress. According to him, the stressors that cause the greatest increase in cortisol are "social evaluative threats" to one's esteem or status. In other words, "people are sensitive to being looked down on". In societies where there is greater equality, there is less stress, hence explaining the increased longevity, health and peace that is seen in those societies. Of course, the US rates only second to Singapore in his scaling of wealth disparity, with Japan and Sweden at the other end of the scale. Anyway, it's worth seeing for yourself, if you have the 15 minutes.

What Lucky People Do Differently than Unlucky People
By Adam Dachis | Lifehacker, 12 April 2011
http://ca.lifehacker.com/5791032/improve-your-luck-by-relaxing-keeping-an-open-mind-and-paying-attention-to-the-world-around-you
( text )

This is a new finding. The earlier in life that the traumatic insult occurs, the greater the effect. The brain develops differently as a result, and there is a great chance of comorbidities. SOURCE: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749564?src=mpnews&spon=12

Also interesting, the mortality gap between normal people and those with mental illness is getting larger. All current mental health efforts are not yet improving the odds of survival for those with bipolar and shizophrenia. SOURCE: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749687?src=mpnews&spon=12

On managing aggressive schizophrenics: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749195?src=mp&spon=12

( braindump )

I've been told by meditation & yoga instructors and naturopathic doctors that inhalation is controlled by sympathetic innervation, and exhalation is parasympathetic. Based in this, we are taught to change our meditation breathing based on whether we desire to emphasize activation or calming. The idea is that by extending the inhale and shortening the exhale, you increase your sympathetic activity. More often the idea of extending the exhale to double or more the length of the inhale is used, to help us release the stresses of modern life.
( a question )

‎I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.
— Jack Kerouac

(post bumped forward from 5/24/08)

Constant toothy smiling can cause stress, high blood pressure, depression and heart problems according to Johann Wolfgang Goethe who studies smiles at the University of Frankfurt. "Zapf recommends that 'professional smilers' take regular breaks to relax, rid themselves of aggression and recuperate from the effort of smiling." There are some jokes in the article about how German customer service isn't the friendliest on the planet, anyway.

SCIENCE:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053482202000487 on emotional work
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13594320500412199
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10615800903254091
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10615806.2010.530262
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/096317905X39666/full

( more )

fascinating factoid per Drs Szabat & Ambrose: scutellaria inhibits expression of IL6, 6/2011

Family: Labiatae (MINT family)
( notes )

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INTERESTING TIMES

are better than no times at all.

Entries tagged with stress

QotD: Don't Try to Answer Unanswerable Questions

QotD: Necessary Wilderness

QotD: Reality

QotD: Seeking Happiness

Middle Aged White Dudes Die of Preventable Disease (Interesting Times Indeed)

Yoga at Home: Position of Power

Yoga Beef: Let Me Breathe

QotD: Reality

DSM 5 (not V) Notes

Herbal Stress Support for Teens

Poem: How to Be a Surrealist by Dean Young

J Schor on Daylight Savings Time

Social Inequality: What a Miserable Lot We Are

Want some LUCK ?

PTSD sufferers have lower Serotonin 1B Receptor Activity

Noise

Breathing Innervation Question

QotD: Liking Too Many Things

Forcing a Smile Promotes WHAT?

Herbs: Scutellaria lateriflora (Scullcap)