The Holidays are right around the corner.  It's well known that the Holidays are stressful times for families, so we will be offering some Inner Game Insights in the way of Holiday Hints over the next few weeks.  Hint #1 is an example of how I used the Re-define Tool.

Christmas Time – the power of re-defining your story.

When my children were young and Christmas was approaching, I found myself getting stressed. I really didn’t know why. The facts of the matter were simple: I was in Europe and about to come home to my family and it was Christmas time.

Nothing in the facts were inherently stressful.  So I looked at the “story” I was telling myself.  What did I think I was coming home to?

The answer that popped up was, “I’m coming home to problems to be solved.”  My story was all about all the complexities involved with getting the right gifts without spending too much and not disappointing my kids.  It was enough to make me wish Christmas wasn’t coming.  Having seen my “story” I looked to see if there was an alternative.  I used the re-define tool.  My stress-based definition of my kids as “problems to be solved” just as I had often been considered by my parents, and it was not feeling good.  Is there another definition that would work better for me, I asked myself.  Again an alternative popped to mind – I think it came from heart.  “My kids are my only chance to experience the love between parents and children.”  That was something I could get behind and almost magically the stress disappeared and I was eager to go home.  Once home, when the kids knocked at the door to the bedroom, what walked in were not problems, but opportunities to express and receive love.  It remade Christmas for me.  Stress free.

ON NOW!

NPR & Local News :: 88.3 Ventura County :: 102.3 Santa Barbara :: A Service of California Lutheran University.

We are discovering that stress affects every aspect of human functioning – including cancer.

By Edd Hanzelik, MD

Today NPR profiled the work of three scientists who were just awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They discovered telomeres, which protect a cell's chromosomes from fusing with each other or rearranging—abnormalities which can lead to cancer.

Telomeres are the tiny bits of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect them from degradation. They play a major role in sustaining cancer cells and are expected to open the door to treatment of many diseases including loss of vision, cardiovascular disease, degenerative diseases of the nervous system and even skin wrinkles.

One of the new Nobel Laureates, Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD., has reported that chronic psychological stress and the perception of stress have an impact on  telomeres and on telomerase, the enzyme they discovered that controls  the production of telomeres.  You can read about it here:  Accelerated Telomere  Shortening in Response to Life Stress — http://www.pnas.org/content/101/49/17312.abstract

This is an amazing insight that will help us see how  stress affects so many diseases and brings on early signs of aging. We know that stress affects every system of the human body, but we are just beginning to understand all the ways in which this is carried out. Seeing the impact of stress on the telomeres is a major step in our awareness of  how stress has its immense impact on the functioning of the human body.

More for the curious (an excerpt from the NPR article):

"Blackburn discovered the molecular nature of telomeres, and her research lab now focuses on many different aspects of how telomeres work, including the relationship between accelerated telomere shortening and stress.

She has outlined a mind/body connection to disease through an enzyme that plays a key role in how cells function and age. Blackburn is studying how diet, exercise and decreasing stress may reduce the risk of disease and even reverse damage due to coronary artery disease.

In a 2006 study, her group found that low levels of telomerase, the enzyme that helps keeps telomeres intact, were associated with smoking, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and pre-diabetes. Her lab is now looking at whether interventions such as a very low-calorie diet or stopping smoking may help repair the damage caused by stress."

read the entire NPR article here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113491995

by staff blogger Jacquie Van Wagner

When Mike Wolpert first went to a Stress Seminar it was because his wife made him do it. This is often the case.  In one of the workshops, Mike was exposed to an Inner Game of Stress tool known as S.T.O.P. — which he immediately declared to be procrastination. The tool encourages us to step back, think, and organize before we proceed and, yes, the acronym is intentional.

This culture that expects us "to be better than every body at everything" frowns upon our unplugging, even on our own time. At home we check our email, and god forbid we should be separated from our blackberries! It's killing us, literally. But — here's a thought — it's as bad for our productivity as it is for our health. Even the bright minds at CareerBuilder.com are saying so, and recently CNN and HuffPo linked to this article by Anthony Balderrama which discusses advice like our very own S.T.O.P. tool in terms of  'cost benefit analysis.' Take a look–your email will still be there when you get back to it.

6 tips for lazy workers to get ahead

BTW–Mike Wolpert gave the S.T.O.P. tool a test drive–and he became one of its biggest fans. Check out our video page and he'll tell you about it.

John Horton, MD and Edd Hanzelik, MD will be interviewed by Jackie Foreman on Your Mental Health Radio, today- and you can listen live via the link above or download the podcast later. Great chance to hear the doctors talk, and you can call in with questions if you like, or go to www.blogtalkradio.com/yourmentalhealth<http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yourmentalhealth> to view their archives.

Your Mental Health Radio airs on AM/FM Radio WHAT (LOL airs worldwide on the Internet and can be downloaded through iTunes where it receives 30,000+ downloads a day.

Listen in — and let us know what you think!

by John Horton, MD

Yes – It's true!  The Inner Game of Stress is the top selling book at Vroman's bookstore this week.

Thanks to all of you who have sent notes and letters to us. We are proud to be Vroman' Best selling book this week.  I am very excited about speaking at Vroman’s Bookstore. on Sept. 24.

Not only is Pasadena my “city place” where I go to shop and walk around city streets, I love strolling the aisles at Vroman’s. It is so chock-full of amazing books and it is nice to see a bookstore surviving – and thriving – that isn’t a chain. I am also told that it was voted Bookseller of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly last year. Kudos to Vroman’s — I can definitely see why.

I am looking forward to seeing all of my Pasadena friends as well as my sister’s friends – she is a die-hard “Pasadenean” (and one of the authors of Hometown Pasadena).  Please come and join them:  I'll be talking about (and signing) the book, offering insights into stress and health, and answering as many questions as we have time for.

by Edd Hanzelik, MD

I recently did a radio interview with Lisa Belkov-Snyder (Live with Lisa KCKK-1510 AM near Denver) and she said , “It sounds to good to be true.” And, at first glance, it is too good to be true.  How can human beings who have been stressed for generations and are getting progressively more stressed possibly live without stress? It does not seem possible.

We have all felt our stress system kick in without our permission. I feel it especially in staff meetings or when giving a public talk. All of a sudden my heart is racing and pounding, my underarms are sweating, my gut is contracted. Since I am fascinated to understand stress, I enjoy stepping back and observing this involuntary response within me. I am gearing up to fight or run. I am like a ferocious tiger, sweaty, hot, ready to spring onto a prey.

But then I take a breath and remember, “I do not want to live in chronic stress.” I’ll take a STOP, one of the Inner Game tools. In the staff meeting, I might just start writing in my  notebook, asking myself the question, “What is affecting me?’ I’ll jot down anything that comes into my mind: my suggestion has been ignored, we’re discussing something I don’t agree with, this is going to cost too much, this lunch isn’t very good…..whatever comes into my mind.

Then I reflect on the list and circle what jumps out as most important: such as “my suggestion is being ignored.” I decide to bring my thought up again with a fresh twist. By this time, the pounding in my chest has subsided. A little clear reflection and the animal within me relaxes and goes back to sleep. And when it does, I have access to all sorts of inner resources that help me function creatively in the meeting without the inner stress: a built in stability, non-judgmental awareness, clarity, openness and a commitment to enjoy life.

Living in chronic stress is not an acceptable option. We are left irritable, angry, uncomfortable and tight. The doors to a host of diseases are wide open  within us. We are deprived by stress of our inalienable right to pursue happiness.

It may sound too good to be true, but read The Inner Game of Stress, and apply the exercises to your own self. You will discover it not only is true, it is also simple. You can experience for your self that it works, that you have within you the resources to handle the challenges of life without the stress.

Note:  click the link above or here to hear the interviews with Lisa and the Authors: Segment 3 – Tim Gallwey, Segment 4- Dr. Horton, Segment 4 – Dr. Hanzelik

By John Horton, M.D.

I went by Starbucks today to buy the New York Times, not the coffee, which is too bitter for my taste. I was greeted my friend Kalidas, who introduced me to his friend – the minister of the local Methodist church. Of course Kalidas and I talked about the book and the minister shared that he wrote his Ph.D thesis on stress in theology graduate school. The common ground of understanding, after a 10 minute conversation was this:

After a long hard day of doing something you really enjoy you get home very tired but not frustrated, afraid or in pain. You rest and wake up eager for another long hard day.

He made this distinction between hard challenging work and burn-out; burn-out comes when you are not enjoying what you do. You exhibit symptoms of stress, feel distant from people and it progresses to illness. His thesis research showed that over 50% of clergy suffer from burnout.

I was surprised. I wonder about the number for doctors…

We talked about our ability to stop, reflect and refresh our inner life. The minister preaches about this; trusting that our attraction to calm, beauty, joy and love is stronger than our adaptations to stress. He was happy to hear that the inner game tools teach reflection without cultural or spiritual concepts because we all need to evolve our inner lives.

Perhaps I can share our mutual understanding with his church from the scientific and medical perspective. We could call it The Truth About Stress, Challenge, Burnout and the Holy Ground of Enjoyment and Calm.

I will let you know if and when this talk takes place.