Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog

CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS: THE BODY’S OWN TIME ZONERecently a patient of mine, an advertising account representative in her thirties, described herself as being “absolutely, positively incapable of functioning until noon on Monday.” Unfortunately, her boss insisted on scheduling crucial management planning sessions at ten o’clock on Monday mornings. More so than most people, she found that time difficult, especially after an active weekend of socializing. She felt that her “Monday blues” had caused her to miss out on a much-desired promotion. I suggested that it was her weekend schedule that was affecting her job performance. Working together, we formulated a plan that involved a carefully regulated schedule of weekend bedtime (midnight or 1:00 A.M., depending on how sleepy she felt) and, more important, a strict rising time of 8:00 A.M. on Saturday and Sunday. Although such a schedule demanded compromises in her social life, she found that with the support of her sympathetic lover she was able to implement the plan and stick to it. Monday mornings are considerably less difficult, she reports, although she admits “it is still hard to smile at anyone until ten-thirty at the earliest.” Why did this adaptation work?Most people possess a natural, twenty-five-hour circadian clock which they must constantly adjust to life based on the twenty-four-hour reality of the earth’s rotation. Realistically7 this arrangement means we generally go to bed an hour earlier than our bodies would prefer. Come the weekend, however, we are usually freed from any imposed schedules and tend to go to bed an hour or so later on Friday night and perhaps two hours later on Saturday. On Sunday night, knowing we have to work in the morning, we return to a conventional cycle. We try to force ourselves to sleep at perhaps eleven o’clock when our bodies, spoiled by indulgence in the previous forty-eight hours, would rather turn in closer to two or three o’clock. Thus we drag ourselves out of bed Monday morning at seven, after perhaps eight hours in bed but about four hours earlier than our circadian “factory manager” would prefer. No wonder the “Monday morning blues” are such a common phenomenon!*95\226\8*

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STRESS BREAKDOWN: LEARNING/UNLEARNING NEURONES AND INHIBITION
I didn’t have to learn how to sneeze, breathe, cry, swallow, blink or smile at my mother when I was a newborn baby. I didn’t have to learn how to do these things and I am not really able to forget how to do them. I can choose to inhibit or try to inhibit these reflexes, but I can’t really forget them.On the other hand, I did have to learn how to write my name, how to speak English, and how to tie my shoelaces. These things I can forget if I neglect to practice them daily.The nerve cells involved in learning must also have the capacity for forgetting, otherwise real learning would not be possible. If it were otherwise, we would never be able to learn from our experiences, forgetting the wrong and remembering the right way of doing something.Built-in knowledge, such as knowing how to blink in response to sudden movement in front of the eyes, is not able to be forgotten in the same way as we forget algebra we learned at school. Usually, this built-in knowledge is handled by brain-cell networks in different areas of the brain from those that contain the learning /unlearning brain cells, which have the capacity to learn and forget as well.It is the learning / unlearning brain cells which have their function disturbed by excessive stress.These learning/unlearning cells are usually situated in the cerebral cortex, the folded outer layer that we call the outer grey matter of the brain; these cells are able to be stimulated or inhibited by the reticular activating system as being responsible for the willpower, and which is also responsible for the selective attention mechanism.It is important to know that these learning/unlearning brain cells can be either stimulated or inhibited by the reticular activating system, because it is often the over-stimulation of the learning/unlearning cells by the reticular activating system that provokes the switching off phenomena responsible for third stage stress breakdown symptoms.I hope my explanations have made it possible for the reader to see how a person experiencing excessive stress, and who attempts to ignore the warning signals of persistent anxiety and loss of emotional control, could so over-stimulate the cells of the brain cortex as to require the brain cortex to protect itself by switching off overloaded circuits. It is this switching off in response to excessive stress that causes the symptoms of third stage stress breakdown.
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How do we make use of this spotlight to control our thoughts. Our mind has an anxious area as well as a relaxing area. If we focus on the anxious area, we feel anxious, but if we actively focus on the relaxing area, we feel relaxed. When you feel anxious, do nothing about it, just direct the spotlight back to the relaxing area. Present repeatedly to yourself relaxing ideas, and ignore the anxious feelings. We cannot focus our single spotlight on relaxing and anxious ideas at the same time. In other words, we cannot feel relaxed and anxious at the same time. Remember, thought control is an active exercise; you have to put that spotlight repeatedly on the relaxing ideas. Do not reject anxious ideas, as the mere thought of rejection means focusing on them. Ignore them and they will disappear spontaneously.

In highway hypnosis, your focus is on the highway. Even if you take your eyes off the highway for a moment, you have to focus your attention back on the highway repeatedly. This is like darkening the theatre and the stage, so that the surrounding activities are ignored and the spotlight is focused on the highway alone. The shift from the awake state to the THS is quite natural for many people, but not for those who suffer from chronic insomnia. During the THS, the stage is dim and the spotlight is on some non-threatening and non-anxious part of the mind. Arousal messages are no longer sent to the sleep centre. The sleep centre takes over, and we drift into sleep.

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Different people react in different ways when they are confronted with pain. The way we react is important, as it has its effect on how we feel the pain, both in its severity and its duration. There are two very common types of reaction: the hostile and the depressive. Both have a bad effect and make the pain worse. These reactions come about unconsciously without our thinking about them, but a little understanding can do much to modify them, and thus help in the

self-management of the pain.

The Hostile Reaction to Pain-”Why should this happen to me?” We hear these words often enough. It means the patient is reacting with hostility to the situation in which he finds himself. He feels that what he is suffering is an injustice. He is angry about it. and because there is no appropriate way for him to vent his anger he has to contain it. This results in an increase in his general level of anxiety. There is increased tension and increased perception of pain.

You have done nothing wrong. Do you think that some of these remarks could apply to yourself? If so, remember that we do not expect this sort of justice in other spheres of life. Perhaps we can expect something grander and deeper. Remember too, we strive for understanding; and when we can understand that some things transcend conventional logic, then we have come to understand something important indeed.

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Frigidity

«I just can’t make it. I try and try, but I can’t. It used to come so easily. Our sex together used to be one of the happiest parts of our life. Natural. I’ve lost something. Something within me, and I’ve lost it. Try and try. Sweat and sweat. Then try to pretend it has come. Hopeless. Restless. Can’t sleep. Sometimes cry. »

Stress increases our level of anxiety. Anxiety prepares us to act. In preparing us to act, our anxiety inhibits those functions of our body which are not required for the immediate situation demanding that we fight or run away. It can be seen that this reaction would be biologically to our advantage in some acute crisis. Then when the stress of the crisis is passed, anxiety subsides, and normal bodily function returns. If, however, the stress continues, and anxiety becomes chronic, our bodily functions may remain disordered.

Of course an underlying fear of pregnancy or loss of love for one’s partner may add to the effect of stress. In cases that are not complicated by these factors, the frigidity often responds quite dramatically to the relief of the stress by relaxing meditation. In it there is not only the reduction of the inhibiting effect of the underlying anxiety, but the patient is also helped by the letting go which is experienced in relaxing meditation. A letting go, not only of the muscles, but also of the mind, and in fact a letting go of one’s whole being. This kind of experience helps free the nervous connections for the letting go of orgasm.

Loss of sex desire

«Used to look forward to sex. It was a great part of our lives together. Now just don’t seem to care. Not opposed to it. Just disinterested. Couldn’t care less. A kind of thing you do. That’s about all there is to it. Loss of desire. »

It is not uncommon for both men and women to talk like this. When we come under chronic stress, the underlying anxiety inhibits the free flow of our emotions. The person under chronic stress is not easily aroused to happiness, joy or laughter. In the same way both men and women are not so easily aroused in sexual desire.

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“Not by the asking. Just by the circumstances. By act of God, if you like. To me it is an inescapable fact. We are the custodians of this earth where we live. Custodianship is thrust upon us. We are custodians of our children, custodians of our mate in life. Men of old accepted custodianship of water, lest the streams be polluted. Peasants care for the earth, letting the land lie fallow. Custodianship is a law of nature. If we break the law, we alienate our children, our mate grows weak, our water is polluted and the earth becomes barren.

‘They say I am obsessed with it. That is all right. They say it’s a burden that is not for me to carry. Carry it I will. As much of it as I can. But that is not the trouble.

‘The trouble is the disturbance within me. So disturbed, so worried I cannot carry as much of the burden as I would wish.”

Many of us have our philosophical burdens. Some are burdened with the materialistic philosophy of how best to keep the economy of the country running profitably. Others ponder their own particular philosophy of God and religion. But this is a ‘greenie’ pondering the preservation of the earth. It is well for all of us that these matters are thought out and worked through. But if our preoccupation becomes too disturbing to us, it forms a background of stress. And, of course, if we become stressed our ability to deal with such matters is reduced.

Some other interests. If we are entirely preoccupied with one subject we lack breadth of vision. We become too intense, and the background for the development of stress is itself intensified.

A quiet time, letting our mind run quietly. A little each day. And our coping ability is so much the better. And fun!

The experience of fun helps our brain integrate the messages. Fun with our fellows, even for a little while, and the problems of it all do not seem so great. Not so great because our brain is handling things better.

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