When I was growing up, I don’t remember there being much laughter at home. I don’t remember my parents having a good time. I can isolate the memory of my father’s laughter, but it is generally associated with someone else. We had relatives who visited, neighbors who stopped by or someone at the church my father might be talking with.
I believe he had a great sense of humor, which I became familiar with as an adult, but I truly don’t remember fun times in our household. I grew up believing the world was a heavy place filled with stress, burdens, anger, frustration and lots of unpleasantness. But as a child, I didn’t know it should have been any different than it was. I accepted my life as being ordinary, what was, was. I created my own fantisy world.
I developed stories about people and places that would in turn serve me well as I grew up and began to write stories. I created a world through my dreams where I was safe, loved, cared for and even treasured as someone’s little girl. I looked forward to going to sleep, unlike most children, because it where I was in control.
Every time they experience stress, they are to flick their wrists. I even have them practice so they will get used to the feeling and how it interrupts the stress patterns.
Stress is the number one killer of people in the United States. It causes all types of illnesses; the most common is heart disease, ulcers, insomnia, rashes and even cancer has been attributed to how much stress people experience, according to Dr. Bernie Siegel.
Most naturopathic medical doctors now freely recommend meditation, yoga, vigorous exercise and deep breathing exercises to minimize the levels of stress their patient’s experience.
I have a friend, Dr. Naras Bhat in Concord hook me up to a biofeedback machine to show me the results of the stress I was experiencing, I had developed insomnia and was sleep no more than an hour at a time. My autonomic nerve system was nearly non existent. Without an autonomic nerve system there is no fight or flight warning system. I spilled a pot of boiling water on my hand but didn’t feel it. I would walk into doorways thinking my physical body was about six inches to the left of where it actually was.
I had a lot of experience with stress. I was very good at creating it. I had a great teacher, my mother. She was always worried about everything. If there wasn’t something to worry about she would worry because there wasn’t anything to worry about.
