Your heart is racing. Your feet are pacing. Your mind is overwhelmed by what it is facing. Stress. You plow through it and your shoulders tense, or you decide to wait for a calm moment and end up missing an opportunity by sitting on the fence. Long term this daily grind can negatively impact more than just the mind, producing the wear and tear on our bodies that leads to the statistic “as many as 75 to 90% of all visits to primary care physicians result from stress related disorders.”(1) In one study published by the British Journal of Psychology, people who were unable to manage their stress had a 40% higher death rate than non-stressed individuals. (2) Many people think, when it comes to stress, there's nothing that one can do, but that is when Elixir can be a solution for you!

It used to be that “stress” was defined by the number of times a person needed to change focus in a given time period, and 10 times per hour was considered enough to create a high stress environment. Now, we have cell phones, pagers, fax machines, T.V.'s with split screens; it is common to be multitasking and changing focus within a single second! As a result, modern researchers have had to redefine stress as the cascade of physiology within our bodies that responds to how we perceive circumstances, as opposed to the circumstances themselves. “…the body's stress response encompasses more than 1400 known physical and chemical reactions and over thirty different hormones and neurotransmitters.” (3) It is common knowledge that our perceptions can be adversely affected by the stress response - “I was so angry I couldn't see straight!” This causes a vicious downward spiral of inaccurate perceptions and negative, imbalanced responses to them. How can one turn that energy around into a peak performance rebound? It is possible! Chinese Herbs and other tools can help. Here's how.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine the main organ that affects perception and “stress” is the heart. Modern science is just beginning to confirm this ancient knowledge, having discovered sensitive pathways they call “The brain in the heart,” or “neurocardiology.” Imagine the heart to be the baseline drum beat of an orchestra, the conductor determining the time signature and tempo of the entire performance. When the conductor keeps an impeccable, consistent rhythm, all the other players can easily follow and therefore do their part in subtle harmony with the rest to transport us into a melodic and beautiful world (in the case of your body, the players are the organ systems, sense perceptions, functional systems such as the immune and endocrine and nervous systems, etc.). With everything working together, your body gets the signal, “All is well,” and is able to put extra energy and attention into luxuries like opening the higher cortical centers of the brain for clear thinking, creativity, and innovation. In modern times, where our stressors are often psychological (like an important board meeting, or exam at school, or child raising challenge) higher brain function may seem more like a necessity than a luxury, but the problem is that our bodies don't know that. They do not know the difference between our aggravation in traffic when we are running late, and a saber tooth tiger chasing us for bait. Even if a stressor is not life threatening, when we react to it negatively our body gets the signal, “red alert!” In the stress reaction, the heart rhythm begins to race erratically. Suddenly the conductor of the orchestra is unpredictable! Imagine what the music sounds like now. With no coherent leader to follow, it is more like the cacophony of dissonant chaos as instruments are being tuned, instead of the lull of a beautiful Concerto. Noise in place of music is how the world can sound to you when you are stressed. In this, the fight or flight reaction, the lizard brain of survival will take over. Processes that are unnecessary for immediate survival (like digestion, sexual drive, higher brain function, etc.) shut down to maximize the efficiency of our effort to get away from the perceived threat as fast as possible. Many North Amercians live life from this stress response nearly all day every day. This ultimately taxes the kidneys and leads to adrenal insufficiency, chronic fatigue, and various forms of dementia and degenerative disease not to mention poor performance and just plain lousy quality of life. So many run themselves ragged and then wonder why they cannot think straight, have digestive problems, low sex drive, and early aging. “Americans alone consume five billion tranquilizers…and sixteen thousands tons of aspirin (not including ibuprofen and acetaminophen) every year.“ (4)

How did you feel the last time you were in a near car accident? How did you feel just now remembering it? Pause for a moment, and recall one of your favorite times in life. How did your body feel during that experience? How did it feel just now remembering it? If you're like most people, even thinking about an event from the past triggers the body to respond in a similar way. Nothing else in your environment likely changed in the few seconds it took to read those sentences, but your body went through a lot just by suggestive questioning, and what your body went through has impact on your ability to accurately perceive and perform. This is why it is useful advice to “sleep on it” if something is emotionally charged. Sleep gives the body the chance to unwind from the fight or flight stress response, so that your higher brain can reactivate and give you a new view on what to do. With herbs, acupuncture and other tools, it is possible to transform the confusion of stress on the spot without needing to wait for that good night sleep that can be hard to come by when one is under a lot of stress.

All of the energy we have invested in stressful perceptions can be re-routed back to the harmonious melody of life in the “flow”. Athletes, performers, and mystics refer to a place of flow sometimes called “The Zone”, that place where time seems to stand still and everything within us is working in perfect harmony with everything outside of us. Oriental Medicine offers that this dance of subtle nuance and higher intelligence- effortless mastery, ease and grace- is our birthright, and the higher goal of the healing arts rather than just “health.” This ancient healing art, combined with modern scientific research, offers us the following tools to use the very stress we feel as leverage to bring more of the “Zone” of success into our lives.

HERBS:
To keep the conductor of the orchestra strong and unswayed by surrounding chaos:
Elixir Formulas: DeStress Tonic and CardioTonic
Single Herbs: Salvia, American Ginseng, Astragalus, St. John's Wort

For Digestive Upset Due to Stress:
Elixir Formulas: Harmonizer and Digest Ease
Single Herbs: Ginger, Licorice, Orange Peel

For Insomnia Where One cannot fall asleep due to a racing mind:
Elixir Formulas: Ginseng and Longan Combination, Valerian Slumber Tonic
Single Herbs: Kava Root

For Irritability and Impatience with Others:
Elixir Formulas: Healer's Tea Tonic, Harmonizer
Single Herbs: Astragalus, Schizandra

Tension Headache:
Elixir Formulas: Flowing Energy, Tension Ease
Single Herbs: Peppermint

For Neck And Shoulder Tension:
Elixir Formulas: Pueraria Combination (Acute), Flex Ease (Chronic)
Single Herbs: Tumeric (Jiang Huang)

Low Sex Drive:
Elixir Formulas: Flowing Energy, Men's or Women's Essential Sex Tonic
Single Herbs: He Shou Wu

Chronic Fatigue, Low back Pain
Elixir Formulas: Deep Replenishing Tonic

ATTITUDE: GRATITUDE
First and Foremost, “Don't Sweat the Small Stuff.” Being cut off in traffic is not worth cutting a year or two off your life with stress hormones. Focus each day on the things in life that you love. Keep a list of things, people, and places that you appreciate, and look at it often. Add magic moments from every day to your list. Research has proven that positive emotions such as appreciation and care enhance the immune system, facilitate a coherent heart rhythm, and positively improve certain biomarkers for aging (5).

BREATHING:
The nervous system takes its cues largely from your breath, which takes its cues largely from your attitude and mind. Even if you are in a challenged spot, you can trick your nervous system into remaining calm by taking long, even rhythmic breaths, inhaling on a five count and exhaling on a five count (one typical yogic breathing). This will keep your mind clear and illicit from you the best and most effective response to any situation- literally your “inspiration”.

DIET:
Remember that your body will react to anything it perceives is life threatening. It doesn't know, when you skip a meal, that there is a grocery store down the block and you'll feed it later. It thinks- “Famine! Stress!” Eating as many as six small meals a day with some protein at each, and drinking at least 8-10 glasses of water per day keeps your body fueled with what it needs and prevents the “red alert!” crisis that inadvertently sabotages your mental capabilities and performance. Drinking enough water is essential. Water is one of the building blocks the body needs (along with sufficient B Vitamins and Antioxidants found in fresh fruits and vegetables) to buffer the impact of natural life stresses and maintain the body's delicate acid/base balance. Stimulants like caffeine and processed sugar amplify incoherence in the heart and can strongly aggravate the stress response.

TALK and TOUCH:
Research is showing that “talk” is not “cheap” and can, in the case of Breast cancer patients who join support groups, actually save lives. Make sure that you have someone with whom to share your life and concerns with, whether it is a spouse, family member, friend, or therapist. Forms of therapy that include bodywork, such as acupuncture, massage, polarity therapy, reiki, etc, are particularly beneficial. Human beings are tribal animals by nature: “no (hu)man is an island.” Your body and mind feel better with physical and emotional contact and support.

EXERCISE and MEDITATION:
While exercise can be a great stress release, for many North Americans it has become an added stress they put on their bodies, driving and pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion in the name of health. Gentle exercises such as Yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gong and meditation are favored from the Oriental Medical point of view, but even these will offer an only temporary relief when you step outside the meditation hall into a traffic jam. The real task is to manage our perceptions of life events so that we don't build up a lot of stressful energy in our systems to begin with. To this end, HeartMath® , a research institute in Boulder Creek, CA, has developed fabulous (resources?) games, tools, literature and technologies for all ages to learn how to master the stress response, based on their fifteen years of scientific research. They may be reached at (800) 450-9111 or www.heartmath.com <http://www.heartmath.com>

About the Author:
Sheva Carr is a licensed doctor of Oriental Medicine, Polarity Therapy practitioner, and Licensed HeartMath® Peak Performance Coach. The questions, “How can I help? How can I best serve myself and my world?” led her from her tiny home town in Nova Scotia to a world tour Bachelor's degree at four universities (including Carnegie Mellon and Yale School of Drama) in four countries (including Costa Rica and Nicaragua) in four years. After spending a year working with street children doing theatre in Central America, her passion to be of service to them combined with her own illness led her on a journey to receive a Master's Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from Yo San University. She has a private practice in Santa Monica, California and works with people all over the world integrating into her work her study of nearly all the world's spiritual practices, five languages, and years of experience in the arts (acting, writing, dancing). She is particularly sought after as a consultant to those in the media, music, and financial industries. She also works as a One-on-One Trainer and Corporate Sales Associate for HeartMath®, has co-founded a non-profit organization for street children and prostitutes in Nicaragua, and works with women and children in Afghanistan through the AYS. Her writings have appeared in diverse publications from “Perspectives in Biology and Medicine” to “The Kabbalah Magazine” and “The HeartMath Solution”. She is a collaborator on several film projects intended to bring consciousness and spiritual transmission through the media, and is most known in the healing community for her unique and radical work at instantly transforming illness through the clearing and rewriting of beliefs in the nervous system. All of her work is an expression of an integral commitment to contribute to a paradigm shift from a human culture of chronic recovery, to one of infinite expansion, creativity, and discovery.
Footnotes:

1. Rosch, P. Job stress: America's leading adult health problem. USA Today, May 1991 pp.42-44
   
2. Eyseneck, H.J. Personality, stress, and cancer: prediction and prophylaxis. British Journal of Medical Psychiatry. 1988;61 (pt.1):57-75.
   
3. Childre, Doc and Martin, Howard. The HeartMath Solution, Harper Collins Publishers:1999, p 55.
   
4. Wayne, D. Reactions to Stress. In: Identifying Stress, a series offered by the Health-Net & Stress Management Web Site, February, 1998.
   
5. Childre, Doc and Martin, Howard. The HeartMath Solution, Harper Collins Publishers:1999.
   

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