“Are They OUT IN LEFT FIELD About the Definition of STRESS?”

The definition of stress differs very much between Chinese medicine and Western medicine. So for people studying and trying to treat stress in Western medicine there’s a great deal of confusion and INEFFECTIVENESS in their treatment of stress. The “solutions” vary from soaking in a warm bath and lighting scented candles, to doing yoga, meditation, and deep breathing. Now some of these solutions may work very well but most don’t. Or it may take you a VERY long time to get to that good consistent place of calmness. The opposite of stressed.

So, let’s look at stress and its affects on you from two perspectives: modern medicine and Chinese medicine.

Here’s the definition of stress from conventional wisdom. They say that stress is your total response to environmental demands or pressures. It is also the result of interactions between you and your environment that you perceive as straining or exceeding your adaptive capacities. They may threaten your well being.

Western medicine thinks that your negative emotions are THE evidence of stress. So they tell you that if you’re feeling:

• Anxious
• Nervous
• Distracted
• Very worried
• Internal pressure

Then, as stress level increases, or if it lasts over a longer period of time, you start experiencing things like:

• Excessive fatigue.
• Depression.
• Sometimes even think of hurting yourself or others.
• Headaches.
• Nausea and vomiting.
• Diarrhea.
• Chest pain or pressure.
• Heart racing.
• Dizziness or flushing.
• Tremulousness or restlessness.
• Hyperventilation or choking sensation.

Modern medicine is definitely correct when they say that excessive and prolonged exposure to stress creates disease. So they have proven something that we’ve known for thousands of years. BUT they’ve got the mechanism wrong.

When I first learned in my Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine course about how negative emotions create problems I was astounded. Here I was thinking for so many decades how important and only important diet and exercise are and then I heard this and BOOM! I knew right away this was the missing link!

The real definition of stress? Stress is the inability to let go of negative feelings. When these negative feelings reside in your mind for a very long time, you experience stress.

Stress isn’t just stress in Chinese medicine!

Stress isn’t the reason for your negative feelings. It’s the other way around. You observe something and then you choose how you feel about it. If you like what you see you’re happy. If you don’t like what you see, you feel “pain” or dislike of some sort. That’s what a negative emotion is all about. But bottom line, it’s how you feel and HOW LONG the feeling lasts that matters.

It’s the pain of your inability to let go. Your emotions are meant to last only a short time. Then you move on. Your emotions are meant to be short-lived, but what do you do with them? Do you relive those awful moments over and over in your mind, thus creating more negative emotions and perpetuating a past experience?