WED 257

1

• WED 257
• Kinetic Meditation

Kinetic Meditation and Stress Management
II Stressful Things
2

• Pioneers of the scientific investigation of
  stress.
• Walter Cannon (early 20th Century)
• Physiologist
• Harvard Medical School

• Cannon was the first to identify the stress
  reaction as the fight-or-flight response.
• In todays society, the fight-or-flight response
  itself has become a threat to health.

3

• Hans Selye
• Endocrinologist
• The Stress of Life
• Specified the changes in the bodys physiology
  that occurred in the stress response.
• Enlargement of the cortex of the adrenal glands.

• Shrinkage or atrophy of the thymus, spleen, lymph
  nodes, and other lymphatic structures.
• Almost total disappearance of eosinophil cells (a
  kind of white blood cell)
• Bleeding ulcers in the lining of the stomach and
  duodenum.

4

• General Adaptation Syndrome
• Phase 1 - Alarm Reaction
• The body shows the changes characteristic of the
  first exposure to a stressor. Its resistance is
  diminished.

• Phase 2 - Stage of Resistance
• Resistance ensues if continued exposure to the
  stressor is compatible with adaptation. The
  bodily signs characteristic of the alarm reaction
  have virtually disappeared, and resistance rises
  above normal.

5

• Phase 3 - Stage of Exhaustion
• Following long-continued exposure to the same
  stressor, to which the body had become adjusted,
  eventually adaptation energy (Qi, Ase) is
  exhausted. The signs of the alarm reaction
  reappear, but now they are irreversible, and the
  individual dies.

• Stress
• The non-specific response of the body to any
  demand made upon it.
• Eustress - stress from good things.
• Distress - stress from bad things.

6

• A.T.W. Simeons
• Mans Presumptuous Brain
• Related evolution to psychosomatic disease.
• The human Brain (the diencephalon) had failed to
  develop at the pace needed to respond to symbolic
  stressors of 20th Century life.

• Example
• If your self-esteem is threatened at a public
  speaking opportunity, neither fight nor flight is
  an appropriate response. Yet,
• The body has prepared itself physiologically to
  do something our psychology prohibits.
• The unused stress products break down the body
• Psychosomatic Disease

7

• Other Research
• Stewart Wolf - Digestive Function
• Lawrence Leshan - Cancer
• George Engel - Ulcerative Colitis
• Meyer Friedman Ray Rosenmann - Coronary Heart
  Disease
• Wolf Wolff - Headaches

• Relaxation Response - A series of bodily changes
  that bare the opposite of the stress reactions.
• Autogenic Training - Involves a sensation of
  heaviness, warmth, and tingling in the limbs.
• Progressive Relaxation - Involves contracting and
  relaxing muscle groups throughout the body.

8

• A Buddhist View of Stressful Things

A Taoist View of Stressful Things
Discussion