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The JOY of STRESS All my life I have been attracted to adventure - Mount Everest, overland to the South Pole, driving jet boats up the lengths of the Ganges River, and a multitude of other challenges. There has always been an element of danger- but if there hadn't been, I doubt if I would have gone to the trouble. Danger is stimulating and makes the effort worthwhile. So in a way, I have enjoyed stress, and life would have been rather boring without it. In reading The Joy of Stress, I was relieved to find that my involvement in stress has probably been to my medical benefit. Peter Hanson's approach to stress is very different. It is refreshing, positive, and practical. If I had the courage to try myself against all his recommended plans, I would probably fail miserably. But I have the feeling that his program for managing stress will enable most people to live a happier and longer life and they'll be a little more successful, too.
In the years I have known Peter as a friend, I have noticed that he practices what he preaches. Peter is quite a "goer, " who seems to thrive on stress. As a busy family doctor, entertaining public speaker, author, publisher, and fund raiser, he always tries to achieve excellence. Yet he still finds time for his young family and for energetic sporting and musical relaxation. Peter believes it is far better to actively master the stresses in one's life than to be oppressed by them. His principles can help all of us to be successful and still enjoy life to its fullest. -Sir Edmund Hillary
Preface In this age of open heart surgery and laser therapy, you would dunk maximum life expectancies would be rising dramatically They are not. In spite of our "high tech" miracle cures, most of our elderly today die at about the same ages they would have died a hundred years ago, when medicine was very primitive. What are we doing wrong? For one thing, we tend to think that good health and a long life are acquired passively (that is, we can ignore our health until something "breaks" and then leave the rescue up to the doctors). However, in fact, they demand active participation as individuals. Secondly, we face complex and well-disguised new stresses today. These require a thoughtful, informed defense, and can no longer be left to our unthinking reflexes. As a family practitioner, I see not only what kind of disease each patient has, but what kind of patient each disease has. When someone falls ill with a heart attack, dies of lung cancer, or simply seems to be catching one virus after another, it is wrong to simply blame "bad luck." A common factor often emerges in these cases of hardship: simple mismanagement of their own lives, usually in response to stress. In spite of the hundreds of books on stress, health, accident prevention, nutrition, obesity, success, and motivation, most people still don't manage themselves correctly. This is reflected not only in the death and illness statistics, but in the quality of people's daily lives, and perhaps most dramatically in the huge loss of profits to the business community, estimated to be tens of billions of dollars annually. Many books written to date are largely the result of work by specialists-cardiologists, As a family practitioner I am privileged to have a unique window on the practical aspects of people's lives. I have delivered over one thousand babies and seen over twenty thousand people in the emergency department. My office practice is busy I have over four thousand patients, and see up to fifty per day-in the office, in the hospital, and yes, even on house calls. As well, I've spoken to thousands of people in meetings around the world, and discussed their questions and concerns with them. As in most family practices, my patients range in age from newborns to centenarians. just as an experienced teacher has a fair idea which students will excel and which will fail, the busy family doctor has insight into which patients will live long, healthy lives. just as clearly, he or she can spot the ones destined for shortened, less productive lives. I've given my advice and seen it work consistently if heeded. I've also tilted at a few "windmills" when I knew my advice had fallen on deaf ears. I've seen the grief in the eyes of a young mother when I told her that her husband's sudden chest pain had claimed his life. I've had to console two young children whose parents were gone forever because they didn't fasten their seat belts. I've seen the shocked look on the face of the cancer victim who knew all about the risks of the cigarettes he was smoking, but didn't think they were affecting him. I don't mean to imply that all deaths can be prevented, or-as in the case of childhood cancers-even explained. But a casino can thrive by stacking the odds just a little in its favor. You owe it to yourself and to those who love you, to stack all the odds you can in your own favor. It is the objective of this book to help you turn the tables-to do your part in shattering the current life expectancy and productivity statistics. This book will give you practical advice that you can put to work immediately and continue to use forever. (Short bursts of well intentioned enthusiasm followed by regression into a life of bad habits are not the answer.) To begin at the beginning, we will review your basic anatomy. Under stress, certain physiological changes take place. Unless you understand these, they could be to your detriment. Second, you must identify and measure the stresses that are facing you. Many of them are well hidden. Unless recognized, they cannot be conquered. Third, you win learn how to rate your own resistance to your stresses. Find out if you are "bulletproof" or a "sitting duck." If you are the latter, you will see how to make ten simple choices to maximize your resistance to the effects of stress. Next comes a brief consideration of the subject of nutrition: a simple bodily requirement that has spawned an annoying litany of silly to downright dangerous "fad" diets. We will discuss obesity, and a workable approach to learning to eat normally. After seeing all the failures experienced by readers of popular diet books, I realized that a simple solution was necessary. The approach that I recommend is one that can be followed for a lifetime, without hardship, and without having to say good-bye to your favorite foods forever. Moving on through the book, we review the subject of self-induced stress (Type A behavior). New insights into conquering it are presented. Are you a success? If not, you will probably shorten your financial horizons and your productive life span. With the help of this book, measure your success in the quadrants of finances, personal fife, health, and job. Find out how you rate. Learn Hanson's Three Principles to cope with your stresses and pamper yourself at the same time. See how others fail to solve problems by blaming the uncontrollable. See if you can do better, by concentrating on the controllable truths behind the excuses. It is my hope that this book will entertain, teach, and motivate you to achieve a long lifetime of prosperity and good health.
Introduction What’s so joyful about stress? Stress is an individual reaction. A single event, for example speaking to a large audience, can give a positive stress to one person, and a negative stress to another. Stress can be fantastic. Or it can be fatal. It's all up to you. As well as respecting the dangers of stress, you can learn to harness its benefits. Olympic records are not set on the quiet training tracks, but only with the stress of competition-in front of huge crowds. The most efficient work done by a student is often during the stress of facing a deadline for a term paper or exam. The most electric performances don't come out of actors during rehearsals; they occur when the curtain rises before a live audience. The best performance of a trapeze artist will probably be without the safety net. Serious poker players will play only if significant amounts of money are bet on each hand. With only pennies or toothpicks at stake, the stress of losing is gone, but so too is the intense concentration, the enjoyment of bluffing, and the excitement of winning. Many people with sedate working lives actively seek stress in the form of parachuting, cliff climbing, downhill skiing, horror movies or simply riding a roller coaster. Such stresses bring more joy into their lives.
Too little stress can be just as disastrous. The sudden silence gained by retiring from a demanding job into a life of idleness usually causes death or senility within two years, unless new stresses and interests can be found. Some retirees find, to their chagrin, that little tasks they used to do well during a busy working day now take all week to complete. What's more, they often end up being done poorly. As you can see from the graph, increasing stress serves to increase efficiency toward its maximum. Up to this point, it is correct to use the old adage, "If you want something done, ask a busy person.” However, past the critical line, your efficiency rapidly falls, even to below zero. This means that, with too much stress, you can actually become counterproductive-worse than useless! If you are close to this critical line, then even the addition of a minor task to your hectic schedule (for example, tying first dung Monday morning to find where your dog buried your car keys) could be enough to push you past your peak. When you are in that state, even things you normally do well will be beyond your grasp. If you are in the area of too little stress, you should say "yes" to extra duties at home or at work or in your recreation. You could say "yes” to a more expensive house, if you need one, assuming that this is a good investment. Such extra responsibilities will add needed stress, and can improve your overall efficiency (and happiness) dramatically.
Strive to maximize success by investing your energy and time in all four quadrants of your life-financial sufficiency, personal happiness, sound health, and respect on the job. (See Chapter 9.) Once you have mastered these life management skills, you will come to know the true joy of Stress. As an added bonus, you will extend your good years longer than you thought possible and your financial success to new heights. That's all there is to it. You don't need to buy expensive food supplements or throw your money into complicated health schemes. However ... it doesn't always come easily. For many of you, making strong choices instead of weak ones will take tremendous courage, at least initially. But after you become used to the strong choices, the weak ones win become less and less attractive. Why don't most people do it correctly? The answer, unfortunately, is unconscious incompetence, and an ill-concealed hostility to anyone who threatens their sacred "vices. " The common view is that the only way to succeed against stress and to achieve longevity is to live a monastic life of dullness, self-denial, and rigid discipline. Not only is this view wrong, it is a strong part of the justification of the wrong lifestyle. Not only do most people perceive stress as a negative factor; they perceive stress management in a negative way.
However, nothing could be more misguided. What I am advocating to each of my patients and to you the reader is to be selfish: get everything you can-out of life, for as long as you can. Be spontaneous. Be funny. Eat normal foods. Enjoy a drink of alcohol, beer, or wine if you wish. Run or ride with the wind in your hair. Be proud of your fit body and enjoy each stride with your children and their children.
Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who helped make this book possible. In particular: Jim O'Donnell, for getting me started, and Glenn Miller, for getting me finished; George Hanson, M. B. E., for his fatherly advice and help in photocopying manuscripts; my patient secretaries, Theresa and Faye, and my patient patients; my editors, Elma Schemenatier and Donna Martin and the fantastic team at Andrews and McMeel; and Barrie Maguire for his creative artwork and layout. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who advised me to have positive dreams, and then follow Acknowledgment is also given to the McGraw-Hill Book Company for permission to use the General Adaptation Response from The Stress of Life by the late Dr. Hans Selye; to Pergamon Press, Ltd., for permission to use the Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale; and to Larry Wilson, of the Wilson Learning Corporation, Minneapolis, for permission to use the Social Style Summary and Guideline for Recognition (Appendix A). |
Too much stress, however, can become a negative force. Let's consider some examples. With the additional worry of an assassination attempt, the Olympic high jumper might not even get off the ground. After a traumatic breakup with his girlfriend, the outstanding student could very well fail his exam due to inability to concentrate. After three weeks of being nit-picked, humiliated, and shrieked at by a lunatic director, even the best actor might have trouble avoiding a substandard performance.
If you are in the area of too much stress, part of the solution will be learning how to say "no." In this book I will give you some additional tips on harnessing your own potentials and skills to shore up your defenses. These include: trimming inessential activities such as volunteer work, serving on committees, and even perhaps some maintenance jobs around the house; learning to delegate where possible. If your lifestyle is bankrupting you, come down a peg. Consider moving to a smaller place, selling the frills, and simplifying your life. 
To know the joy of Stress, know thyself. Seek skills that suit your aptitudes during your learning years; and seek activities that use your skills for the rest of your life. Assess your stresses, and then make the right choices to become resistant to them instead of vulnerable. (See the Hanson Scale of Stress Management, Chapter 3.)
They can barely contain a smirk when they read about someone dying while jogging. This seems to justify their sloth, as they butt their cigarettes into their emptied coffee cups.
Continue to learn. Take time to use all your senses to soak up the beauties of color, texture, sound, and smell. Conduct your affairs with integrity. Earn the respect of your peers, the loyalty of your friends, and the love of your children and spouse. Push back the boundaries of senility, and extend your productive prime years as far as you can. This is THE JOY OF STRESS.