Stress Management Redefined
Purpose: To Expose & Disempower A Killer (Yes, Killer)
If you want temporary relief, you have the wrong book – Stress Management Redefined is about getting you to the mental and emotional state where you can think clearly enough to violently rip out the roots of stress in riotous glory calmly displace stressors in serene victory. I want to help you defeat the stress in your life. But first, you should know that it isn’t just to make you feel better – it’s to save your life. I’m not being dramatic. You’re right – I am a little bit – but do not take stress lightly (or stressfully) because scientific evidence confirms that stress kills.
Shoelaces and Telomeres
Shoelaces are a type of twine. Ok, that wasn’t very relevant to stress, but I’m going somewhere with this. Shoelaces are twine held together at both ends by plastic pieces called aglets. Their purpose is to keep shoelaces from fraying at the ends and looking weird/being unusable. There is something else of great importance that has very similar characteristics to this shoelace/aglet relationship. Can you guess from the following photo?
You guessed (in)correctly! This is a picture of human chromosomes – which are chains of DNA – and yeah, they’re very important as you may know. And what of those little white dots you see at the end of the chromosomes? Those are called telomeres. Telomeres are to chromosomes as aglets are to shoelaces – they both prevent “fraying.” Telomeres act as a buffer to protect the ends of the chromosomes.
“The primary purpose of telomeres is to prevent both ends of the chromosomes from degenerating.” (source)
Unfortunately, this is where stress comes in… Stress does nasty things to us even at the cellular level. It shortens/destroys our vitally important telomeres. Generally, that’s bad news and is associated with faster aging. Specifically, it seems to be deadly news.
“Studies have found shortened telomeres in many cancers, including pancreatic, bone, prostate, bladder, lung, kidney, and head and neck. In addition, people with many types of cancer have been found to possess shorter leukocyte telomeres than healthy controls.” (Wikipedia – original source is the Journal of the American Medical Association)
In a different study that focused on spouses taking on the stressful job of caring for partners with dementia, the results were very convincing when compared to those of similar age without that stressful job. Of the 119 stressed caregivers, 78 died during the survey. In a response to the outcome of the study, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser was quoted:
“This really makes a link to why chronic stress can actually kill people,” said Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University. “We haven’t had a good mechanism before.”
She explained that people under stress tend to respond by doing things that can increase their levels of IL-6. Previous studies have associated IL-6 with several diseases, including heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, type-2 diabetes and certain cancers. For example, they may smoke or overeat; smoking raises IL-6 levels, and the chemical is secreted by fat cells. Stressed people also may not get enough exercise or sleep, she added. Exercise reduces IL-6, she said, and normal sleep helps regulate levels of the chemical. It clearly points to the need to control stress better. (source – CBS news)
Most stress advice is to exercise, get sleep, squeeze a ball, eat well, relax, etc. Do you see the problem with that? The lack of those good things is caused by stress. To do them and not address the underlying stressors is a very difficult, constant fight (one that is likely to stress you out). We need to find the stressors and do something about them.
Baboons
A few months ago I watched a fascinating National Geographic documentary called Stress – Portrait Of A Killer (watch it for free on Netflix). The documentary followed neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky of Stanford as he studied a baboon troop over a period of 2-3 decades. The baboons with more stress were found to have shortened telomeres. When a disease struck the troop from eating infected meat – the most stressed baboons died while the others survived. An interesting side note is that the alpha males were the ones that died. The beta males and females survived. Sapolsky said the supportive bonding of the beta males and females activated the regrowth of telomeres with the enzyme known as telomerase. Stress was the deciding factor of life or death for the troop. In summary: Stress shortens telomeres, and shortened telomeres can kill you.
Are You Motivated To De-stress Now?
I have seen stress wreak havoc on people I love and I needed to show you how serious stress is. BUT… this book will not be a boring one. I’m going to show you how to eliminate stress while simultaneously entertaining you. I imagine the worst way to write a book about how to manage stress is to write it like an academic textbook (boring – formal – wordy), so I didn’t do that. The topic is not light-hearted, but don’t think I won’t try to make you laugh. You may have noticed that this digital book is completely free. The three reasons I’m giving it away for free are love, hope, and want…
- I love to help others and this is a universal problem
- I hope you will share it so that others can benefit from it
- I want to promote my writing and blog by giving away a quality product
Get ready to have fun, read some funny stories, and peacefully stroll towards stress-freedom. Enjoy!
Introduction
After reading Stress Management Redefined, you will…
- Be able to prevent some stress before it happens
- Dispel stress masterfully when it does occur
- Think clearly in the midst of chaos
Is this really proven? Personally, I have used these methods to great success. I even documented the success of using this guide for a personal situation that I wrote about as it was happening. You’ll read about it later.
The Inspiration To Write About Stress
When I decided to write my first digital book, I had a few topic ideas in mind. Before I could decide on one – life decided for me… It was a bout of financial stress. It caught me off guard because it hit me suddenly – the day I checked my financial accounts. After I checked my accounts and saw the fruits of unemployment, my immediate reaction was to panic in the most unproductive way possible. I was stressed.
I found myself welling up with anxiety and anger as I questioned why I was in this position. How could my situation be so terrible? Thoughts of unspecific doom assaulted my mind like famished piranhas attacking a piece of bloodied meat. What was I going to do? I started asking questions… “Wait a second here…Why did I get stressed out? Why does stress even exist? How do I make it stop!?“ Like most .01% of people, I wrote a book to answer those questions.
Our brains are incredible, yet…stupid?
Stress exists for one main purpose – to provoke us to take action – and it does that effectively in many instances. For example, when we see a masked man with a knife running towards us – a very stressful situation – stress does a pretty decent job at motivating us to RUN FAST (away from knifey boy unless you’re Bruce Lee). While stress works well in immediate action scenarios, there was absolutely nothing I could do about my situation when I was hit with stress. I was driving home. Should I have pulled over immediately and started asking people for money? It depends on who was walking by. Should I have totaled my car to get insurance money? Hey, whatever it takes man. Most of the stressful situations we find ourselves in are not quick fixes – and stress only works well for quick fixes (e.g. RUN!). I could not do anything to change my stressful situation while driving home. A smart brain would have at least waited until I could write something down.
Dear brain, stressors that require longer-term planning and strategizing are better off handled by an unstressed mind. Thanks for listening. Love, The more active part of you.
Happy endings are fantastic, so I’ll give you one. On the same day that I was surprised with stress, I was able to turn it into relaxed, stress-free productivity. How I did this is what I’m going to share with you. If you’re extremely stressed out about something at this very moment, please jump directly to section two so that you can defeat it now. Otherwise, please continue in an orderly fashion.
Section 1: Snipe Stress Before It Gets Close To You
Chapter 1: Be Informed
To read the rest of this book, subscribe! It’s free. 🙂 When you sign up, you’ll also get a newsletter every Tuesday. Sign up below in this neat little box and the full book will be sent to you.
