My husband just came back from a medical lecture where a nationally recognized speaker mentioned that if medical research knew in the 1980's what they know now about the negative effects of stress on the body, stress reduction would have been chosen over smoking cessation as a top priority risk factor for Heart Disease, Stroke and Obesity. You don't say! My father was a 2 pack a day smoker, no thanks to the tobacco companies, who included cigarettes in the supplies handed to soldiers during WWII. So when he had the big heart attack that eventually killed him, my aunt, a nurse, told me she believed it was stress that really killed him and not necessarily the smoking. This was back in 1984. I was a confused and upset twenty-something at the time, had she been right all this time? I never smoked thanks to him. My brothers quit immediately. Talk about stressful situations, burying a parent too soon has got to be at least on the top ten list of stresses in life.
This brings to mind what to do to prevent harm to the body after a high stress event occurs. Meditation and finding quiet time is one way to help calm a person. Think happy thoughts sounds trite, but it may be a clue to begin a positive path that helps slow down the poisonous chemical activity your body begins when stress occurs. Attending religious services is a simple way to bring your mind into a meditative state even if you do not actually pay attention to the service. Making time to take a walk and contemplate nature twice a day for 15 minutes works as well. I recently listened to a National Geographic special where a researcher pointed out that laughing produces endorphin's which may heal and repair brain cells to keep us healthy and alive.
Many years ago I studied the story of the death of the Hebrew Matriarch Sarah, which is read around this time of year, it is called Chaya Sarah and in Hebrew means actually "the life of Sarah". It is quite an important story in the Torah for two reasons 1) because Sarah is Abraham's wife, and 2) Sarah got away with laughing at God. In fact, she is only one of the handful women who are even mentioned in the Bible. Well, in this particular story, Isaac, the child so hard to conceive and who played sidekick to Abraham, Jacob and Rebecca in other major stories, finally has a big decision to make. To bury and remember his beloved mother and let his father off the hook to live with his other wives and family, most famous, Hagar and Ishmael. Isaac has plenty of stress in the sadness of losing his mother, his family breaking apart, and to learn to let go and start anew, which he does. The stress Issac feels is very real even today. Loss of a family member, a job, or your home creates feelings of abandonment and questions your sense of purpose.
In the reading of Chaya Sarah, Issac does the right thing, he allows his father to move on with his life and Isaac gives himself permission to move on as well. Not bad advice for 5000 years. Pay attention to the details and the small stresses that add up big in your life. Take the hint when family says "enough already" it's time to move on.
