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Reduce Stress
930 Logan Street #101 & 102 Denver, Co 80203 720.284.1374
Licensed Acupuncturist and Practitioner of Chinese Medicine
John S. Aguilar Jr., L.Ac.
Home : Acupuncture For... : Stress
Stress kills. We know this. Stress is receiving blame for illnesses of all different types. But what, exactly, is stress? What actually causes it, and what specific effects does it have on our mind, mood, and bodies? 'Relax more', 'exercise more', is what we're told, but this is no more than common sense. Beyond these obvious statements, what can we do to reduce stress and its harmful effects on our lives? These are the types of questions that are answered handily from within the ancient system of Chinese medicine. Having been in consistent development for the last two thousand years, Chinese medicine has created a comprehensive picture of the interaction between external events and internal processes the result of which constitutes 'stress'. Stress, as it is referred to today, normally means unwanted, negative effects in our lives resulting from conflict between inner desire/expectation and the 'real world'. Simply put, there is, on the one hand, what we want and, on the other, what there is. Where these two don't match we experience a sort of friction. Over time, individual occurrences of stress accumulate, the net effect growing disproportionately fast as recurring instances generate a sort of internal 'heat' that builds on itself. The friction, as well as the heat generated by it, initially hinders proper functioning of the body and mind, and eventually, can lead to outright organic dysfunction or even failure. In the Chinese medical paradigm, all aspects of being - physical functioning, as well as cognitive and emotional states - can be categorized into various 'systems'. In the modern practice of the medicine, these systems are given titles based on the corresponding Western anatomical entities (eg. the 'Spleen' or 'Kidney' system - notice capital letters are used when we are using these terms to refer to the Chinese medical system and not the physical organ of Western anatomy). Though stress is a general phenomena that could effect any of the body's systems, it is most closely related to and rooted in the Liver system (emphasis, here, on the Chinese medical understanding of the overall system that includes the liver, but is not limited to the physical organ). One of the basic functions of the Liver system, one of the aspects of being it incorporates, is summed up as "Regulating the free flow of qi". 'Qi' (aka 'chi', pronounced 'chee') is a fundamental term in Chinese medicine that cannot be easily translated, or equated to any term common in the Western sciences. For our purposes, here, we can understand it to mean a type of energy that guides, motivates, and fuels the functioning of the internal systems. Clinically, deficient qi of a system leads to poor or 'hypo-' functioning of that system. The Liver system has a primary responsibility of ensuring that qi flows smoothly throughout the body and mind. It follows that any obstruction to that free flow necessarily indicates a problem with the Liver system, whether the problem originated there or not. For example, acute trauma, such as a sports injury, causes pain, a key sign of qi obstruction. In treating such injuries, therapies that 'move' or 'invigorate' Liver qi are employed. As qi is moved, unobstructed, the pain goes away. There can also be qi obstruction originating from Liver system issues. For instance, medications that challenge the liver organ, can result in injury to the Liver system, and thus interfere with the free flow of qi. Cognitively and emotionally, the Liver system is the seat of hope and visions of the future. In a healthy state, the Liver system allows us to perceive where we are going. This understanding is fueled by awareness of inner ability and potential and is naturally drawn to fulfillment of that capability. In an unhealthy state, such accurate perceptions degrade into more base ‘desires’ that are neither based on genuine self-awareness nor drawn to true fulfillment of innate abilities. They are, as we all know, superficial; even when they are fulfilled, they do not give us peace or happiness, but lead only to further desire. Stress, as defined above, is classic Liver system obstruction, manifesting physically and emotionally. Primary, 'textbook' signs of Liver Qi stagnation are frustration, irritability, anger, guilt, and depression. These are also, clearly, the primary signs of stress. Liver Qi stagnation over time, leads to what is referred to as 'Transformative Heat'. As the qi is blocked over time, it backs up and starts generating internal heat. This may manifest as extreme anger, such as road rage or 'flying off the handle', again standard signs of being over stressed. As the Liver system has a body-wide responsibility for qi flow, it has a direct and fundamental influence on the health of all other systems. Poor qi flow can result in almost any other disorder. (In fact, some classical theorists claim poor qi flow is at the root of all disorders.) Similarly, stress in modern times is considered the root of many disorders, and where it does not play a direct causative role it is often a significant contributor. These correlations between modern 'stress' and classical 'Liver Qi stagnation' see the greatest use where they give us more profound tools to deal with stress than simply 'relaxing more'. Dealing with Liver Qi stagnation is simple, in theory. You simply move, or 'course', the Liver qi. As you could probably guess based on the many correlations thus far, exercise is an ideal way to move Liver qi, and thus 'treat' stress. Now, exercise, in a Chinese medical sense, is different in certain fundamental ways than its common Western understanding. For example, running and lifting weights are two very popular forms of exercise in the Western sense. From the perspective of Chinese medical principles, these may be part of a healthy exercise regimen, but they are not necessary to be healthy and they may, in fact, may do more harm than good over time. The exercise of Tai Chi Chuan, which is gaining more and more attention, when practiced properly is an excellent example of healthy exercise. It is relatively low-impact, meaning very little harm is being done to the body (a basic requirement for exercise to be considered ‘healthy). It is a total body workout, gently moving most of the joints and muscles of the body, and it’s ‘holistic’, meaning it incorporates and trains the body and the mind. (Please see Exercise as a Foundation of Health for further discussion). In addition to exercise there are some important mental/emotional ways to deal with stress. Perhaps the most important is to not compound the problem by getting stressed over the amount of stress you have. This is a common paradox that arises in my practice. We feel bad, then pass judgment on ourselves for feeling that way, making it all the worse. Unfortunately, I see this persist over years, essentially locking-in the initial obstruction to the point of causing full-blown organic disease. The paradox lays in the need to 'be ok' with acting in a way that is perceived as wrong or bad, including not being ok with being wrong or bad. This is the trap of this type of disorder; it always threatens a vicious cycle. We do something wrong, say stay out to late drinking, then we get hard on ourselves for doing it. There is the feeling that being hard on ourselves is 'right' in that it acts as a 'self-correcting' mechanism. We slap our own hands so we don't do wrong again. As with all systems of the body, there is an innate self-correcting mechanism to the Liver system, and it does have to do with acting 'righteously'. When we act in a way inconsistent with knowledge of self or ability, or we do something that is not inline with fulfilling our natural capacity, we feel bad. Importantly, it is not a conscious reaction or decision. We don't sit down and analyze our actions and rationalize how they are counter to our goals, we simply immediately, spontaneously feel 'off' inside; we simply know it was wrong. As this 'wrong' action was predicated on lack of self-awareness, there is also the low self-esteem component. This tends to spur us to over-react, to over compensate, to make up for the perceived inadequacies. This over reacting materializes as taking the instinctive bad feeling and distorting it into a major issue. Instead of simply feeling a little bad, we are hard on ourselves. We beat ourselves up over a simple mistake. Where I suggest that it is vital to 'be ok' with our actions, even when we know they were wrong, I am trying to release the over reaction. We don't have to actively admonish ourselves for inappropriate decisions or actions. Whatever admonishment is appropriate happens spontaneously. This is by design. It is a basic self-righting, 'homeostatic', function of the Liver system. If you are consciously berating yourself, it is too much, guaranteed. Now, it should be said that it us quite possible that the over reaction of excess self abuse is due to an underlying Liver system issue. We can't help it. We do this because the self-correcting mechanism is out of whack. In this case, so be it. It's ok. The first idea is to be ok with things. Take a moment, preferably alone, or with someone you are truly comfortable with, and simply be ok with things. It sounds simple. If you find it to be so, initially, you are probably not fully forgiving yourself. This sounds simple, but is usually very tough. We feel we have to be hard on ourselves; it is not ok to just be ok (and we wonder why stress is so prevalent...) It is tempting to seek ok-ness through rationalization. That is, we create a story to explain why and how it's ok to be ok with what we did, such as with 'Well, they probably deserved it', or 'I was having a bad day', and so on. This is not genuine, and clinically ineffective. If narrative is required, seek awareness of the actual story as it unfolded. For example take this story, 'I lied to my girlfriend about my having plans tonight. I immediately felt guilty about it. I am such a bad boyfriend. We need trust for this to work, and I lied. I'm terrible. Obviously, I don't really want this relationship to work out...' Here, we can see the wrong action, and the immediate, natural response. Then we see that spontaneous reaction be fueled to excess by various rules and dogma about what is abstractly right and wrong action. A story could be created justifying this such as 'Well, she's lied to me before, so we're even.' This resolves nothing. The 'stagnation' and stress have not been released, meaning three things 1) it will resurface later-on in some way, 2) it'll be worse when it does, and 3) until it does it is negatively affecting many other aspects of life (internal and external). (Imagine, for a moment, ‘stresses’ like this accumulating over years – this is how stress kills.) Instead of this above rationalization we could seek awareness of the actual feelings precipitating the action. There surely were feelings leading up to lying and, whatever they were, they will prove more useful than a created story. In fact, based on my clinical experience, a significant event, such as lying to a loved one, is almost always directly associated with pre-existing stresses that have gone unresolved. As was discussed in the preceding paragraph, the accumulated stress has now gotten so ‘bad’ that it is fueling actions such as lying to people you share trust with. Once we’re ok with the event, in this case lying, which may be easier with genuine insight into ‘why’ it happened, we not only avoid the excess stress of feeling bad for having done it, we can also begin to look at the underlying accumulation of stress. The body is dynamic, forever changing, forever moving. Either we move down the road of building internal friction, reacting to it by building more, or we move backwards down the path, gaining awareness and uncovering our history of tangled emotions. Forward or backward, but always moving. This ‘being ok’ is fundamental to releasing internal stress and actively improving health. This along with proper exercise as discussed in the Exercise section, will do much for you in reducing overall stress. These practices are part of a system of healing. They are not quick fixes, and they are not ‘fire and forget’, allowing you to ‘do’ them than just go on with life. They are at their best when they are incorporated into and become part of your life. As you are a living, breathing, human being, when you feel stressed, relax and pay attention inwardly. Allow ‘stress’ events to act as impetus for greater health. Top of Page
All contents Copyright John Aguilar, Jr. 2008