The Stillness Project: Tai Chi and Qigong the Ultimate Stress Busters

I have chosen to present this post from the stress sufferer’s perspective, because the benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi will then become more apparent. I am often asked:

What is stress?
Do I suffer from stress?
What are the causes of stress?
How does stress affect me?
How can I reduce or eliminate stress altogether?

Questions that are some times difficult to answer accurately, because what gives me a great deal of stress may not affect you at all and vice versa. May be someone else, under the same circumstances will react in a completely different manner to you and I. But we all have stress and prolonged stress is making us ill.

So what is Stress?
Stress has been described as “Anything that we perceive as a threat to us that triggers the “Flight and Fight Response”. The Flight and Fight Response evolved over millions of years, and enabled our cave dwelling ancestors to avoid being eaten by dinosaurs, hunt for food and fight noisy neighbors. This type of stress which is relatively short lived, today we do not run the risk of being eaten by dinosaurs, but the fight and flight response clicks into action when for example, we cross the road half asleep and hear the screech of car tires and jump out of the way. Once we are safely across the road our breathing and heart rate slows down and our blood pressure returns to normal.

How does Stress Effect People?
What is the cost of stress to the individual? Studies into the effects of stress, has linked stress to heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide. More commonly stress can lead to unemployment and the breakdown of the family unit.

Do I Suffer From Stress?
The short answer is “YES”. As we have just seen we do in fact need an element of stress in our lives in order to survive. Stress sharpens the senses, makes us quick to react and respond to different situations, therefore we are all subject to stress to a greater or lesser degree. The flight and fight, type of stress is relatively short lived and will wax and wane over a period of time, it never ceases. However chronic stress factors stay with us for a long time, and it is then that we may feel trapped by the factors that cause our stress. The effects of stress then becomes accumulative and if we are subjected to several stress causing factors even for a short period of time, we are at greater risk of developing chronic illness.

A survey by the British “Health and Safety Executive”, (HSE), during 2003 and 2004 indicated that over half a million individuals in Britain believed that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level that was making them ill. This survey of work-related illness indicated that an estimated 254,000 people became aware of work-related stress, depression or anxiety in the previous 12 months. The UK HSE statistics suggest that stress-related costs to UK employers are in the region of £700m every year. The cost of stress to society however is far greater and is estimated at £7bn pa. The Stress and Health at Work Study indicated that nearly 1 in 5 of all working individuals thought their job was very or extremely stressful, and that approximately 6,500 new cases are being reported per year. And this they say is almost certainly an underestimate. (SW103/04). And these figures only relate to work related stress

Physiological effects of Stress
We observe the world about us with our five senses, if we perceive a potential threat or danger, information is sent via our nervous system to our brain in the form electrical impulses starting a chemical and hormonal chain of events known as the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, (HPA axis). The hypothalamus responds by releasing a hormone known as Corticotrophin-Releasing Hormone (CRH), which activates the pituitary gland to secrete Adrenocorticotropin the hormone that causes the adrenal glands to release three additional hormones, Epinephrine (Adrenaline), Norepinephrine (Noradrenalin), and Cortisol, (Glucocorticoid).

Non-essential processes are shut down and Adrenaline and Noradrenalin, increases blood pressure and cardiac rate, it diverts blood from the gastro-intestinal system to the muscles. Digestion is stopped and we may feel nauseas and have the feeling of butterflies in the stomach. Our reaction times speed up.

Cortisol releases glucose from the liver along with fats, which are released into the blood stream as fuel to power the muscles. Oxygen is needed to burn the fuel so our breathing rate increases. Our heart rate and blood pressure increases to accommodate the need to get oxygen and fuel to the muscles where we respond to the threat by running away or standing our ground and fighting. As already stated acute type of stress dissipates over time but if the problem causing our stress does not go away then we may start to suffer from the cronic effects of stress and find we suffer with the followig.