Tuesday, December 6, 2005


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STRESSFUL
SITUATIONS
and
EVENTS
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We all exist in a kind of psychological storm shelter that can be partially or completely destroyed by unexpected, stressful events that are profoundly different from the usual.

Such an event will disrupt the integrative functions of our personality. It can impair judgement and sound reasoning. A previously strong sense of self may be replaced by anxiety and confusion. Moments of intense rage distort our view of reality. Fear of the unknown predominates. Feelings of total helplessness emerge to frighten us even more.

Neurosis and normality exist on a sort of continuous loop. An acute and frightening life-event can make even the sanest person feel crazy as hell. Our societal impulse is to take a pill. After all......we take a pill for everything else that bothers us, so why not swallow one for stressful events?

The answer is simple: every psychological, physical, or financial storm that hits us, is a protective emisary which arrived to warn us that it's time for a different kind of lifestyle than the one we've been engaging in.

We may have disregarded our need for physical rest, our nutritional needs, our need for affection and safety, for financial security, professional achievement, or physical protection.

The easiest examples for me to use, are some frivolous-sounding events in my own existence that -- if ignored -- might have had some very serious consequences.

-- 1 --
I used to regularly drive to a distant town with a large bag of potato chips on the car seat next to mine, and by the time I got home, I'd always have a belly ache.
potato chips-------> belly ache
potato chips-------> belly ache
potato chips------->belly ache
For years, I saw the connection. For years, I continued to munch potato chips. Until, one day, a very severe belly ache forced me to become aware of the fact that belly aches are NOT a normal part of life and that I had made myself deaf to what they were trying to tell me.........which was that I was voluntarily consuming all kinds of dangerous products that would eventually result in a serious illness. So I read up on food additives, chemical poisons in prepared foods, and nutritional matters. I changed my eating habits 100%, and haven't had a single belly-ache since.

-- 2 --
Ever since I turned 18 and arrived in New York
I pranced around on 4-inch heels.
I loved them.
They were a part of my image, and I only took them off when I went to sleep. Then, decades later, one of my 4-inch heels got stuck in a hole in the sidewalk and made me tumble to the ground. It was pitch black outside. Cars were carelessly whizzing by me on the highway, their drivers unaware that I was lying on the ground. When I finally managed to get up, I saw that my little bag had flown to maybe ten feet away from me, and it looked so alone....so sad....so totally deserted, lying there, all by itself, that I started to cry. At that moment, I somehow realized that I was that little bag and that no one in the entire world gave a hoot about whether or not I walked barefoot, in ugly sneakers, or in 4-inch heels that made every walking moment, a truly dangerous one.

It took me a couple of weeks to recover from the injuries I sustained with that fall, and during those weeks, I slowly, one at a time, tossed my beautiful, treasured collection of high-heeled shoes into the garbage. I saved one pair. For the memory. Last week, I saw it and put it on. I couldn't even walk across the room, wearing those ridiculous shoes! And I'm convinced that if I hadn't dumped them all when I did, I would have injured myself a hundred times worse with the next "emisary" fall.

So if a stressful event occurs in your own life..........don't take a pill. Instead, try to figure out what this self-protective emisary is attempting to warn you about, then make the change it has required of you, OK?

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