Insights from Day 9 at CN705
- “It is exceedingly clear that the chronic stress of twenty-first century living is not a mere inconvenience, but a major problem that needs to be recognized and treated seriously. Unless we as a society learn to slow down, breathe, examine our values and change our hectic lifestyles, we will continue to suffer from cardiovascular disease, immune deficiencies, depression and a host of other illnesses. Further, we will pass these traits and poor coping skills to our children who could experience even greater suffering given their exposure to severe stress from the first days of life.” Jessie Shaw -Newsweek
- Stress is being stretched beyond your limits and extending yourself without adequate time for recovery.
- The advent of electric light took away 2-3 hours of sleep; and the advent of television took away another 2 hours. Our lack of sleep is a major reason for our failure in stress management.
- MInistry is all about dying, but it must be strategic dying. Accelerated dying is not in God's plan.
- We are a chain of elastic bands - our stress affect EVERY part of our body.
- High blood pressure and high cholesterol are stress problem. Diet only provides the environment for them.
- High cortisol (the "stress hormone") level shrink the hippocampus in our brain, reducing our ability to learn, to remember and to forget.
- Caffeine boosts our adrenaline level, which gives us energy, but at the same time shuts down our other systems such as logic thinking (so we cannot learn), immune (so we get sick) and reproduction (so we become impotent)
- If you "need" caffeine you are already out of control
- Type A people produces 4 times as much adrenaline and 43 times as much cortisol as other people.
- Choose your battles and your emergencies where you will truly need your adrenaline
- Resign as the “keeper of the universe” and focus on that which God has given you to do in your part of His vineyard
- Sleeping less than 5 hours a night on average will guarantee an early heart attack. The boundary of danger is 6 hours. Sleeping less than that is hazardous to your health.
- The optional length of sleep is 6 90-minute cycles, that is 9 hours.
- Sleeping is a process similar to defragmentation of a harddisk. What the alarm clock do to us is like unplugging the computer in the middle of a harddisk defragmentation process.
- The sleep switch in our brain is not time sensitive but light sensitive. Turn down the lights way before you sleep to get into the mode, and turn up the light as soon as you wake up to stop the melatonin.
- Nap is not sleep. Nap is good for lowering adrenaline, slowing our system and refreshing our mind, but it does not equate sleep. An effective sleep takes at least one sleep cycle, that is 90-minutes.
- Anxiety is a warning system for danger approaching us. But when we are anxious all the time, the alarm does not mean anything anymore.
- Worry anxiety is a bad habit of the mind. It is a spiritual issue more than a psychological issue.
- Fear and worry are different. Worry has no tangible threat but only imagined, while fear does. We cannot handle worry, but we can handle fear. Therefore, we should treat worry with facts, reality and reason.
- Panic anxiety discarder is a biological disorder created by prolonged psychological stress.
- Panic anxiety discarder is the #1 mental problem for women in USA. For men, #1 is substance abuse and panic anxiety disorder is #2. The men are self-medicating themselves.
- Panic attack is a gift to slow us down.
- When you worry, write down what you're worrying and set your mind to intentionally worry them for at least 15 minutes.
Labels: Reflection
