One regularly found aspect of stress is that a lot of people who suffer from it don’t realise it and in fact, if asked, they will strongly deny that they are suffering any stress, at all. However, many with stress are well aware of it.

Some years ago, the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, in the U.S., published a table of events from everyday life which contribute to stress and gave each event a points rating. This table has not been improved upon and is still a very accurate guide. All the “scores” were calibrated to the most stressful event, the death of one’s spouse, which was scored at 100. All other events were isolated and calculated so that even if two or more events normally occurred together, their scores must be added to make a total. Here are a few of them: marriage 50; pregnancy 40; sexual problems 39; new baby 39; change in financial circumstances 38; change in work 36; increased arguments with spouse 35; large mortgage or loan 31; change in living conditions 25; change in personal habits 24; change in residence 20; change in social activities 18; change in sleeping habits 16; change in eating habits 15.

One or two of you will have stress levels around four times higher than if you had just lost your spouse, most will have stress levels three times higher or more. Did you really wonder if you were loosing your marbles? It would be quite a surprise if you were not stressed.

Stress comes when, as a response to some event, your body is pumped up, ready for the fight or flight situation and you do the third thing; freeze. That doesn’t mean you physically stand still but you do so emotionally. There are so many other things to consider that you grit your teeth and grin and bear it. Your body, however, may try to grin but it certainly can’t bear it. There are many reasons.

At times of stress or perceived stress, your adrenal glands release into your bloodstream, adrenaline, noradrenalin and cortisol. These are very powerful stimulants which also suppress metabolic activity. Some signs of the onset of stress are; increased breathing rhythm, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased nerve activity, increased muscle tension and increased immune system activity. You are now ready for a lot of action – and what happens? Circumstances dictate that you will put yourself second and apply yourself to a more important task.

What happens to your body? It is now full of “fuels” for something it is not going to do; these unwanted “fuels” are now, therefore, little short of being toxins. The immune system can stay on high alert for a while, before thinking that this is the new “normal” level of activity and then having little or nothing to give when you do need it. In general, all of this produces further stress in your body.

If you do not loose these hormones and their effects from your body they will, among other unwanted things, drastically reduce the production of vital defence substances, known as interferons. These are antiviral proteins produced by cells that have been invaded by a virus; their job is to protect other cells from that virus as it tries to invade your body. This ability is lost or severely reduced.

Some of the symptoms of stress lead to more stress, on a self-generating basis; for example, stress brings about a reduced visual perception of distance. This may lead to you bumping into things or knocking things over – appearing to be uncharacteristically clumsy, leading to frustration (a stress producer) which is the generator of depression.

Your brain needs about sixty percent of the oxygen in your blood and, as you know, your blood gets oxygen via your lungs. The top part of your lungs has a blood flow of about 0.1 litres per minute, whereas the bottom part has a blood flow of about 1 litre per minute; approximately ten times as much. The muscle tension experienced, during stress, tightens up the diaphragm below your lungs, which stops you to breathing efficiently. This means that you are only using the top half of your lungs, where there is not much blood to extract oxygen from the air that you breathe. This means that you breathe faster. Exhaling faster tends to “wash” more carbon dioxide from the blood, which leaves the blood slightly more alkaline and with an oxygen / carbon dioxide imbalance. This leads further and contributes to more stress.

Wow, what a mess – but what can you do about it?

It is obvious that your circumstances have forbidden you to do what you body expected you to do. In the long term you might be able to change some of the factors giving you stress or you might be able to alter the way you react to these factors. Also, in the long term, you might do what is a very good thing to do immediately; relax.

Relaxation reduces blood pressure, loosens off your breathing and also allows your body to dissipate all the stimulants it does not need. It can do this because the alarm is called off and a “back to normal” situation prevails. This sounds all well and good but your brain is buzzing and doing a hundred miles an hour; how on earth are you going to relax?

The answer is to let somebody else do it for you; well, almost. What you need is to go somewhere quiet and for someone to guide you into deep relaxation. Whilst it would be almost impossible for you to hold your mind still for long enough to relax, with someone else guiding you, you will find it easy to follow. Somebody else would do all the work while you just sit back, very comfortably, listen and enjoy every minute of it. Afterwards, you would feel relaxed, refreshed and better than you have for a long while.

What has just been described is hypnotic relaxation. Everybody goes through what is called hypnosis about a thousand times a year, all on their own and quite naturally; it is the twilight zone just before and just after sleep. Hypnosis has been used by all cultures and civilisations going back through history and even pre-history; shamanic rituals depicted in cave drawings show hypnosis being used for healing purposes. Shamanism goes back about thirty thousand years.

Hypnosis is not something new and it is certainly not something un-natural. It is not addictive and in hypnosis, nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to do; anybody who goes to a Paul McKenna show is expecting ten people from the audience to get up on stage. Anybody who gets up on stage knows why they are there and they know that they volunteered; that they wanted to be part of what happens next. When used in a clinical setting, hypnosis is a very helpful tool which brings about a wonderful feeling of wellbeing and can help in many situations. If you are experiencing stress or anxiety, you would find hypnotic relaxation very helpful.