Hello,
This is Dr.
Miller and this is part one of a three-part program for dispelling fear and building resistance to viral infections.
Stress,
You know,
Is the fight-or-flight response.
Fear is the emotion you feel when you're fighting or running for your life.
In the world into which our body evolved a half million years ago,
Stress and fear would be felt only for a few seconds.
The challenges were physical,
Something like being attacked by a saber-toothed tiger,
And the responses were physical.
You either got away or you died,
End of story.
This is what we call type one stress.
And your body knows well how to deal with it by balancing it with relaxation.
On the other hand,
The stress and the fear we feel when we're worried about whether we or someone we care about will become infected with an invisible virus,
Or whether or not we will survive that infection,
Is a different kind of stress.
We call this type two stress.
Type two stress is the result of struggling against a vague or non-physical danger that is not quickly resolved and offers us no physical way to fight against it.
Stress has been shown to lower the resistance to viral diseases.
When we create the conditions that are associated with less stress,
The immune system can function better,
Both in helping us resist acquiring an infection and in helping us overcome an infection.
Type two stress is a reaction of the paleo cortex,
The limbic system,
The monkey brain,
When it perceives a threat but does not have a specific way to respond and directly neutralize the threat.
If you had the measles,
For instance,
Then later on being exposed to the measles virus simply draws forth the specific response of antibodies to the measles virus.
Because your body knows the specific response,
There is very little non-specific response or stress in this situation.
You simply ward off the measles virus.
If you'd like to deepen your learning on this topic,
You can check out my program,
The Power of Your Mind to Manage Stress and Heal Your Body.
It's a DVD course and goes into much more detail about how stress specifically affects our body and offers many tools for you to use.
So the situation in which you know that there's a dangerous virus around,
One that might create serious illness,
The stress reaction takes place,
Type two stress reaction,
Because you feel as if you're helpless to counteract the stressor.
The stress you feel then makes matters worse since it weakens your body's ability to resist infection.
Fortunately,
There's a ready cure for this,
Learning to relax.
Perhaps you know the first line of the so-called serenity prayer.
It recognizes that sometimes there are things that happen in our lives that we do not have the ability to change.
You can't change your parents,
You can't change the weather,
And if you've spilled milk,
You can't unspill it.
To get upset about this is of no value.
The serenity prayer tells us to relax and accept the truth of the moment as it is.
Not accepting it is unwise,
It's doomed to failure,
And is the source of type two stress.
Right now,
You are confronting a mysterious invisible enemy.
That is true,
And the most healthy thing that you can do is to accept that it is true.
The most effective way to do this is to relax the tension that is built up in your body.
Relax your emotions,
Which are not helpful at this moment,
Emotions like worry or fear or blame,
Doubt,
And so forth.
And relax your mind by emptying it of those unnecessary thoughts.
I'm going to offer you a powerful technique for doing just that.
It is called entering the state of deep relaxation,
A state of mind very similar to that which is reached during meditation,
Self-hypnosis,
And prayer.
After finding your deeply relaxed state,
I will teach you to use guided imagery to visualize the empowerment of the cells of your immune system and prepare them to block,
Weaken,
And kill any viral particles that should enter your body.
The second line of the Serenity Prayer is about having the courage and the intelligence to confront and change the things that you can change.
When it comes to confronting the challenge of a viral infection,
It means having the courage and the intelligence to train yourself to follow the guidance of the medical personnel that you trust and employ behaviors that will protect you and others from infection.
These include such behaviors as washing your hands frequently,
Avoid touching your face,
And keeping a proper social distance.
The affirmations in Part 3 of this program will help you to program your behaviors in this way.
The third line of the Serenity Prayer is about having the wisdom to know the difference between when you should relax and accept and when you should act.
Right now,
If you recognize that you've been having fear,
Tension,
Or frustration about things that you cannot control,
Then the wise thing to do is to learn how to relax,
Accept,
And be serene.
