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Stress is unavoidable, right? That is a practical reality. We can’t totally avoid stress as long as we are alive in this world. We can reduce our exposure to stress. We can counteract stress by doing relaxation exercises, yoga, exercise, meditation, and other things like biofeedback.
Why is it worth the effort to reduce or manage stress? Here are a few reasons.
People like to think they know what the stress of being black is like.
If you’re not, you don’t.
Think about the stress of having a final exam in high school or college coming up.
You worry about it for two weeks or so leading up to it and it is very hard and stressful. You get to the time of actually taking the exam and it is very stressful. Then, the exam is over.
Being black is not like that because it’s never over. Every morning you wake up you have to deal with the stress associated with being black all over again.
What does stress have to do with the enormous problems we are dealing with related to COVID-19 Corona virus? There are many connections. I will discuss a few here. Read more
Our nervous system is constantly at work partly as an interface between our mind and body. It reacts to our environment, physical activity, and our thoughts. It causes changes heart rate, blood pressure, blood circulation, contraction level of our muscles, our breathing, and many other things. When the changes are appropriate and useful for the situation this is a very good thing. When the changes are due to an overreaction related to stress then it can be harmful. There are many ways that stress can cause problems with health and I have discussed these in other places. Here I want to focus on effects on performance. This type of negative stress reaction can happen with various types of performance including athletes, singers, speakers, students, business people, and actors to name a few.
Although more people are now interested in mind body techniques like meditation, mindfulness, and yoga, there is still a great lack of clarity as to what the real effects of these techniques are. It is also often difficult to know if a person practicing a technique is doing it correctly or getting the maximum benefit they can from it.
Several months ago, I was at a university in New York city visiting a meditation group. The two people who were leading the group were interested in using EEG biofeedback equipment to measure the brainwave activity of people who were meditating. They were interested in comparing the EEG activity of a novice meditator with that of a very experienced one. This is one example of how technology can be used in combination with mind body techniques. The idea was to see if there is a difference in what is going on in the brain while a person is meditating and does that vary depending on their experience level.
