The Psycho-Physiologic Executive (1 of 4) Psycho-Physiologic

The Challenges of The Business Life:

As a business professional, whether you are an intrepreneur or an entrepreneur, if your responsibility includes driving revenue for the organization, with imposed deadlines you are under a tremendous amount of stress.

Experiencing the emotional highs and lows of everyday business is life draining. Your failures bring about feelings of deprivation and self-condemnation. Your wins bring the stress of your new obligations of client fulfillment, and god forbid if you should loose one of your largest clients, and don't forget about any investors you have to answer to. It is important in such occasions to monitor your response to the stresses of the day, because the most important thing in your life is your health, once you loose it nothing else will matter.

We live in a time when American’s are under an unprecedented amount of stress. In survey after survey, with the amount of stress we, as Americans, are under it has been reported that stress is our number one health concern. More than 50% of adults in the U.S. report high stress on a daily basis. When we fail to respond constructively to stress it affects our health, business, and leadership performance.

Studies indicate that it is not stress that cause negative effects in our health, leading up to lifestyle diseases or psycho-physiologic illness, but how we respond to stress. If the chronic effects of stress are acquired by our emotional response to stress, than we can eliminate the lasting effects of stress by changing our behavior. Steps can be taken in the direction of healthful living through the study and application of principles related to emotional intelligence (EI).

In this small series (which I will post through out the next couple of days) I will take you through a few areas to get you started:

• Psycho-physiologic relationship
• Self-awareness; managing emotions through mindfulness
• Social competence
  
• Self motivation

The Psycho-Physiologic Relationship

To gain a perspective on the affects that stress can have on our physical health we need to understand what has been termed as ‘psycho-physiological'. Psycho-physiological is a relationship between the mind and body. Our thinking and emotional habits manifest related effects in our bodies, more specifically in our physical health. This means that a physical symptom can stem from a person's psychological problem or a physical symptom can stem from negative emotional investment; as when a person has anxiety attacks and experiences chest pains. Some people also use the term psycho-physiologic disorder when mental factors cause physical symptoms, but where there is no physical disease.

The human mind is a very powerful instrument when speaking about our physical health. The DSM II classification lists' the following under psycho-physiologic disorders:

• Skin disorders
• Muscular-skeletal disorders
• Respiratory disorders
• Cardiovascular disorders
• Genitourinary disorders
• Endocrine disorders
• Chronic conjunctivitis

The Medium-term effects of chronic stress:

• Tension or migraine headaches
• Difficult time going to sleep
• Upset stomach
• Problems retaining food
• Change in appetite
• Tightness in chess, back, and shoulders
• Aching jaw
• Tight forehead
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness
• Heart palpitations
• Diarrhea 
• Constipation
• Constant low grade fever
• cold
• Sore throat
• Rashes
• Hives
• Skin irritation
• Increased blood pressure
• Always tired – Fatigue
• Excessive sweating
• Menstrual problems
• Missed menstrual periods
• Sleep disturbances
• Feelings of anxiety
• Muscle tension
• Muscle pain
• Anger
• Concentration problem
• Depression
• Lack of interest in food

According to The Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, "Most of our stress and emotional suffering comes from our mind - the way we think and face a situation - and the thoughts that cause us stress are usually negative, unrealistic, and distorted. ”.

Dr. Michael Olpin stated, "...stress has a great impact on our health. 70-80% of all visits to the doctor are for stress-related and stress- induced illnesses. Stress contributes to 50% of all illnesses in the United States. The cost of job stress in the U.S. is estimated at $200 billion annually, including costs of absenteeism, lost productivity, and insurance claims. Studies conducted over the last 20 years have shown that stress contributes to a significant percent of all major illnesses, including the number one cause of death in America, cardiovascular disease. Cancer, endocrine disease, emotional disorders, and a vast array of other stress related diseases and disorders account for many visits each year to health care providers.”

Also Part of This Series:

The Psycho-Physiologic Executive (2 of 4) Mindfulness

Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a $500 value.

This introductory business coaching session is to evaluate the key indicators of your small business.

The Journey Into the Ego (Part 2 of 2)

Conflicted

The human mind is so fragile; there is a fine line between genius and insanity. Any level of remedy is thwarted by our own impulse to self-sabotage. Our mental or inner worlds are a constant of being deceived and deceiving, and where extensions of love from a caring creator are projected to be threats against our conflicted souls. Our minds function as to purposely hide the truth from us; living within our self created delusions and projections; being deceived by the seduction of our own self perpetuating lusts. Then in a extension we try to love, only to be misinterpreted by the projections of another, giving way to harsher levels of own personal hell.

The unhealed mind faces varying degrees of these type of projections, demons of our past, derived from unhealed emotions caused by perceived attacks and afflictions:

'Each one peoples his world with figures from his individual past, and it is because of this that private worlds do differ. Yet the figures that he sees were never real, for they are made up only of his reactions to his brothers, and do not include their reactions to him. Therefore, he does not see he made them, and that they are not whole. For these figures have no witnesses, being perceived in one separate mind only.

It is through these strange and shadowy figures that the insane relate to their insane world. For they see only those who remind them of these images, and it is to them that they relate. Thus do they communicate with those who are not there, and it is they who answer them. And no one hears their answer save him who called upon them, and he alone believes they answered him. Projection makes perception, and you cannot see beyond it. Again and again have you attacked your brother, because you saw in him a shadow figure in your private world. And thus it is you must attack yourself first, for what you attack is not in others. Its only reality is in your own mind, and by attacking others you are literally attacking what is not there.

The delusional can be very destructive, for they do not recognize they have condemned themselves. They do not wish to die, yet they will not let condemnation go. And so they separate into their private worlds, where everything is disordered, and where what is within appears to be without. Yet what is within they do not see, for the reality of their brothers they cannot recognize.'

-ACIM

* Projections - The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naive or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt.*

It is by the insight, and by understanding the true nature of God and our nature through God that the miraculous occurs. All we need to do is trust the process, healing will take care of itself, as an extension of this self perpetuating revelation.

So, here we must begin:

In the beginning God created man and woman in his image. ‘… And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.’ Later God spoke to Adam and said not to eat of "the tree of knowledge of good and evil." The implications of judging from good and evil are profound; man setting himself up as a god unto himself, judging The Creator, himself (self condemnation) and his brother (condemning) Man has no choice than to feel guilty, because we tend to judge ourselves first and as unworthy. From this moment forward we lost a sense of confidence and of self in our perceived separation: ‘And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ or we tend to judge our brother (condemnation) ‘...And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.’

So here we have shame for the first time. Man was ashamed of himself misjudging himself and than extended that same judgment to Eve. In this perception we either are self condemning or critical of others, which is just our projected guilt… “I’m tired of feeling guilty all the time…so now you’re guilty.” We play this strange type of tag, not realizing that “[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…”

Salvation is nothing more than "right-mindedness," which is not the one-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before one-mindedness is restored. Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly. The mind then has only one direction in which it can move. Its direction is always automatic, because it cannot but be dictated by the thought system to which it adheres.

- ACIM

In Closing:

Every day we are given the opportunity: to obey and not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Every day we choose to eat of the tree; by feeling condemned or guilty, or becoming critical of our brother, and of God.

Feeling condemnation or guilt connotes punishment, for wrong doing. If Christ is your home there is no punishment- this is an extension of his grace. And it is certainly not your place to be condemning toward your brother, unless you are attempting to set yourself up as a god.

I leave you with these parting words:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God. - ACIM

Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a $500 value.