When two texts, or two assertions, perhaps two ideas, are in contradiction, be ready to reconcile them rather than cancel one out by the other;
regard them as two different facets, or two successive stages, of the same reality, a reality convincingly human just because it is complex.
Marguerite Yourcenar
A new study confirms what most of us already know. High stress is bad for us and is linked to cardiovascular death even if we do not have a pre-existing cardiovascular problem. The study, published in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), shows that the stress hormone cortisol is released when we speed up and are under pressure and its purpose is to help the body recover from stress and regain a state of balance. However, when the stress is persistent, ongoing and chronic, an elevated level of cortisol is maintained and this, paradoxically, is associated with cardiovascular risk factors. In other words, as we learn about in the MBSR Programme, the body’s own stress response system can become a problem when it remains switched on in response to deep ongoing stress.
Nicole Vogelzangs, from the VU University Medical Center in The Netherlands, states: “Previous studies have suggested that cortisol might increase the risk of cardiovascular mortality, but until now, no study had directly tested this hypothesis“. The results of our study clearly show that cortisol levels in a general older population predict cardiovascular death, but not other causes of mortality.”
So creating a gap in the ongoing rush of your day and paying attention to your life is not just a nice option, but is crucial for your ongoing health. Then, developing adaptive ways to work with the stress in your life, rather than simplistically wishing to escape to a stress-free world, is the next step. These ways could include looking at your diet, doing exercise such as walking or yoga, structuring your week so as to get some time in nature, making time just for yourself, and developing a meditation practice. If you click on the “Stress ” Category in the blog or on the “Effects of Mindfulness” you will find more posts or research on this subject.
There is more to life than increasing its speed
Mahatma Ghandi
Sometimes one is struck by the goodness and care of people and how they bring kindness into the world. Sometimes one can only be grateful for this care. They remind us that the true purpose of life is best understood in terms of our capacity to receive and give love. The human heart is at its deepest and the mind most spacious when we act in accord with this capacity.
In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.
St John of the Cross
I bought a lovely book of poetry last week, called Mala of the Heart: 108 Sacred Poems. I find that they express a profound sensitivity to the deeper aspects of life. I will post some of them from time to time over the next while. This one speaks to me at this moment. Sometimes difficult experiences put us in touch with what lies beneath the surface, namely, the soul, or our deepest self, and help us in our search for identity or meaning.
Don’t surrender your loneliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice
So tender,
My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.
Hafiz (1320-1390 A.D)
And, again, a similar theme to those over the last two days, this time in the beautiful book by John Tarrant, The Light Inside the Dark:
Repetition is narrow, and, if undertaken mechanically, stifles us, but it can also allow us to go deep. In meditation we repeat ourselves day after day, coming back to the stillness and the breath, and again and again realize that we haven’t yet experienced it completely, that it is ever more subtle. Repetition, when done right, drifts almost imperceptibly into vast, new realms, but with a slowness that allows for deepening, beauty, the appreciation of the neglected moment. It stabilizes our relation to eternity.
