STRESS ADVISORY FOR EXECUTIVES
By Lori & Bob Bomes
A word to the wise is almost never sufficient. Every day in our consulting and coaching practice, we speak with executives who complain about stress. When asked what they are doing about it, the answer is almost always the same: “I don’t have time.” In truth, you don’t have time not to do something about it. Here is the bottom line on reducing stress, and having a better business and personal life:
The leading cause of death in the U.S. is heart disease. Arguably, the leading cause of heart disease is stress; and the leading antidotes to stress are Diet, Exercise, Yoga and Meditation.
The Research . . .
In his 1975, ground-breaking book on meditation, The Relaxation Response, Dr. Herbert Benson gave us the secrets, held for thousands of years by the mystics of India, to meditation, a way of bringing peace to the active mind and body. What we find most interesting about Benson’s work is how he became interested in meditation. While doing his residency at a Los Angeles hospital, he overheard other physicians in the doctor's lounge who were recreational runners. They were talking about going into trances at certain points in their runs. This trance-like state can be equated to a type of meditation. These doctors were getting both the benefits of the exercise and the benefits of this stress-relieving, trance- like state. It has been known for a long time that meditation lowers your blood pressure, metabolic rate and heart rate. And now doctors say it can also fend off diseases. A study from Wisconsin suggests that meditating for an hour a day, six days a week, can stimulate the part of the brain that regulates the body’s immune system, which in turn boosts the production of disease-fighting antibodies.
In 1990, Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease (Ballantine Books) documented patients who had actually reversed their coronary artery blockages using the Ornish program. Simply put, the four components of the program are Diet, Yoga, Exercise, and Meditation. The team that did the studies found that dropping any one of these four disciplines could cause the blockage reversal to stop.
In 2009 Dr Ornish’s released his latest book “The Spectrum” with more incredible results. He and his associates at the “The Preventive Medicine Research Institute” have taken healing the heart and some cancer to a new level.
Recently, Dr. Ornish and colleagues published a randomized controlled trial in collaboration with Peter Carroll, M.D. (Chair of Urology at the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco) and William Fair, M.D. (Chair of Urologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, now deceased) showing that the progression of early-stage prostate cancer may be stopped or perhaps even reversed by making similar changes in diet and lifestyle. This was the first randomized controlled trial showing that the progression of any type of cancer may be modified just by changing what we eat and how we live. What’s true for prostate cancer may be true for breast cancer as well.
What Works . . .
I practice all four components, with fantastic results, but my current focus is on exercise. Long sessions of repetitive exercise bring the meditative state into play—not sports like golf, tennis, skiing, or basketball, but exercises like running, jogging, rowing, walking, or biking-—exercises that can be done either indoors or out. These exercises get you into shape so you can handle your work and personal responsibilities, and they fine-tune your body so you can play the above-mentioned sports if you desire.
Take the Challenge, Reap the Benefits . . .
I encourage you to gain benefits beyond your wildest imagination by turning yourself into a well-oiled machine. Rev up the way you look, feel, perform.
Take a walk, join a health club or buy an exercise machine—but do something. Begin today! There is a fountain of youth available to every one of us. Along with “The Spectrum” I recommend any of Covert Bailey’s series of books based on his first best seller Fit or Fat. His books have served as my exercise guide for the past 20 years, and I've found that Bailey is always ahead of the curve for the real information on exercise.
We executives work in pressure-packed businesses. Our clients' problems, the pressures of running our organizations, and the normal pressures of running our personal lives in these rough times cause enormous stress. We can’t keep ignoring this stress, lest we will end up as another coronary statistic.
The facts are in; exercise is a key to weight control and the handling of stress. What will you do tomorrow to begin partaking of this fountain of youth? Let a word to the wise be sufficient. Good luck and good living.