The Adult Education course I am teaching from February through May is called Spiritual Practices. Here are the notes from the third session, held on March 7, 2010.

March 7, 2010

Spiritual Practices

Relaxation

The Issue of Stress

A survey conducted by the Lahey Clinic (the teaching hospital of Tufts University) in Burlington, Massachusetts, has gleaned that the biggest sources of stress for working adults are the following:

1. Time pressures, especially deadlines and bills payment.

2. Feeling a lack of control.

3. Worry about one’s physical appearance.

4. Job pressures.

5. Health concerns.

6. Lack of joy.

7. Family relationships.

8. Friends/social life.

Discuss: how many of these issues are mostly physical in nature? How many are primarily psychological/emotional in nature? How many have a significant spiritual component?

Some sources of stress are smaller, unpredictable things: our car breaks down, a drain clogs, we get an unexpected visitor, we lose track of something.

Other sources of stress are positive things: moving into a new home; a wedding or graduation in the family; a promotion at work or a new job; a vacation. Positive emotions can produce stress just as strongly as negative emotions.

Stress and tension can, over a long period of time, cause physiological as well as emotional problems.

General Adaption Syndrome (GAS)

Dr. Hans Seyle, a Canadian physician, did pioneering work in the field of stress. He described an organism’s response to stress as "General Adaption Syndrome" which includes the following phases:

1. Alarm -When body recognizes there is a danger and prepares to deal with threat. Fight or Flight response, instant.

Heart Rate increases (Adrenaline) – to get oxygen to muscles

Blood Vessels near to skin shut down, cold and clammy to the touch – injuries won't bleed as readily, blood diverted to important organs

Hydrochloric Acid dumped in stomach, digestion shuts down to large extent – acid will dissolve food quicker (easier to run on empty stomach), digesting food diverts precious energy that may be needed elsewhere

Incontinence – easier to run, the smell may cause the pursuer to pause for a few precious moments

Steroids (Cortisone) fed into bloodstream – to fight infection and inflammation

2. Resistance (previously called adaption).
Body adapts or becomes resistant to the stress, starts to function as if this was normal. Dr. Archibald Hart has referred to this phase as becoming "addicted to stress."

3. Exhaustion
All reserves are exhausted (crash), body has nothing more to give, things start to go
wrong and health starts to suffer. You start to become ill, which causes more stress,
so this stage is a fast drop. See "Human Function Curve".

Long and short term physiological problems caused by stress as identified by Dr. Seyle include:

-High Blood Pressure caused by increase in heart beat or increase in cholesterol. Damages blood vessels, the delicate ones burst in the brain and kidneys.

-Higher cholesterol levels.

-Digestive Related Problems – Short Term: Constipation, Diarrhea. Long Term: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Spastic Colon.

-Low Immune System Short Term: more likely to pick up any bugs going around. Long Term: reduced ability to fight disease such as cancer.

-Wounds heal more slowly on people under stress.

Clearly stress is an issue that needs to be addressed. Dr. Archibald Hart has said regarding stress: ". . .it's a fact of life. What you have to do is build in adequate recovery time to allow your system to relax and reset itself, to restore a low level of arousal. I like to think of stress management as a series of valleys and hills. We live on the hill; our days are active and energetic. But they have to be followed by valleys of rest and recovery. If you can build in the rest and recovery, then you have a balanced life."

Relaxation as a Spiritual Practice

"Relaxation" is not a very spiritual-sounding term. Otium Sanctum, meaning "Holy Rest" or "Holy Leisure" is the theological phrase for spiritual relaxation. It has been used to describe practices that include physical relaxation techniques, including particular postures and breathing patterns that sound almost like yoga. Physical relaxation techniques can certainly be effective in reducing physical stress. For those who would like to know more about this, The Hidden Link Between Adrenalin and Stress by Dr. Archibald Hart deals with physical as well as spiritual practices to lower stress.

Our goal today is to suggest one spiritual practice related to relaxation that will meet the criteria of being theocentric, biblical, love producing, holiness inducing, and enjoyable.

The assignment: practice the following "Spiritual Relaxation Time" for 15 minutes per day for at least five of the next seven days. This can be done as an extended version of the "Stop" aspect of the Stop, Look, Listen, and Go exercise introduced in the first lesson of this series.

1. Find a quiet place where you can reflect undisturbed. If Susannah Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley and eight other surviving children, could do this, so can you. (Susannah used to create her "quiet space" by throwing her apron up over her head.) Turn off your cell phone.

2. Prepare your heart.

Pray for God to search your heart:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23 - 24).

Confess any known sin:

Confess means taking responsibility for sinful thoughts, words and actions, and agreeing

with God that they were sinful, asking for forgiveness – and receiving it by faith:

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse

us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

"Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalm 51:2).

"Create in me a clean heart, O God." Psalm 51:10

Ask for God to fill you with His Holy Spirit:

According to His Commandment - "Be filled with the Spirit "(Ephesians 5:18).

According to His promise - ". . . how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him" (Luke 11:3).

Present your anxieties to God – ask Him and thank Him for His help.

"Have no anxiety, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6 - 7).

3. Rest in God. Read and reflect on the following passages of Scripture. If it helps you focus, read the passages out loud.

Matthew 11: 28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. 30 "For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."

James 4:8 "Come close to God, and He will come close to you."

Psalm 37:7 "Rest in the Lord; and wait patiently for Him; fret not thyself. . ."

Psalm 116:7 "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."

Isaiah 30:15 "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: in returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. . ."

Hebrews 4: 9 "There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience."

Psalm 23

Read the article "Tyranny of the Urgent" in next week’s lesson.