Participants: Don Mackintosh, Skip MacCarty
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000092
00:47 Hello and welcome to "Health for a Lifetime"
00:49 I'm your host Don Mackintosh 00:51 Are you relaxed? 00:52 You should be... that's what our guest is going to 00:54 share with us today and how to do that! 00:56 We're glad that Skip MacCarty, 00:58 Dr. Skip MacCarty, Fellow of the American College of Stress 01:02 is with us today. 01:03 He's going to be sharing really 01:05 how we can RELAX. Isn't that right? Right 01:07 You know, I've heard a lot about 01:09 type A, type B personalities, 01:11 does this have anything to do with relaxation? 01:13 Well, it has something to do with stress, 01:15 and this series on stress 01:17 and relaxation is a component of that... 01:19 But yes, type A, type B personality is very interesting 01:22 how that was discovered by 2 cardiologists, 01:24 Dr. Meyer Friedman and Ron Rosenman 01:26 And there was an upholsterer that was going around the city 01:29 just upholstering different office furniture, 01:32 and he happened to mention to them... 01:34 He said, "Yours is the only office I find where the 01:37 arm rests on your chairs, the end of those arm rests 01:40 are clawed! 01:41 And, of course, they're doing all these open heart surgeries 01:44 and they started talking about that and saying... 01:46 "I wonder if our patients are really different, 01:47 if they're just nervous or what" 01:49 And they did this research and then came out with 01:52 the type A, type B personality characteristics. 01:55 The type A personality is someone who is 01:58 highly competitive. 02:00 They are competitive even if they're playing a table game 02:04 with their kids; they go out to WIN. 02:06 Very time-urgent, trying to pack as many things as possible 02:10 into the shortness period of time as possible; 02:11 aggressive, very ambitious. 02:14 They feel guilty relaxing; they have a hard time relaxing 02:18 because they feel they need to be accomplishing something 02:20 They're not accomplishing something when they're relaxing. 02:22 Impatient, kind of hostile. 02:24 The toughest thing... the hardest thing on a 02:26 type A person is a type B person ... a more relaxed-type person. 02:29 And they're very fast-action in speech. 02:31 If you ever talk to somebody and you get in the middle of a 02:34 sentence... you kind of lose your train, 02:36 they'll finish the sentence for you... apply the missing word! 02:39 And because of this, because they're so demanding 02:43 of other people and also demanding of themselves, 02:45 they tend to be somewhat socially isolated 02:48 because it's hard to be around them for very long. 02:51 You're not a type A person are you? 02:53 You have to ask my wife, 02:55 but on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest 03:00 you can be on a type A, 03:02 we both rank me about an 8... Yeah 03:05 So, a type B person, what are they like? 03:08 Well, type B would just about be the reverse of the type A 03:13 They're more easy-going, more relaxed. 03:17 They are easily satisfied more; 03:19 they play for fun, not necessarily just to win. 03:23 They are much easier to roll with the punches. 03:26 They're not compulsively driven; they are still successful. 03:29 A study of 100 government leaders found that 03:32 40% of them were type B 03:34 So it doesn't mean you're not successful if you're type B; 03:37 it just means you're not DRIVEN compulsively. 03:39 They don't try to cram as many events as they 03:43 possibly can into a limited period of time... 03:45 That's the type B person. 03:46 And none of us, Don, are totally type A... 03:48 well - some people may be totally type A 03:50 I have some people tell me they are 11 on a scale of 1-10 type A 03:53 And very few people are down at #1 03:55 We're somewhere usually in-between. 03:57 And, you're the type A-enders or the type B-enders 04:01 So, in other words, on this show I see that there is 04:04 absolutely no upholstery left here on these. 04:06 You have relaxed people. 04:10 Okay, so type A... just really going for it all the time; 04:13 type B... more laid-back but still we need to be 04:17 a mix or we need to... 04:19 Yeah, well if you're type A, you need to be aware 04:22 that Dr. Meyer Friedman and Dr. Ron Rosenman did research 04:25 on 3,000 patients and found that you were 70% more likely 04:30 to have open heart surgery and a heart attack 04:34 if you were type A, a high-end type A 04:37 So you need to build some things into your lifestyle 04:41 that will buffer the effects of being type A. 04:44 Now, you have a seminar that's entitled "Stress Beyond Coping" 04:49 and you became a fellow of the American Institute of Stress 04:52 as a result of this seminar... 04:53 What do you tell people that are type A? 04:56 As I'm listening to you, I think, and probably my wife 04:58 is thinking too right now... 05:00 You know, he really needs to be listening to this, 05:02 this is one of those tapes she'll have playing 05:03 when I come home maybe. 05:05 What should a type A person do? 05:06 Well a goal, Don, of all stress management; 05:10 one of the goals is what I call the "Concord Factor" 05:14 The Concord was the British transatlantic flight airplane 05:18 that still, even though... subsequent even to the crash 05:23 of Paris in the year 2000, 05:25 the Concord is still the safest plane ever built, 05:28 and it flies at supersonic speeds. 05:30 When it's traveling at supersonic speeds, 05:33 it can be 69 degrees outside the plane, 05:37 but the shell, because of the friction cutting through 05:39 the atmosphere is 261 degrees+ F 05:44 It is minus 69 on the outside, a difference of over 300 degrees 05:48 and it puts great strain on the plane. 05:51 The body actually lengthens by several inches, 05:56 and to accommodate that, the coach on the inside is built 06:00 on rollers and they have 4 huge air-conditioners, 06:04 so you're in living room comfort on the inside 06:06 while all this turbulence is on the outside, 06:08 and one of the goals of stress management is 06:10 to achieve a peace and tranquility within 06:13 while there is great turbulence and distress outwardly. 06:15 We need to be like the Concord. 06:17 Be somewhat like the Concord... right! 06:19 All right, so anything else we should do? 06:23 Well, the way to get to the Concord is relaxation, 06:28 and relaxation is... there are 7 keys to managing stress 06:31 And going back to the stress tank that we've 06:33 developed in another program... 06:36 The 7 keys to managing stress that prevent the 06:43 build-up of stress in our lives, in our stress-tank, so-to-speak, 06:47 to the overflow point is relaxation. 06:50 One of those keys is relaxation, a very important one on charts 06:52 So that releases the pressure. Right! 06:55 And if we look at the stress pyramid, 07:00 relaxation is about halfway at the stress pyramid 07:03 with the most important being at the top, 07:06 and working down from there... 07:07 relaxation is a very important component. 07:09 All the stress experts... 07:11 In fact, there are 19 different corporate wellness programs 07:14 studied by Dr. Richard Lazarus, 07:15 and 12 of them taught ONLY relaxation techniques... 07:18 So relaxation is VERY important for stress management. 07:20 So we need education in how to relax... We all do - we all do. 07:26 All right... Do you ever feel guilty when you're relaxing? 07:30 Yes, but you know, I've learned and one of the things that 07:34 makes it hard for type A people to relax is that 07:38 they feel like they need to be accomplishing something. 07:40 When you're relaxing, you're not accomplishing something. 07:42 But when you realize the importance of relaxation, 07:45 and that with relaxation you are accomplishing something 07:48 And, in fact, because it's benefiting your health, 07:52 you're at a health risk if you don't learn how to relax. 07:55 Last night I was staying in a place where I 07:58 think some people were really relaxing; 08:00 they were laughing almost uproariously 08:02 until about 12 o'clock and I mean 08:05 just listening to them laugh, kind of made me laugh sometimes. 08:08 What about humor, does it help us at all with relaxation? 08:12 Humor is #1 on the scale of relaxation. 08:15 Is that right? Yep! 08:21 Humor is SO important. 08:22 If you've ever been in a tense situation, 08:24 and you know how... Well you're a great one at that! 08:27 You enjoy laughing, you love laughing, 08:29 and that's a great tension-reliever. 08:31 Abraham Lincoln was great at that. 08:33 One time he was debating with Douglas, 08:36 and Douglas accused him of being two-faced... 08:39 And when Lincoln got back up, 08:40 he said, "Now come on folks, if I was two-faced, 08:42 would I be wearing this one?" 08:46 And relaxation is tremendous... 08:48 Dr. William Fry at Stanford University, 08:51 likens it to internal jogging. 08:54 It gives your internal organs a workout! 08:58 And you actually tense-up during relaxation... 09:01 During a good belly laugh, you tense up, 09:03 and then they've found that the relaxation effects 09:08 subsequent to a good laugh, can last as long as 45 minutes. 09:13 Wow, so a merry heart does do good like a medicine! 09:15 And there's a book called "Don't Get Angry, Laugh" 09:24 Or "Don't Get Angry, Get Funny" 09:27 And, it talks about the misery index. 09:29 Have you ever been in a situation where you 09:32 were in a very difficult and distressing situation, 09:36 and then later on, you could look back and laugh at it? 09:37 Oh yeah, just last week! 09:39 Well, the misery index is the length of time it takes 09:45 between when you go through a situation like that 09:46 and when you can laugh at it. 09:48 And the goal, the great goal in stress management 09:51 is to get that index as short as you can until 09:55 you can actually be in a situation that's very difficult. 09:57 You can say, "Some day we're going to laugh at this, 09:59 and being able to laugh while you are 10:02 actually in that situation... And if you do that too soon, 10:04 they're going to think that maybe you need 10:05 to go to a certain type of institution 10:07 where there are lots of people with pink coats 10:09 and whatnot around you! 10:10 But it can be healthy to be able to do that. 10:12 Yeah, I agree with that! 10:14 I think that's a great point. 10:17 All right, so anything else we should do? 10:20 Well, there is just relaxation breathing, 10:23 a very simple thing but it's belly-breathing. 10:25 And when you watch a little baby breathe, 10:27 its little tummy goes up and down, it's laying on its back, 10:30 we learn when we're adolescents, 10:32 it's not too cute walking around 10:33 and have our little tummies going in and out, 10:34 so we learn chest-breathing. 10:36 But when we breathe with our bellies, let our bellies expand, 10:41 it drops the diaphragm and we can actually 10:44 take a lot more air in, 10:46 then we can chest-breathe as well, get a good deep breath, 10:49 and even in just 15 seconds, taking a GOOD deep breath, 10:52 holding it for just a few seconds, 10:54 and then letting it out slowly, can bring tremendous relief. 11:00 Dr. Robert Elliot was 40 years old, 11:03 he was chief of cardiology at the University of Nebraska, 11:05 had a heart attack. Well that's not good. 11:07 He then went into stress medicine, 11:09 and he is now director of stress medicine at Denver, Colorado. 11:12 He wrote this, "Chest breathing, the most common, 11:15 tends to be rapid and shallow especially under stress. 11:18 The slow, regular deep breaths characteristic of 11:20 abdominal breathing, on the other hand, 11:22 are associated with physical calm. " 11:24 "There's a good deal of evidence that when people 11:26 switch from chest to abdominal breathing, 11:28 even temporarily, emotional and physical distress 11:32 diminished significantly. " 11:34 He wrote an excellent book on stress called, 11:36 "Is It Worth Dying For" 11:38 I think we should just take a couple of deep breaths right now 11:40 Sounds good... Boy, that does feel good. 11:44 Now in your seminar, I also noticed that you talked 11:46 a lot about "Islands of Peace" 11:48 Is that some place in Hawaii or some place we can go? 11:51 A nice atmosphere... is that what you mean? 11:54 Or what are "Islands of Peace?" 11:55 Well, "Islands of Peace" can be a whole series of things. 11:58 They can be just taking a walk; 12:05 taking a short nap; taking a lunch break; 12:09 taking a deep-breathing break. 12:11 Changing what you're doing and doing something else. 12:13 ...Taking a vacation, taking a day off. 12:15 If you take a vacation, you want to plan to 12:17 come back a couple of days early because 12:19 most vacations are fairly stressful... 12:20 You need an "Island of Peace" 12:22 from your "Island of Peace" That's right! 12:23 The Sabbath is a great Island of Peace that God has given to us. 12:28 There's a book written by a Notre Dame graduate, 12:31 Marva Dawn called, "Keeping the Sabbath Holy" 12:34 and she talks about the importance of the Sabbath 12:35 and she tells a story in there about pioneers 12:39 going over the Oregon Trail... 12:40 And they were trying to get to the west before winter set in... 12:45 going through the Midwest and so they were debating 12:48 whether they should keep the Sabbath or not, 12:50 and they split up into 2 groups; 12:53 1 group thought they couldn't afford to keep the Sabbath, 12:55 the other group thought they would keep the Sabbath. 12:57 Interestingly enough, the ones that got to the west first 13:00 was the group that kept the Sabbath. 13:02 The Sabbath is a... it comes back to us; 13:04 that rest and relaxation comes back to us. 13:06 I remember when I was in school, after each class 13:08 I'd go up and I'd run up and I'd go through the 13:10 parking lot and come back around... 13:12 Well, it didn't really help me much in school, 13:14 but I felt a lot better! Exactly 13:15 And that's the kind of thing 13:17 you're talking about, "Island of Peace"... Yep 13:18 Another thing I noticed here that was fascinating to me, 13:21 of course coming from a healthcare background was 13:23 "Making peace with your environment" 13:25 This is so important, Don, making peace with your 13:27 environment... it simply means taking things that are 13:30 distracting to you and turning them into friends. 13:32 I was traveling across country from Salt Lake City 13:34 to Lincoln, Nebraska one time; 13:36 I was too poor to get a motel and too cheap to get a motel. 13:40 I stopped at a rest stop midway; 13:42 I was so tired, it was in the middle of the night, 13:43 rolled the window down a little bit because it was 13:45 in the summertime, early summer, to get a little fresh air, 13:49 and then there were like 20 trucks lined up behind me 13:52 just droning away, going like crazy. 13:54 Diesels you mean and that smell too and everything. 13:56 They don't turn off, man, because it too hard 13:58 to turn them back on, so they're just going all night. 14:00 And I'm thinking to myself, I'll never get to sleep this way. 14:03 But you know what, I thought that through, 14:06 and I thought, "Any of those guys could wake up at any time, 14:09 it's not very safe me being here in the middle of the night 14:11 with my window rolled down" 14:12 "But with those guys likely to wake up at any time with 14:15 their CBs, calling for help, I'm probably pretty safe here" 14:19 So then that sound of those diesels droning away 14:22 became music and put me right to sleep. 14:24 Making peace with your environment, 14:25 turning distractions into friends. 14:27 I think the same thing in the hospital... 14:28 I'd take care of patients and they had all those 14:30 monitors going off and different things, 14:32 and they'd say, "Can't we turn these off?" 14:34 I'd say, "If you turn those off, that's a bad sign. " 14:36 "You want those to keep beeping!" 14:38 And a lot of patients would say, "Hey, you know, 14:40 that really helped" They made peace with it then. 14:43 That's exactly the point! 14:45 We've been talking with Dr. Skip MacCarty 14:47 He has written a seminar called "Stress Beyond Coping" 14:50 He is a fellow of the American Institute of Stress 14:54 and we hope that what you have been learning 14:56 has been helpful to you, 14:57 and we hope you join us when we come back. 15:01 Have you found yourself wishing 15:02 that you could shed a few pounds? 15:04 Have you been on a diet for most of your life 15:06 but not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 15:10 If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, 15:12 then we have a solution for you that works! 15:15 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 15:18 have written a marvelous booklet called... 15:20 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 15:22 and we'd like to send it to you FREE of charge. 15:25 Here's a medically sound approach successfully 15:28 used by thousands who were able to eat more 15:30 and lose weight permanently without feeling guilty or hungry 15:34 through lifestyle medicine. 15:36 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been featured on 3ABN 15:39 and in this booklet, they present a sensible approach 15:42 to eating, nutrition and lifestyle changes 15:45 that can help you prevent heart disease, diabetes, 15:47 and EVEN cancer. 15:48 Call or write today for your free copy of... 15:51 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 15:52 and you could be on your way to a healthier, happier YOU! 15:56 It's ABSOLUTELY free of charge, so call or write today. 16:02 Welcome back, we're talking with Dr. Skip MacCarty 16:04 He is a fellow with the "American Institute of Stress" 16:07 and we've been learning some really interesting things 16:10 about how to relax! 16:11 You know doctor, sometimes I find it very hard to relax; 16:14 my schedule just doesn't seem to allow for it. What should I do? 16:17 Well you're right, we just all have to make a commitment 16:20 to plan lighter days when we get into those kinds of situations. 16:23 Dr. Meyer Friedman, the one 16:25 who was with Dr. Ray Rosenman 16:28 discovered type A, type B personality, 16:31 and wrote the book on it. 16:35 He had a heart attack when he was fairly young. 16:38 He was just pushing, pushing himself. 16:39 He was a type A himself. 16:41 And he said that he came up with what he called 16:44 the 5-year rule... 16:46 And that is when he was asked to do something, 16:49 he would ask himself... "Will this matter in 5 years?" 16:52 He said that thinned out his calendar considerably 16:54 because he was saying no to so many things. 16:57 You know Don, in World War II, talking about this very issue, 17:01 the British people, when they converted their factories over 17:07 to war munitions factories and making war machines, 17:12 their average worker got up to 66 hours a week of work. 17:16 And they found that their quality had gone way down, 17:19 their productivity was dropping. 17:21 Just as government policy began to cut back the work hours, 17:23 they got it back to 48 hours, and found that 17:26 productivity had increased by 5% over 66 hours! 17:30 By actually working less, they accomplished more... 17:31 And the quality had gone back up to a very high degree of quality 17:34 So actually, the idea that working more - accomplishes more 17:39 has a limit, because after a certain point, 17:42 we actually accomplish LESS by working more; 17:44 don't enjoy it as much and we actually 17:47 come up with a poor quality product. 17:49 So less is more? 17:50 To a point, that's right. 17:53 You know, I think that one thing you've just shared now 17:55 is going to make a lot of people want to get this tape. 17:57 They're going to be showing it to their bosses. 17:59 They're going to show it to all these different people. 18:01 What about exercise and relaxation? 18:04 Well it's interesting, exercise is one of the things 18:06 we need to be able to relax. 18:08 You'd think the opposite of that 18:10 but have you ever been so tired you couldn't sleep? 18:13 So tired you couldn't sleep... Maybe you haven't 18:16 Yes, I have, I have. Yeah 18:17 I have too and we can do that if we're just doing 18:20 desk-type work because we get mentally 18:22 fatigued but not physically fatigued. 18:25 What exercise does, it brings a physical fatigue, 18:27 even if you exercise earlier in the day... 18:28 There's a physical fatigue that accompanies exercise 18:32 that enables you to relax. 18:34 After you're tensed up, after you exercise, 18:35 you have a deeper relaxation of response for hours afterwards 18:42 Did you sleep better last night after our 5 mile walk? 18:45 I slept much better after our 5 mile walk! 18:47 Oh man, I did too! It was great! 18:48 So that's what we need to do... 18:50 Especially if we're doing brain work. Exactly! 18:54 How much should we sleep when we go to sleep? 18:56 Research shows, Don, that we need between 18:59 7-8 hours sleep to be the BEST. 19:03 People who sleep less than that or more than that 19:06 actually die at a higher rate than those who sleep 7-8 hours 19:10 But the rule of thumb is that if you're waking 19:16 to an alarm clock, you're not getting enough sleep. 19:19 You need to wake BEFORE the alarm goes off. 19:22 Throw those alarm clocks out... That's right 19:24 This is good news for lots of people! 19:27 And, in fact, the only way that I found to accomplish that 19:31 is to manage the night before. 19:33 You can't set the alarm earlier 19:35 or just set the alarm later, that doesn't work. 19:37 You've got to try going to bed a little bit earlier 19:40 the night before. 19:41 Turn off the TV program a little earlier; 19:43 turn on the VCR and tape it if you have to or whatever 19:45 But go to sleep a little bit earlier the night before, 19:48 and keep doing that - still set the alarm at the time 19:49 you need to get up but the alarm should be the fail-safe. 19:52 You should be waking before the alarm. 19:54 Then your body has had this sleep that it needs 19:56 and you're ready to go to work. 19:59 Did you have teenagers? 20:00 Yes, I had teenagers. I had 6 of them! 20:03 Would you trust this with them... no alarm clock 20:06 Well if they were... I didn't trust myself 20:12 as a teenager with no alarm clock... 20:15 So YOU were their alarm clock probably at that time... 20:17 But we need to go to bed earlier so we can get up. 20:19 Any types of things that can help us relax? 20:22 Yes, there is a whole series of fun things 20:28 that I refer to as relaxation devices 20:31 and I've got some of them here. 20:33 Just little things I pick up that just relax me 20:35 that can sit on my desk at work. 20:37 This is a little stress ball. 20:39 There are all kinds of stress balls and you take it, 20:41 and just play with it at work. Let me see that... 20:45 Here's an herbal tea, a stress tea that my wife just loves. 20:49 That doesn't look like a stress tea. 20:51 It's a stress tea, it's an herbal tea. 20:52 Better get a close-up of that. I don't know if it works. 20:55 But even just the thought of it, 20:56 you know... you're drinking a stress tea! 20:58 My wife loves the stress tea here. 20:59 This does say, "Rx Stress Relief Elixir" 21:02 on the bottle... Actually it does! 21:05 And this is a back rubber. 21:07 You rub this up and down on your back, 21:09 and it really is quite... Someone gave this to me 21:11 at the end of a seminar that we did, 21:13 and it really is VERY comfortable. 21:14 I didn't even know how to use it but in one of my last seminars, 21:17 somebody taught me how to use this and it's wonderful. 21:19 Excellent! Are these gifts for the host? 21:22 They're not gifts for the host. 21:25 They are demonstrations. 21:26 There are all kinds of cards... 21:29 Here's one... "The best things in life aren't things" 21:32 And you just put a few of these things around on your... 21:34 "I know God won't give me anything I can't handle, 21:36 I just wish He didn't trust me so much. " 21:38 Mother Teresa either wrote that or she actually said that 21:41 but that was a card that came that way. 21:43 So these are kind of a little humorous antidotes 21:45 that make you just put things in perspective. Yeah 21:47 Somebody in one of my seminars, 21:50 in a little show-and-tell time we had, 21:51 came up with just a little post-it thing. 21:54 So how did that help you sleep? 21:55 Well, she puts this by her bedside 21:57 because she gets ideas in the middle of the night sometimes. 21:59 And she puts this by her bedside with a pen, 22:02 and she can even, in the dark, just write enough 22:05 to be able to read it the next morning, 22:06 then she can just turn off that idea and go to sleep 22:08 instead of laying there hoping she remembers it 22:10 by morning time. Excellent idea! 22:12 Here was a little something that we got at our church 22:18 It's a free sample card and it was one of these 22:23 ...It sounds like they personalized it but it says, 22:26 "Dear Pioneer Memorial Church: 22:27 We haven't a clue as to why you haven't sent for your 22:30 free sample pair of Silkies 22:32 Panty Hose, Mrs. Pioneer Memorial Church" 22:35 And they say they've got our size 22:37 and everything - so it's written to the church. 22:39 So this is a stress reliever because it was humorous. 22:42 It's humorous, that's exactly right. 22:44 It's just a little something, a little device! 22:47 Have you ever seen the manatees? Yeah! 22:49 They're absolutely wonderful. 22:51 They're like huge elephants in the sea. 22:53 Down at Sea World of San Diego, 22:55 we saw the manatees and just watching them 22:58 just drained stress out of my life, 22:59 so we bought this little thing, I put it on my desk; 23:01 when I look at that, I tell you what, if it's in a tense time, 23:04 you just feel the stress draining out of you. 23:06 Look at those eyes, don't those look beautiful? 23:09 I don't know if this is going to work for you folks, 23:11 but... 23:12 I love this, we picked this up at 23:14 Union Station in Washington, DC 23:16 It has the most relaxing colors; it's a kaleidoscope, 23:19 and it's the most beautiful colors... 23:21 And you get in a tense time, you pick that up 23:23 and just sit back for a couple of minutes and relax... 23:27 It's wonderful, it does wonderful things for you. 23:29 I'll be back with you in a minute. 23:31 These are some stress-reducing videos - Moody Bible Institute. 23:35 They've got wonderful ones here at 3ABN as well. 23:38 And one of my favorites is what they call a "stress pencil" 23:41 I ordered it out of a magazine one time. 23:43 You're in the middle of a tense meeting and you pull out 23:45 your stress pencil... It actually says on it 23:46 "My stress pencil" and on the other end, 23:48 it's got a little something... a pacifier! 23:52 So there are all kinds of fun relaxation devices 23:55 you can use to help lower the stress levels at serious times. 23:58 I've got to say that this is probably a first 23:59 on "Health for a Lifetime" 24:01 These are very helpful ideas. 24:03 So relaxation devices, anything else? 24:07 I mean, could there be anything else after this? 24:09 Well Don, the real key is... What relaxes you? 24:13 Do you know what relaxes you? I do 24:15 And do you do it? Yes I do... That's perfect! 24:19 And everybody has to ask 24:20 that question... What is it that relaxes me? 24:22 We did a little remodeling here a while back, 24:24 and my wife got herself a Jacuzzi bathtub. 24:26 She absolutely LOVES it. 24:28 And she's in that thing every night. 24:30 She spends maybe 20 minutes in that thing every night 24:32 just relaxing. 24:33 She has a high-stress job in her work. 24:36 Another thing we put in that I didn't know I was 24:38 going to like so much is a gas log fireplace. 24:41 They make them now so beautiful, they look like real logs. 24:44 It's not like the old gas log fireplace. 24:46 I didn't think I was going to like it, but you know what? 24:49 Every night when I come home in the winter 24:50 or as soon as it gets cool enough 24:52 I turn that thing on the first thing when I get home 24:54 I turn it on the first thing in the morning, 24:56 and I just sit there and read. 24:57 I just absolutely love that gas log fireplace. 24:59 So what relaxes you and then do it. 25:01 Anything that relaxes you except it can't be harmful to you, 25:03 it can't be comfort foods or something like that. Right! 25:06 It needs to be something that's along with the 7 Keys 25:09 you've been talking about in the Beyond Coping Seminar. Exactly 25:13 You have down here the Serenity Prayer. 25:16 Don, the Serenity Prayer is SO awesome! 25:19 I've had people tell me several weeks into our seminar 25:22 ...our stress seminar that they weren't sleeping 25:25 before they came but now they are. 25:27 And it's amazing to me the power the Serenity Prayer has. 25:30 One lady told me, I just repeat the Serenity Prayer to me 25:34 every night before I go to bed. 25:35 The Serenity Prayer - when people ask me, 25:38 "Give me one idea, just one idea" 25:39 They hear I do something on stress and they say, 25:41 "Give me one idea on stress" 25:42 I always start with the Serenity Prayer. 25:44 When someone comes to me under a lot of stress, 25:46 and they want some help, get some ideas, 25:48 and some counsel or something, 25:49 and I listen to their story... 25:51 One of the first things I do, after I assess the resources 25:55 that they have available to them, 25:56 is try to apply the Serenity Prayer. 25:57 The Serenity Prayer is very simple. 25:59 Many people know it, it simply goes like this... 26:13 And so many people, Don, are wearing themselves out 26:16 fighting against things they cannot change; 26:19 struggling against those things; 26:21 trying to change things they cannot change. 26:22 They're dissipating their energies. 26:24 They have no energy left to work on the things 26:26 they really can do something about... 26:28 which often are internal things. 26:31 And the Serenity Prayer is not a VOW we make or 26:37 a strong commitment where we grit our teeth 26:39 I'm going to accept the things I cannot change... 26:41 I'm going to be tough here! No 26:43 It's releasing those things. It's a prayer. 26:45 We release them into the hands 26:47 of somebody who can do something about them. 26:49 And just rest in that; we have confidence in that. 26:52 Maybe what we can do is very small. 26:54 The little change we can make is small. 26:57 But concentrating on the change we can make 26:59 and then focusing on that; continuing to pray that prayer; 27:02 continuing to ask God to help us know the difference 27:06 between what we can change and what we can't change 27:08 can bring such peace and such deep relaxation that 27:12 really brings the whole concept of relaxation 27:13 into another whole realm. 27:15 So in your seminar it probably helps them get the 27:17 wisdom to know the difference. 27:19 Well, that's one of the things we do work on, yes. 27:22 And this seminar, by the way, is available through the 27:24 Health Ministries Department of the General Conference. 27:26 We've been talking with Dr. Skip MacCarty 27:29 He has written a new seminar called, "Stress Beyond Coping" 27:33 As a result, he was given a fellowship with the 27:37 "American Institute of Stress" 27:39 and has really gone around the country 27:41 sharing these concepts with others. 27:42 We hope that this material has been a blessing to you, 27:45 and that as a result of today's program, you can find fun ways 27:48 to relax and that you can make that a priority in your daily 27:52 schedule and that you'll have 27:54 Health that Lasts for a Lifetime! |
Revised 2014-12-17