Stress.
We manufacture it. We're surrounded by it. It's passed onto us by parents, employers, and friends amongst us. We carry it like a boulder that, if we dropped it, would shatter the glass that makes up the world below it.
Some people will carry their stress like a cross to bear, like something they're able to boast about. Others take it on the chin and refuse to utter a word about it, as to not disturb the loved ones around them. "I can handle this entirely on my own. I wouldn't dare be a burden to another being around me with such simple problems." Did you ever think that sometimes people want to know your problems?
Consider this - if someone you love displays their problems so openly, not to brag about them, just out of sheer inability to process them…maybe they would find comfort in knowing that you're not superhuman? That, you too, bleed when cut. You're human, right? You have a heart, a brain, skin, other organs. So you must have feelings too, right? Just because all feelings aren't joyful, cheerful, and smiles…there's comfort in knowing that your loved one isn't alone in feeling pain when cut.
Plus, do you think it's healthy to hold onto everything? Usually hoarders aren't even really holding onto the items that unbearably clutter their house, but really the emotional attachment to those items. To hold your emotions and stress without allowing anything to exit your pores is a sign that the rest of your body is taking it on. That shit doesn't just vanish into the ether. Emotions may not be tangible enough to put on a scale and measured, but we all know they're real. So couldn't their effect on the human body be real?
'A 1965 survey reported the prevalence in rheumatoid arthritis-prone individuals of an array of self-abnegating traits: a "compulsive and self-sacrificing doing for others, suppression of anger, and excessive concern about social acceptability."' - The Myth of Normal
Women hospitalized for biopsy of breast cancer were evaluated for characteristics such as emotional suppression, rationalization, altruistic behavior, the avoidance of conflict, and the superautonomous self-sufficiency. The people whom rated them BLINDLY were able to predict the correct diagnosis in up to 94% and 70% in benign cases. - The Myth of Normal
I'm sure you can guess what book I'm currently reading.
What this dials down to is that we need to do a better job of expression, of being honest with ourselves and with others, and to be able to hear our emotions screaming and find a release outlet for them. They're real. They're in our bodies. We HAVE to deal with them or they're going to deal with us, wreaking havoc on our physical selves. This book is filled with constant examples of autoimmune disorders, cancer, etc. from people that had undealt trauma and emotion in their lives. Some with serious cases that shattered the idea of a normal childhood while others were just as simple as lack of love in a household. The more extreme illnesses and recoveries came from the more extreme versions of trauma. From one end of the spectrum to the other, they found their way.
We all know someone that's always way way WAY too nice, even when the situation calls for a little bit of spice. When we're younger and something serious may happen, we're induced with a flight or fight response. This is common knowledge. But what struck me as a "WOW" moment, is what if you cannot act on that fight or flight response? We all naturally release the adrenaline and we're supposed to be taking action in order to save ourselves, but what if you physically can't? What if you're held down? What if responding is likely to cause you or others around you more pain? How are you supposed to fight back as an infant? What rage can you express without further endangering yourself? ...Scary shit.
You can't. You're stuck. So now you're in a constant state of rolling over to everyone, of holding onto the rage. There's one girl in the book, and I won't go into detail about her trauma (read the book), but she has Crohn's disease. She also had some childhood trauma that she eventually found the memories of as she continued to dig through her psyche as an adult. She said that once she was able to find the moment that she had suppressed all her life, she could "see her entire digestive track from mouth to rectum light up with fire." The rage, that she could never have released when she was younger, found it's long lasting home in her digestive system.
How do these stories not become enough for people to realize that we cannot hold onto this shit? How long are we going to play this game? I have an issue, sure, give me a pill... okay back to "normal life." These emotions that we bottled up for years are not serving us. They're filled with different properties from smells to colors to sensations to temperatures and they find homes in our bodies… which consists of organs…which are in our bodies TO serve a purpose. If the emotion finds a home in the wrong organ, that organ fails to work correctly.
I know, this is quite the topic. It's out there…it's a little "woo woo" kind of talk, but how can all of our illnesses be on the rise? With more and more distractions to "kill our time," and less emphasis on healing with more emphasis on medicating…how are we supposed to believe in this theoretical "nonthing?" You can't really measure emotions. You can measure their response through chemicals in the body, but not really the emotions themselves. So I guess science says it isn't real. /shrug
But logically, let's break it down briefly - If we're continuing to advance in the medical field then why are illnesses of all sorts continuing to rise globally? Wouldn't we find preventable measures? Wouldn't we have faster solutions? Why were our ancestors, who drank/smoke/had less knowledge on health…living less diseased lives? Why is suicide on the rise in younger generations? Why are stress levels higher than ever?
There's no one right answer, but I firmly believe (and have even before starting to read this book) that finding inner-peace, or at least working towards it, is our only solution that we can all soley take action towards. It won't solve everything, but it's going to help our reaction to stressful situations, our mind will feel more at ease, and we'll pass on less issues to the generations that come next. Don't we owe it to the world and the people that come after us? After all, we are all connected. There cannot be one without the many, but there cannot be many without the one.