Emotions Affect Us Physically
(Psalms 31:9-10 NKJV) Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body! {10} For my life is spent with grief, And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, And my bones waste away. We are incarnate, in the body, and our soul, spirit and body interact and communicate.
(Psalms 31:9-10 NKJV) Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body! {10} For my life is spent with grief, And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, And my bones waste away. We are incarnate, in the body, and our soul, spirit and body interact and communicate.
Jesus’ Body & His Emotions
Under duress Jesus wept, groaned deeply, and even sweated drops of blood. (Luke 22:44) So we see Jesus’ emotions affected His body. His body also affected His emotions? Jesus felt His physical life just like we all do and even cried from the cross “I thirst”. However the physical life did not dictate His behavior or responses; even after fasting forty days in the wilderness Jesus was able to resist the temptation to turn the stones into bread. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are including by emotions generated from within the human body and by the intense cravings of the flesh. Yet He was able to resist His physical desires when it would have been sinful to give in. At the correct times He quite legitimately satisfied His physical needs with a drink of water from the well or a breakfast of fish on the beach.
The Christian’s Body
Christian belief has it that the spirit and soul reside in a good body, which has unfortunately been tainted by the Fall. The body now has evil resident within it. (Romans 7) The body needs to be redeemed. Just as the spirit and soul are redeemed so our body will be redeemed at the resurrection of the dead. The body you have now will be transformed, rise from the dead, become immortal and be glorious. ( 1 Corinthians 15) The body is for God and God is for the body. (1 Corinthians 6:13)
When The Body Affects Us….
This interface between the soul and the body is complex and poorly understood yet it is one of the main areas of problems in the Christian life. What about people who have bouts of depression that are induced by the medication that keeps them alive? Or the terror of a child with high fever and delirium? Or the weariness of chronic arthritis or the sudden emotional swings that come to people with spinal damage ? These emotions arise unbidden and unwanted from neurological damage and from chemical imbalances in the body. Yet they affect us deeply and are a large part of our spiritual struggle. Where emotions have a physiological basis changing the underlying physical condition will often bring emotional relief.
Sin Or Substance?
Anxiety – can arise from too much caffeine Rage – from alcohol, particularly rum & spirits Violence & Cruelty – met amphetamine addiction Depression – can be a side-effect of barbiturates Hallucinations – can be caused by eating the wrong mushrooms. Passivity – from over-use of marijuana Lust – is a side-effect of certain anti-depressants Mood swings – hormones, Mysoline etc.
Emotions & The Brain
Quick “fight or flight” reactions tend to be based in the amygdala. Self-control & social skill seems mainly located in the higher regions of the brain such as the pre-frontal cortex. New non-intrusive imaging techniques are helping us locate areas of the brain associated with various emotions. Brain damage can affect emotional control.
Stress & The Brain
The brain is like a computer. Like a computer it can clog up and “hang” when its ability to process instructions becomes overloaded. Overload comes when what we are trying to do is: Too much Too complex Or too urgent The decision about what we shall process and attend to is mainly made by the reticular formation.
Selective Attention Say you are driving along listening to music. Then suddenly a child on a bicycle swerves in front of you. Your mind moves attention from the music to the impending accident. This switch in attention and processing is made very swiftly by the reticular formation. It decides that the bicycle is more urgent and more important.
Overload
If three bicycles, a tractor and a deep ditch suddenly appear you cannot cope with them all at once. Your mind is overloaded and may either freeze up, or panic and make a rash choice. We can only cope with “so much” before we run out of processing space and feel “clogged up” and anxious. Taking on too much or taking on things that are too complex places us under stress.
Stress Breakdown – Stage 1
Firstly our system fires warning bells about the overload we are experiencing and we feel stressed and anxious and uptight and tense. These uncomfortable feelings are trying to tell us that we are doing too much and it would be a good idea if we slowed down. They are saying “You are driving yourself too fast, back off.” Many people ignore these warning signals, they like “driving fast”, living on adrenalin and they have an image of wanting to do more than others. So they suppress the anxiety by an act of will and keep going.
Stress Breakdown – Stage 2
In stage two the person loses control of emotions and finds themselves getting angry or upset very easily. They can cry one minute and laugh the next. These sudden emotional changes are termed “emotional lability”. The person in stage two stress breakdown also lose their ability to adjust to change and to motivate themselves to get started though once they have started they can work as hard as anyone else. The system is beginning to crumble at this point and the person becomes subject to psychosomatic disorders as the body tries to slow the person down. These include migraines, headaches, asthma, dermatitis and hay fever. The immune system suffers and resistance bacteria and viruses already present in the person’s body may be able to cause disease. These include common infections such as colds and ‘flu, herpes virus infections, mouth ulcers, lobar pneumonia, boils and pimples, tonsillitis and urinary tract infections.
Stress Breakdown – Stage 3
1. Avoidance of sensory stimulation
2. Development of intolerance, and
3. Apparent change in personality.
The brain’s circuit breakers have cut in. Everything is being rapidly simplified to reduce the number of issues the person has to deal with. In order to avoid sensory stimulation the person may retreat to the countryside, separate from their partner, stop having sex, avoid loud music and stop going to shopping centres. Sounds will seem too loud, ice too cold, lights too bright. They will switch off the radio when others turn it on. They will go outside and walk around and just “space out”.
Intolerance
Development of intolerance is a mechanism for making life easy to classify, so the reticular formation can deal with the backlog. If the shades of grey and complex questions can be eliminated life becomes simple and things can be processed again. If everything can be reduced to the binary states the brain is most comfortable processing, then it can whiz through the decisions. As the decisions are made the clogged up feeling goes and some of the stress can be removed. In third stage stress breakdown people become totally intolerant of small things “If you leave your shaving hairs in the sink I will leave you”. Just a small thing, that was previously tolerated or laughed at, becomes a major drama. Things previously tolerated become unable to be tolerated in third stage stress breakdown.
Change In Personality
Lastly the person in third stage stress breakdown may have an apparent change in personality and change their values. They may be unable to resist cult recruiters, they are easily brainwashed, they have sudden changes in beliefs and ideas and attitudes that required some will or effort to maintain are likely to be abandoned. Some talk of a strange feeling of peace and purity that comes with this process as everything gets radically simplified. There is also a loss of the “law of strength”. Normally a slight tap on the knee elicits a slight movement and a large tap on the knee a large movement. The law that a small stimulus generally elicits a small response and a large stimulus a large response is known as “the law of strength” and is a sign of a normal functioning of the nervous system.
Getting Rid Of Stress
1. Am I trying to do too much?
2. Is what I am doing too complicated?
3. Is what I am doing too urgent? Am I trying to do too many things in too short a space of time?
4. I what I am doing “too important”. Am I telling myself that virtually everything is important?
Inner Language & Self-Talk
Words such as “should”, ‘must” ought” , “have to”, got to” create the feeling that the task is compulsory, urgent or important. If you have “got to” do everything and “have to” do it “right now” – you soon feel overloaded. You are telling your brain that EVERYTHING is important so it cannot prioritize inputs properly. Eliminate “should”, “must” and “have to” or use them very sparingly. Speak to yourself in calm, controlled, positive , gentle terms. List tasks in event order, not time order. Time deadlines create inner pressure, event order is more natural and relaxing. “I will do X after lunch” is more relaxing than “I must do X before 2 o’clock”
Driving Forces – Control & Ambition
Some people become stressed out and ill pursuing unrealistic inner drives and ambitions. Others strive to control everyone & everything. This means they must attend to many things simultaneously - which is very stressful. Some have a strong urge to please others that makes them take on too much work. Trying to reach an imaginary “top level” quickly can create a stressful urgency in every action. Other people imagine they are responsible for a large number of people or even “the whole world’.
A Quiet Life…
(1 Thessalonians 4:11 NKJV) that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, (1 Timothy 2:2 NKJV) (pray ) for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. (1 Peter 3:4 NKJV) rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
Production Or Fruit?
Most people don’t care that much about your numerical output . They do care about how you act and react. They do care about how you treat them. Is the fruit falling off the tree? Are patience, kindness, and gentleness, being ditched because you are in a hurry? If slowing down by 20% makes you 100% better in your relationships - then it is obviously worth it.
Calming Down
Use “To-Do” lists. Schedule tasks - then live one day at a time. Have clear and conscious priorities. Cease making everything important. Delay some seemingly “urgent” tasks Delegate simple jobs that take up brain-space. Ditch trivial and unnecessary tasks and decisions. Cut down on sensory overload. Simplify life and keep it simple. Develop a clear sense of order. Avoid clutter. Do not “crash diet” or expose your body to extreme physiological stress.
Health & Healing….
Pray for physical healing Pray for emotional healing Pray for deep spiritual healing Get good medical advice Have a check-up Check your medications and their side-effects Have a diet that is healing and balanced rather than full of stimulants, salt, & sugar. Avoid pollution, allergens and unhealthy environments.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit can give life to our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11) The Holy Spirit can give us victory over physical impulses, lusts and addictions. (Galatians 5:16-18) The Holy Spirit can give us wisdom in how to live peacefully and bear the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22,23) The Holy Spirit and the Scriptures give us a balanced and eternal perspective on life so we are not as stressed out. If we set our minds on the Spirit we will know life and peace. (Romans 8:4-6)
The Peace That Surpasses….
(Romans 8:5-6 NKJV) {5} For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. {6} For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; {7} and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Under duress Jesus wept, groaned deeply, and even sweated drops of blood. (Luke 22:44) So we see Jesus’ emotions affected His body. His body also affected His emotions? Jesus felt His physical life just like we all do and even cried from the cross “I thirst”. However the physical life did not dictate His behavior or responses; even after fasting forty days in the wilderness Jesus was able to resist the temptation to turn the stones into bread. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are including by emotions generated from within the human body and by the intense cravings of the flesh. Yet He was able to resist His physical desires when it would have been sinful to give in. At the correct times He quite legitimately satisfied His physical needs with a drink of water from the well or a breakfast of fish on the beach.
The Christian’s Body
Christian belief has it that the spirit and soul reside in a good body, which has unfortunately been tainted by the Fall. The body now has evil resident within it. (Romans 7) The body needs to be redeemed. Just as the spirit and soul are redeemed so our body will be redeemed at the resurrection of the dead. The body you have now will be transformed, rise from the dead, become immortal and be glorious. ( 1 Corinthians 15) The body is for God and God is for the body. (1 Corinthians 6:13)
When The Body Affects Us….
This interface between the soul and the body is complex and poorly understood yet it is one of the main areas of problems in the Christian life. What about people who have bouts of depression that are induced by the medication that keeps them alive? Or the terror of a child with high fever and delirium? Or the weariness of chronic arthritis or the sudden emotional swings that come to people with spinal damage ? These emotions arise unbidden and unwanted from neurological damage and from chemical imbalances in the body. Yet they affect us deeply and are a large part of our spiritual struggle. Where emotions have a physiological basis changing the underlying physical condition will often bring emotional relief.
Sin Or Substance?
Anxiety – can arise from too much caffeine Rage – from alcohol, particularly rum & spirits Violence & Cruelty – met amphetamine addiction Depression – can be a side-effect of barbiturates Hallucinations – can be caused by eating the wrong mushrooms. Passivity – from over-use of marijuana Lust – is a side-effect of certain anti-depressants Mood swings – hormones, Mysoline etc.
Emotions & The Brain
Quick “fight or flight” reactions tend to be based in the amygdala. Self-control & social skill seems mainly located in the higher regions of the brain such as the pre-frontal cortex. New non-intrusive imaging techniques are helping us locate areas of the brain associated with various emotions. Brain damage can affect emotional control.
Stress & The Brain
The brain is like a computer. Like a computer it can clog up and “hang” when its ability to process instructions becomes overloaded. Overload comes when what we are trying to do is: Too much Too complex Or too urgent The decision about what we shall process and attend to is mainly made by the reticular formation.
Selective Attention Say you are driving along listening to music. Then suddenly a child on a bicycle swerves in front of you. Your mind moves attention from the music to the impending accident. This switch in attention and processing is made very swiftly by the reticular formation. It decides that the bicycle is more urgent and more important.
Overload
If three bicycles, a tractor and a deep ditch suddenly appear you cannot cope with them all at once. Your mind is overloaded and may either freeze up, or panic and make a rash choice. We can only cope with “so much” before we run out of processing space and feel “clogged up” and anxious. Taking on too much or taking on things that are too complex places us under stress.
Stress Breakdown – Stage 1
Firstly our system fires warning bells about the overload we are experiencing and we feel stressed and anxious and uptight and tense. These uncomfortable feelings are trying to tell us that we are doing too much and it would be a good idea if we slowed down. They are saying “You are driving yourself too fast, back off.” Many people ignore these warning signals, they like “driving fast”, living on adrenalin and they have an image of wanting to do more than others. So they suppress the anxiety by an act of will and keep going.
Stress Breakdown – Stage 2
In stage two the person loses control of emotions and finds themselves getting angry or upset very easily. They can cry one minute and laugh the next. These sudden emotional changes are termed “emotional lability”. The person in stage two stress breakdown also lose their ability to adjust to change and to motivate themselves to get started though once they have started they can work as hard as anyone else. The system is beginning to crumble at this point and the person becomes subject to psychosomatic disorders as the body tries to slow the person down. These include migraines, headaches, asthma, dermatitis and hay fever. The immune system suffers and resistance bacteria and viruses already present in the person’s body may be able to cause disease. These include common infections such as colds and ‘flu, herpes virus infections, mouth ulcers, lobar pneumonia, boils and pimples, tonsillitis and urinary tract infections.
Stress Breakdown – Stage 3
1. Avoidance of sensory stimulation
2. Development of intolerance, and
3. Apparent change in personality.
The brain’s circuit breakers have cut in. Everything is being rapidly simplified to reduce the number of issues the person has to deal with. In order to avoid sensory stimulation the person may retreat to the countryside, separate from their partner, stop having sex, avoid loud music and stop going to shopping centres. Sounds will seem too loud, ice too cold, lights too bright. They will switch off the radio when others turn it on. They will go outside and walk around and just “space out”.
Intolerance
Development of intolerance is a mechanism for making life easy to classify, so the reticular formation can deal with the backlog. If the shades of grey and complex questions can be eliminated life becomes simple and things can be processed again. If everything can be reduced to the binary states the brain is most comfortable processing, then it can whiz through the decisions. As the decisions are made the clogged up feeling goes and some of the stress can be removed. In third stage stress breakdown people become totally intolerant of small things “If you leave your shaving hairs in the sink I will leave you”. Just a small thing, that was previously tolerated or laughed at, becomes a major drama. Things previously tolerated become unable to be tolerated in third stage stress breakdown.
Change In Personality
Lastly the person in third stage stress breakdown may have an apparent change in personality and change their values. They may be unable to resist cult recruiters, they are easily brainwashed, they have sudden changes in beliefs and ideas and attitudes that required some will or effort to maintain are likely to be abandoned. Some talk of a strange feeling of peace and purity that comes with this process as everything gets radically simplified. There is also a loss of the “law of strength”. Normally a slight tap on the knee elicits a slight movement and a large tap on the knee a large movement. The law that a small stimulus generally elicits a small response and a large stimulus a large response is known as “the law of strength” and is a sign of a normal functioning of the nervous system.
Getting Rid Of Stress
1. Am I trying to do too much?
2. Is what I am doing too complicated?
3. Is what I am doing too urgent? Am I trying to do too many things in too short a space of time?
4. I what I am doing “too important”. Am I telling myself that virtually everything is important?
Inner Language & Self-Talk
Words such as “should”, ‘must” ought” , “have to”, got to” create the feeling that the task is compulsory, urgent or important. If you have “got to” do everything and “have to” do it “right now” – you soon feel overloaded. You are telling your brain that EVERYTHING is important so it cannot prioritize inputs properly. Eliminate “should”, “must” and “have to” or use them very sparingly. Speak to yourself in calm, controlled, positive , gentle terms. List tasks in event order, not time order. Time deadlines create inner pressure, event order is more natural and relaxing. “I will do X after lunch” is more relaxing than “I must do X before 2 o’clock”
Driving Forces – Control & Ambition
Some people become stressed out and ill pursuing unrealistic inner drives and ambitions. Others strive to control everyone & everything. This means they must attend to many things simultaneously - which is very stressful. Some have a strong urge to please others that makes them take on too much work. Trying to reach an imaginary “top level” quickly can create a stressful urgency in every action. Other people imagine they are responsible for a large number of people or even “the whole world’.
A Quiet Life…
(1 Thessalonians 4:11 NKJV) that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, (1 Timothy 2:2 NKJV) (pray ) for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. (1 Peter 3:4 NKJV) rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
Production Or Fruit?
Most people don’t care that much about your numerical output . They do care about how you act and react. They do care about how you treat them. Is the fruit falling off the tree? Are patience, kindness, and gentleness, being ditched because you are in a hurry? If slowing down by 20% makes you 100% better in your relationships - then it is obviously worth it.
Calming Down
Use “To-Do” lists. Schedule tasks - then live one day at a time. Have clear and conscious priorities. Cease making everything important. Delay some seemingly “urgent” tasks Delegate simple jobs that take up brain-space. Ditch trivial and unnecessary tasks and decisions. Cut down on sensory overload. Simplify life and keep it simple. Develop a clear sense of order. Avoid clutter. Do not “crash diet” or expose your body to extreme physiological stress.
Health & Healing….
Pray for physical healing Pray for emotional healing Pray for deep spiritual healing Get good medical advice Have a check-up Check your medications and their side-effects Have a diet that is healing and balanced rather than full of stimulants, salt, & sugar. Avoid pollution, allergens and unhealthy environments.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit can give life to our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11) The Holy Spirit can give us victory over physical impulses, lusts and addictions. (Galatians 5:16-18) The Holy Spirit can give us wisdom in how to live peacefully and bear the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22,23) The Holy Spirit and the Scriptures give us a balanced and eternal perspective on life so we are not as stressed out. If we set our minds on the Spirit we will know life and peace. (Romans 8:4-6)
The Peace That Surpasses….
(Romans 8:5-6 NKJV) {5} For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. {6} For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; {7} and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
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