Battle against stress is big money
The stress industry is worth more than $11 billion a year.
With overworked, overwrought consumers seeking cures ranging from aromatherapy to Zen meditation, the industry is predicted to grow to almost $14 billion in the next two years, experts say.
Job-related stress alone affects as many as two in five workers at any given time and has caused one in five people to quit a job at some time in their career. It costs business some $300 billion a year, research shows.
Consumers are trying lots of tactics to battle stress — counseling, company wellness programs, massage services, self-help books, spas, stress balls, potpourri and products from laundry detergent to bedroom slippers to oral sprays treated with scents designed to calm them down.
“Everything marches under the name of stress,” said Dr. Paul Rosch, head of The American Institute of Stress in Yonkers, New York.
It’s hard to tell what works, given that stress, or the lack thereof, can’t really be measured, Rosch said.
“Stress is different for each of us and there’s no stress reduction strategy that’s a panacea,” he said. “You can’t say whether these things work or not. It’s not really a science and a lot of it is commercially motivated.”
But demand for anti-stress products and services is unrelenting, said Dr. Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Research and Treatment Foundation in Chicago.
“We’ve seen a spike after 9/11 because people are overall more anxious,” Hirsch said, “and people seek situations that make them reduce their degree of stress.
“One way of doing it is by using aromas, another way of doing it is eating comfort foods, another way of doing it is to drink alcohol or to seek psychological intervention. We’re seeing all of these things increase,” he said.
“In the old days, to survive you had to be like a tug boat or a river barge,” Lee said. “Now you need to be like a white-water kayak.”
The stress industry creates its own demanding market, argues Angela Patmore in her book, “The Truth about Stress.”
“What is actually wrong with people who say they’re suffering from stress is they’re really experiencing fear and anxiety,” she said.
“This fear hasn’t happened by accident. It’s been deliberately engendered by the stress management industry itself, spreading what it calls stress awareness.”
And it’s harmful, Patmore said. “It’s making them psychologically weaker, it’s turning them into hypochondriacs and it’s suggesting to them that quite normal emotions and normal psychological mechanisms are a sign of disease.”
-Reuters
Dr. Keith and Laurie Nemec’s comments on the battle against stress is big money
Interesting that this study showed that stress industry is worth $11 Billion a year. And it is predicted to grow to almost $14 Billion a year in the next two years. This is a sad thing in one respect because of what stress is and how we define stress. As they said in the article, job related stress alone affects as many as two in five workers, in any given time. It costs business some $300 Billion a year, the research shows. I really like the last comment in the article that said that in creating this industry of stress relief, this actually is promoting more stress because, why? They are focusing on the stress. It’s interesting as the one the author, Angela Packmore, stated in her book; the problem is if we focus on stress it makes people psychologically weaker. As she says it’s turning them into hypochondriacs and suggesting to them that it’s quite normal, emotions and normal psychological mechanisms are a sign of disease. So, let’s look at it this way, if we focus on weight loss by stepping on a scale all the time, we’ll never lose weight. If we focus on our total health eventually the weight will just come right off. If we focus on a tumor and cancer and our whole focus is to get rid of the cancer, we actually empower the cancer, because our mind is fixed on the cancer. The word says fix your eyes on Him, the author, perfector, and finisher of our faith. Not to fix our eyes on the things of the world, and surly not to fix our eyes on the cancer, or the weight, or the stress. So what is stress? Stress is something that causes the body to have to react at a higher level. Has to turn up the body’s ability, functioning capabilities. Stress is not a bad thing. Stress is actually a good thing. Stress on a muscle makes a muscle grow stronger and bigger. It’s all how we look at the stress. If you look at your job as stressful, and you look at your diseases, your symptoms as stressful and things in your life as stressful, that’s how you choose to see them. But you can see them in a different way. You can see your job is what God has put you in and that you are doing it to the glory of God and you are serving Him no matter how stressful the situation is. You can see your symptoms, conditions and diseases as a coming to the end of yourself, and seeing Gods hand in all things. No God doesn’t make us sick to make us sick, but all things are controlled by God for the glory of God and for the transformation of ourselves into His image and likeness. So what does sickness and disease do? It puts your priorities in life right, it takes your eyes off yourself and it goes on a much deeper journey. A deeper journey not only physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Ask anyone who has survived cancer, how they now appreciate life in a whole new way and they see life differently than they ever did. So as everything in life we can see it as good, as God designed and God allowed, or we can see it as not good. And it’s up to us if we see God’s hand in everything, then all stress is going to be what’s called eustress, which is good stress. But if we see everything as bad and coming against us, then all stress is going to be distress. So, it’s all how you choose to see it. It’s either going to be good stress, or bad stress. Eustress or distress, one will produce growth, maturity, actually strengthening of the body and the immune system and all systems of the body. Whereas the other one is going to produce sickness and disease and weakness of the body, mind and emotions, and blocking the flow of the Spirit. So, to affect this we want to live the 7 Basic Steps to Total Health each and every day of our life. This is the best way to live a stress free life or live in the eustress which transforms us into His image and likeness. And they are
Seven Basic Steps to Total Health™ which are:
1. Air— deep diaphragm breathing to oxygenate your body.
2. Water—drink 32 ounces of distilled water per 50/lbs per body weight per day.
3. Food—consume a diet of living/raw plant food which has the highest energy, bioelectricity, enzymes and bioavailable nutrient content to either maintain or restore your health.
4. Sleep—sleep 9.5 hours with 3.5 of them before midnight.
5. Exercise—exercise 30 minutes every day.
6. Fasting—fast from the normal Standard American Diet (SAD).
7. Prayer—take the time throughout your day to regularly still your mind so you can hear the voice of God spoken into your heart.