The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief: Decoding the Meaning and Significance of Stress

The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief Decoding the Meaning and Significance of Stress Albert Crum, M.D.

CRC Press Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief Decoding the Meaning and Significance of Stress

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crum, Albert The 10-step method of stress relief : decoding the meaning and significance of stress / Albert Crum p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8493-0063-0 (alk. paper) 1. Stress (Psychology). 2. Stress management. I. Title: Ten-step method of stress relief. II. Title. BF575.S75 C78 2000 155.9′042—dc21

00-009774 CIP

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use. Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The consent of CRC Press LLC does not extend to copying for general distribution, for promotion, for creating new works, or for resale. Specific permission must be obtained in writing from CRC Press LLC for such copying. Direct all inquiries to CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33431. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation, without intent to infringe.

© 2000 by CRC Press LLC No claim to original U.S. Government works International Standard Book Number 0-8493-0063-0 Library of Congress Card Number 00-009774 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Printed on acid-free paper

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Preface Welcome Reader! You are about to embark on an important journey into an area of human endeavor that, before now, was only a hunch or hope: expanded brain power and stress relief, which many great minds have been able to achieve. It is no secret that the full potential of the human brain is untapped in the course of our daily lives and that even the scope of possibilities available to us represents an unmapped territory of infinite dimension. So it should come as no surprise that the stress we confront in our lives—from the daily search for car keys to the fear of losing a job to the death of a loved one—is not given the full benefit of our problem-solving and coping abilities. One of the most perplexing human challenges is the imposition and perplexity of stress on our lives, our relationships, our work, and our happiness. And, while there are easily hundreds of books available to teach us how to feel better in our stressful world, they focus mainly on our response to stress and the symptomatic relief of stress, instead of on the source and the function of stress. That can create, at the very least, a cyclical or repetitive pattern of negative feelings, anxieties, and fears that must be addressed again and again. It could also ignore the important perceptual/informational and protective function of stress. By the time you finish this book and gain a fuller understanding of how stress works, it is hoped that you may be able to view your stress feelings as a friend who is only carrying out a perceptual function and urgently attempting to gain your attention. The often-noxious quality of stress feelings collaborate with their goal of winning your attention. To what end? That you may be protected from harm and other less-than-optimal conditions. This takes place by a remarkable and responsive process within your own body. When you recognize how creative and informative stress feelings can be, you may be prompted to comment: My stress feelings really look out for me. Their constant watchfulness seems to say “You are being loved, warned and protected by a dear friend.” On the other hand, if we do not understand why stress feelings exist and how they function, we can be overwhelmed by them. We can jeopardize our ability to function effectively, make ourselves ill by physical hyper-reactions, render ourselves ineffective by paralysis of thought processes, and lose a sense of integration with the world around us. The Percept Method®, developed by the author and detailed in this book, provides a new process in the traditional stress management model. It engages the intellectual problem-solving energies of your brain to accurately identify the source of stress—the stressor. The brain has the capacity to char-

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acterize the stressor in terms of how important the problem is, how much attention it deserves, what there is about the stressor that actually causes the problem, what the actual feelings associated with the stress are (depression, anger, suspicion, worry, apprehension), and what resources will be appropriate and successful in helping to resolve the problem. The benefits can be both immediate and focused on the present challenge—stress management—while also offering a path to expanded brain power by utilizing unused reserves in the brain. In addition, with essential behavioral reeducation, you can also learn to retrain your sympathetic nervous system to respond more appropriately to a stressor. One caution however: The Percept Method isn’t a quick fix. You will be asked to work hard, and the more stressful the problem, the harder the work may be. But, the rewards are commensurate with the energy you invest, increasing your efficiency and success in coping with the challenges you face. You will be asked to sharpen your perceptive skills, as Dr. William Osler asked the young doctors who studied with him over a century ago. Largely because of Dr. Osler ’s “observation methods,” which became widely adopted by clinics and hospitals across the country, American medicine was revolutionized and became a model for the world. Under the tutelage of Dr. Osler, the young doctors were taught “to use their senses in a simple and orderly manner” (Bliss, 1999). His “observation classes” elevated perception to an art. Now, you can apply the same principles of perception to self-observation, self-monitoring, and self-help, just as the young doctors were taught to apply those skills to others. Accurate perception and identification of the stressor along with accurate perception and self-monitoring of stress feelings are fundamental principles of The Percept Method. Attempting to manage stress without accurate identification of the stressor is like erecting a building on an unsound foundation or establishing a thesis with erroneous assumptions. To pursue that course is to be like the “man who built his house on sand” (Matthew, 7:26). Without accurate self-monitoring, stress feelings cannot be readily perceived in their initial stage. These feelings can then escalate and become prolonged in their effort to gain your attention. In the meantime, they can often cause needless physical harm. Various modalities or therapies may assist you to manage stress, but the answers and abilities are usually within you. Do not hesitate to use whatever professional, pastoral, or natural help is necessary to bring out your inner answers. And, should you be in counseling or therapy, it could be helpful to discuss the various premises and your questions with your trusted advisor. Further, this Method is not intended for individuals who are required to take psychoactive prescription medications, who have Sensory Integrative Dysfunction, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or any psychiatric disorder. Bon voyage! Albert Crum, M.D.

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Overview of The Percept Method™ The Percept Method™ details the vital perceptual/informational/protective mission of feelings. It focuses on stress feelings, because of their immediate urgency. It shows why Nature made stress feelings the way they are: why they need to be noxious; why we so often view these feelings as enemies; the extensive means we employ to avoid the information they want to give; and the consequences that can result to our bodies when we try to suppress or impede the function which Nature gave these feelings to perform. It explains why decoding the meaning and significance of stress feelings is often difficult and why the process of changing physical hyper-reactivity is often slow. Finally, it describes the benefits we can derive from allowing perception to work. Examples from the lives of historic persons demonstrate their special coping skills. In The Percept Method, certain concepts and terms are presented either for the first time or in a different light. The terminology of The Percept Method includes the following which are defined in the Glossary. Accuracy of Stress Data Action Plan Agression-Fear Stress Response Alternatives Basic Reassurances Belief System Cerebral Cortex Change (essential, but slow and perplexing) Code of Sentience Cognitive (Cerebral) Engagement Cognitive Evaluation Cognitive Participation Concept Crisis or Concept Danger Continuum Curiosity Response vs Anxiety Response Danger invited by stress Decoding Dialogue of Feelings Emotion Emotional Literacy Emotional Literacy Categories Feeling

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Feelings exchange Identification Imaging-in the stressor Introspection Meditation Message Messenger Misdirection Stress Monologue of Feelings Natural Relaxation Neural Sensations Neurogram Noninterference Nonmyelinated fibers The Percept Method Perceptual Function of Stress Perceptual System Perceptus Expansus Perceptus Interruptus Performance Stress Personal Authenticity Test (P.A.T.) Physical Reeducation Pressured Thinking Rapid Introspecter Reciprocal Feeling Retrieval System Runaway Stress Self-Evaluation Sentience to Cognition Sentinel Cognition Sentinel Stress or Sentinel Alert Sentinel Value Stages I and II of Perception Stress Stress Accuracy Test (S.A.T.) Stressor Stressor Compass Time and Distance Principle Transcendental Principles Unfulfillment Stress Uniqueness Virtual Reality Vocabulary of Feelings

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Foreword As a clinical neuropsychologist and educator for 39 years, I have been searching the world for great teachers during my entire professional life. Fortunately I found Dr. Albert Crum to be, as will you, like my dearest and closest friend. He is the exemplar doctor archetype, a term that we may have forgotten means “teacher or rabbi.” You will be touched by his clear explanation of sentinal cognition, expressed with articulate precision, demystifying intuition. Indeed, your new mind doctor radiates the truest definition of philanthropy for the human spirit during our tumultuous plight, when stress is formally confronted for what it is, “the hidden killer.” Dr. Crum warmly offers an invitation to your psychological temple’s door for proper physical and mental well-being to climb or skip over a few steps on your own self-directed path. Dr. Crum’s program decodes the reader’s stress. Following each step, selfassessment exercises provide individualized diagnostic checkpoints. The Percept Method is written for everyone because it offers solid “self-help intervention.” As a distinguished internationally acclaimed scientist and humanitarian, Dr. Crum teaches us to transform stumbling blocks into stepping-stones. Both the conscious and unconscious minds are skillfully self-explored in simple language. When new terms are introduced, precise psychological explanations blend with structured self-evaluation to achieve “combat strategies.” Applied psychotherapy is offered to you as his reader (not as a patient) like secret “acres of diamonds.” Socratic logic through scientific information gives answer to our most complicated predicaments through a “code of sentience.” This ancient language of feelings is learned enjoyably and sometimes gleaned painfully. New keys are individually cut for the reader, squarely prescribed on sequential evaluation to disarm and eliminate harmful stressors. To counter unlocked neurotransmitters, such as catecholamines, which can impede or destroy the immune system, Dr. Crum carefully mixes an alchemical ingredient for “selfhelp autoimmunity” through cognitive behavioral modification. Synaptic/axonal neural reorganization occurring with physical rejuvenation is plausibly explained by the ancient Greek mind–body concept, as he clarifies our symptoms and etiology. These symptoms regrettably enhance needless physical overreactions and impair our intellectual performance through selfimposed handicaps, but our author employs Virgil’s old adage, “Mind… sways the whole mass.” In our accelerated and frequently despairing world of rapid technological change, mankind somehow evolves through crucial adolescence to a poten-

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tial journey into another millennium. Dr. Crum gracefully conveys rejuvenated hope with benevolence. Who could have dreamed from Marconi’s radio that Websites, email, and e-commerce would transmit unlimited manipulative data, communicated internationally at the click of a button? Accompanying this advent of advanced computerization are inevitable destructive risk factors that must be addressed and corrected immediately. Despite so many difficulties faced in our troubled world, we have passed through the “negative nineties” and are encouraged by the possibilities of inimitable effective communication. The terms transcendence and transformation take on new meaning, well within the reader’s grasp. Drug dependency can be readily understood in an innovative concept of reactive behavior that can be cured. Butcher, baker, or candlestick maker; police officer, theologian, intelligence agent, politician, and royalty alike will all embrace Dr. Crum’s scientific contribution as his benevolent gift to humanity. Albert offers his readers skillful knowledge in self-management through a “wellness model,” demonstrated by many distinguished thinkers including Dr. David Rosengard, Dr. Russell N. Cassel, and humbly myself, returning with unexpected gusto from a turbulent journey beyond inoperable cancer, co-piloted with Dr. Crum’s help. This classic text is written for everyone. Even now The Percept Method is being prescribed internationally at clinics, colleges, and universities. This opens new windows of postgraduate research for traditional and integrative medicine, entered in Australia through clinical pre- and post-trials to alleviate adrenergic stress accompanying cancer and heart disease. Pragmatic applications are treatment-oriented with solid research design in pre- and post-testing to facilitate positive personality and attitudinal changes with reduced illness risk factors. Dr. Crum’s work is acutely timely. Is his superlative contribution perhaps a wake-up call or answer to NASA’s Voyager mission to the stars and CETI projects? You will enjoy the intelligence of exciting experiences, similar to learning a uniquely new subject. While enjoying this beautiful mind voyage, optimism and hope replace frustration, depression, and morbid despair. Anxieties are diagnosed promptly with private self-evaluation and replaced with readily attainable individualized goals. You will gain a renewed sense of dignity and worth in self-mastery, as you discover your own alternatives to achieve harmony by replacing time traps of despondency and fixated worries with practical creative optimism. No longer is it necessary for us to be slaves to dysfunctional adjustment, when we can learn purposeful skills to see new visions and create powerful shields for the fragile human psyche. The practical step exercises in reeducation and adjustment use strategic approaches to achieve mental calmness after suffering most traumatic personal crises. The holistic concept of “wellness,” in contrast to psychiatric “illness” or psychological “disorder,” is explored eruditely with refined focus. We are enabled to understand ourselves as, inevitably, those thoughts create feelings. The most elusive stressors are decoded, reevaluated, and corrected

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through self-help administered gently by one of our world’s most distinguished psychotherapists. The collective entity of core beliefs and value clarification is divined astutely with historical accuracy but without confronting any one religion. Cognitive dissonance or painful experiences inherent with both personal and rapid technological change are replaced with inner calm, bliss, and peacefulness. Accurate self-perception and introspection are introduced to release our amazing potential through the magic of the mind. Cornerstones for rebuilding the psyche are reinforced with ancient wisdom coupled with the explorations of our world’s greatest doctors, scientists, inventors, philosophers, theologians, and dynamic successful thinkers. Dr. Crum inimitably and affectionately materializes with wisdom during times of tribulation or turbulence. Invariably, some Jungians may simply talk. Instead, Dr. Crum “does it!” simultaneously prescribing for readers and doing them the proverbial “world of good.” Dr. Brian R. Costello, Ph.D., F.C.P. (Loud), F.A.B. Med. Psych., F.A.C.F.E., M.A.C.E. Fellow of the College of Preceptors (Royal Charter, Est. 1847), Former Australian Chairman and Director at Large; International Council of Psychologists (Est. 1943); Chairman, American Board of Psychological Specialties; Interim Chairman, International Integrative Medicine (Est. 2000) July 15, 2000

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Dr. Albert Crum with Archbishop Benjamin Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

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About the Author Albert Crum, M.D., is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is a former Chief Psychiatrist, Neuropsychiatric Service, Continental Air Command Headquarters, U.S.A.F. at Mitchell Air Force Base. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons with Psychiatry Certification, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Examiners. He is a Clinical Professor of Management Science and Adjunct Professor of Basic Science (Biological Science, Medicine, and Surgery) at New York University. He has been a consultant to many prominent international business, religious, and temporal leaders. Dr. Crum conceptualized The Percept Method® for Stress Relief which acknowledges that stress feelings are associated with a stressor which can be identified, and that stress feelings have an informational/perceptual/protective function. The Percept Method teaches in 10 Steps how to decode the meaning and significance of stress (messenger), why stress feelings are noxious, how closing one’s self off from perception can be a path to the escalation of stress, and how to use both the conscious and unconscious mind to identify the stressor and find alternatives and an action plan to alleviate the stress.

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Contents Step I

On the Meaning and Significance of Stress: Identifying and Imaging-in the Stressor.............................. 1

Step II

Removing Roadblocks in Pursuit of a Confusing Stressor ....................................................... 27

Step III

Tracking the Elusive Stressor ............................................. 47

Step IV

Meditation in Pursuit of the Ultimate Stressor ................. 59

Step V

Achieving Emotional Literacy............................................ 75

Step VI

Reward! The Appearance of Alternatives and Gaining the Advantage................................................ 95

Step VII

Your Action Plan ................................................................111

Step VIII

The Perplexity of Change and Slow Progress ................. 121

Step IX

Physical Reeducation and Coaching Techniques ........... 129

Step X

A Transcendental Path to Triumph ................................. 143

Reference List........................................................................................ 155 Glossary ................................................................................................ 159 Index...................................................................................................... 171

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STEP I: On the Meaning and Significance of Stress: Identifying and Imaging-in the Stressor An emotion is not simply an “inner” feeling, like a headache; it also has an “outer” reference to some situation, person, object or state of affairs. — Cheshire Calhoun and Robert Solomon, What Is an Emotion? p. 26 ... an emotion consists of a certain relation between the organism and its environment... — Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety, p. 65

Status Check (Any Item) 1. I feel very stressed out and nervous. I have no idea what is causing this discomfort. 2. I see no reason why a stress feeling should be so unpleasant and noxious. It actually seems punitive. 3. I see no relationship to what is going on around me or within me and the discomfort I am feeling.

Initial Step I Goals 1. All living forms experience stress. If Nature has some purpose for living forms to experience stress, I would like to know what it is. I want to understand why stress exists. 2. I would like to reduce my feelings of stress—the heart pounding, the back pain and tension, the shortness of breath, the blood pressure spikes—but I don’t know how. I want to learn.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 3. I have tried many relaxing techniques, but I have received only temporary relief. I now want to achieve greater mastery and stability over my stress feelings, so they won’t last so long and feel so intense.

Principles of Step I and Premises of The Percept Method The What and Why of Stress So much has been written about stress in the past twenty years or so that, like many words in our language, the real meaning of the word stress has been diluted by overuse. We hear someone say, “I’m stressed out!” and we don’t know if the person is facing a wardrobe choice, a career change, marital problems, or travel plans for a long-awaited vacation. The term stress has simply come to mean so much that it actually means very little in real terms. To start over, maybe a dictionary definition would help. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus defines stress as a “demand on physical or mental energy” and the “distress caused by this [demand].” Unfortunately, herein lies part of the problem. If we accept the dictionary definition, then stress is both a cause (the demand) and an effect (distress). The cause can be viewed as a good thing—a challenge, or a push to do better—while the effect is not so good—a distress that may be felt as a momentary nervousness or free-floating anxiety or stark, paralyzing fear. You will soon see a new and comprehensive way to view this interesting phenomenon of stress.

The Nature of the Stressor Has Changed Does stress serve any purpose? For our prehistoric ancestors, the answer was Yes! Stress was the body’s ability to sense physical danger and prepare for fight or flight that allowed humans to survive to the present day. But the response to present-day stress is often the same as if being chased by a saber- toothed tiger. The physiology that evolved required first the ability to sense the signal that there was a “something out there” that posed a potential threat to life—maybe the sound of a broken twig or the rustling of leaves or the roar of a wild animal. The message was simple—act quickly or be injured and possibly die. Organ Responses to a Stressor The response that ensured human’s survival was rapid, systemic, and extreme.

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1. The heart rate increased to give the body a boost in the supply of energy and oxygen to the heart, lungs, and muscles. 2. Blood pressure increased as the circulation was redirected from the skin and other nonfighting organs to the heart, lungs, and muscles. 3. Blood coagulability increased to protect against bleeding to death from possible wounds. 4. Protection against shock in the event of excessive bleeding left the skin feeling cold and clammy. Shivering, tightening of the skin, and “goose flesh” helped to conserve body heat in the event of blood loss. 5. The body began to sweat to release the heat generated by the work the body was performing to prepare for and engage in fight or flight. 6. The rate of breathing increased to raise the supply of oxygen to the muscles and help metabolize more glucose for increased energy needs. 7. There would be a sudden urge to empty the bowels and/or bladder to increase the body’s physical efficiency and reduce critical mass. 8. The eyes opened widely and the pupils became dilated to increase peripheral vision to detect possible escape routes and other possible attackers. 9. The body’s neuromusculoskeletal system assumed a tense position for sudden exertion or to brace against an assault. A heightened startle reflex represented the body’s increased vigilance and immediate reactive time. 10. The body would achieve an energy high by the secretion of adrenalin and noradrenalin, while the liver metabolized stored glycogen reserves to be converted to simple sugars for ready energy. Additional hormonal support was supplied by the pituitary gland, which secreted ACTH (adreno-corticotropic hormone). Over time this could result in a suppression of the immune response, but that was not as immediately important in the hierarchy of emergencies. Feel familiar? It should. Because over millions of years this response to perceived threat has been perfected in humans. Physical Danger vs. Concept Danger The problem is that, over the ages, the nature of the threat has changed (in most cases) from a physical danger to a concept danger (or concept crisis)—a situation that threatens your self-concept, your finances, an important relationship, or some other aspect of your status quo. The result is a level of emotional and physical discomfort that is inappropriate to the task at hand. More specifically, sufficient discomfort is generated to not only obscure the source

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of the threat but undermine your mental problem-solving capabilities for relief and resolution. In his “Note Bene” column for The Sciences , H. C. von Baeyer (1999) described how the great chemist John Dalton suffered a stroke, not while he was being physically endangered, but while he was having a vehement intellectual argument with a colleague about notations in his periodic table of the elements and had worked himself up to a near-fatal dysfunctional stress reaction (p. 12). Try to remember the last time your heart was beating rapidly, even though you weren’t engaged in strenuous physical activity. Were you having an intellectual disagreement? Were you holding a letter? A pink slip? Were you facing a business loss? A promotion? Were you about to deliver a public presentation? Were you thinking about a career change? It is no wonder then that many of us summarize the end of a routine day, or even a special event with the expression: “My nerves are shot!” then have a drink, a cigarette, a 3-mile jog, or a tranquilizer to try to calm down. Try hitting that “emergency” button 10 to 15 times a day, several days a week, over the course of a lifetime, and you begin to understand why it is time we learned a different way to view stress and handle the stresses we face in today’s world. That is what The Percept Method is meant to help you do.

Dysfunctional Physical Reactions vs. Problem Solving It is a premise of The Percept Method that untoward physical reactions and runaway physiological responses caused by unrelieved stress interfere with the brain’s efficiency to problem-solve. The cognitive process—the very capability you need when you are facing a concept danger (a non-physical crisis)— becomes handicapped. Dr. Robert White’s classic work, The Abnormal Personality (1956), reminds us that “the disruptive effects of anxiety [stress] on orderly mental processes have been the subject of many experiments. It is known that strong anxiety decreases the span of attention, interferes with recall, lowers the efficiency of reasoning” (p. 214). There is an actual physical, physiological, and neurological basis for this statement of cerebration compromise, because essential oxygen is diverted from the needs of the brain to the false urgency of the peripheral muscles. “Though the three pounds [weight of a human brain] represent a mere 2 percent of the body weight of a 150-pound person, the quartful of brain is so metabolically active that it uses 20 percent of the oxygen we take in through our lungs” (Nuland, 1997, p. 328). In a concept crisis, we may deprive the problem-solving organ (the brain) of needed oxygen and shunt the oxygen unnecessarily to muscles. Such misuse and misappropriation demonstrate one of the costs of confusing a concept crisis with a physical danger.

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The Missing Link—The Perceptual Function of Stress To view stress comprehensively, you must understand that the missing link is the perceptual function of stress . Nature wants to protect you and enhance your chances of survival by transmitting information to you via the stress mechanism. It is a process of becoming aware through your own physical sensations or subjective feelings about internal and external conditions, and the interpretation of them by your conscious mind. Let us first understand how the perceptual function works.

Two Stages of Perception Perception can be described as an invaluable two-stage process—like a relay system. Stage I Perception takes place on a sensory level of the body and goes to the midbrain and lower brain. It involves the subjective experience of stress—the physical sensations and emotional feelings that constitute the first response to a stressor. Stage II Perception takes place in the higher brain, the cerebral cortex, where the intellectual analysis of stress takes place. William James described this process succinctly in The Principles of Psychology: “Sensations then first make us acquainted with innumerable things and then are replaced by thoughts which know the same things in altogether other ways ... Somebody must feel blueness, somebody must have toothaches, to make human knowledge of these matters real” (1950, pp. 6–7). Getting from Stage I to Stage II requires an active information transmission from the sensory experience to the conscious, intellectual, problem-solving capabilities of the brain. Here is a glimpse into how it works and how you can help or hinder the process. Some new terminology will be introduced to help you develop a new “map” for your efforts. The Percept Method is designed to help you “solve” stress by putting your brain to work—first to perceive that you are experiencing stress, then to identify what is bothering you and what to do about it. Because so much of the stress response takes place at the sensory level with your subjective feelings and physical sensations, The Percept Method begins with the effort to recognize these feelings at the first possible moment, before a full-blown, unnecessary stress response has taken over. Remember, a saber-toothed tiger is not chasing you, but some other type of danger may be around. You need to know what is what. Full perception (Stages I and II) is the key to changing a “mindless” stress response to a “mindful” problem-solving exercise. The Sentinel Alert Perception can be described as “putting it all together” or “getting the message.” Sounds easy enough, but finding the source of those troublesome stressor signals is a learning process that begins with understanding your

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own unique stress signature or fingerprint—how you feel when you are stressed a little, or a little more, or a lot. This exercise requires you to become sensitive to the very first signal, the sentinel alert, that a problem exists. A Message to Decode Stress, like other feelings, presents as a message which is encoded and needs to be decoded. Nature does not communicate conditions in the form of words. Instead, Nature transmits information and data in a universal code of sentience, which requires expression via a vocabulary of feelings. Stress feelings (and other feelings) present as an encrypted language. They transmit messages in the form of neural impulses. These neural impulses have to be decoded by the cerebral cortex. The encoded message often presents a problem-solving challenge. This aspect of perception takes place in Stage II. Stage II involves decoding the information that the sensory component of the stress feeling is trying to transmit. Some of the techniques the higher brain uses are similar to the work of a cryptographer deciphering a code. What if these neural messages never reach the cerebral cortex? Then perception’s Stage II will be incomplete. Without reaching the cerebral cortex, the cognitive function of decoding cannot be performed. Further, the meaning and significance of the encrypted language of a stress feeling could not be made intelligible, without your cognitive participation. Why Are Stress Feelings Encoded? Why would Nature choose to transmit information encoded in neural impulses? Several possible reasons become clear among Nature’s mysteries. Neural impulses present themselves to you as physical sensations and subjective feelings, which are in a code of sentience. This is a universal language, which needs to be decoded. When you think about it, Nature cannot practically communicate with each of us verbally, so information is transmitted about internal and external conditions in a universal encoded way. Whether you are in Kansas or France, Shanghai or Copenhagen, Tibet or Tangier, Nature uses one method. Nature communicates via feelings, which concomitantly happen to maintain confidentiality for your privacy and protection. Similarly, your thoughts are not audible or public. Under ordinary circumstances, you have the capability to decode what your feelings mean in your own private way. They can be decoded by you in the privacy of your own mind or with special others of your choosing. Nature attempts to preserve your privacy. Nature leaves the discretion and executive control with you, as to what you choose to disclose and when you choose to do it. What Is the Stress Feeling Trying to Tell You? How exactly does the process of decoding a stress feeling work? How do you make an encrypted unknown intelligible? The process involves accurately identifying what you are experiencing. Is it fear? anger? worry? The

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feeling that you are experiencing is an outcome, a result of an unknown something. And so you are faced with an “inverse problem,” such as the classic puzzle of looking at the face of a clock and having to imagine why the hands move. You are experiencing a result without necessarily having a known cause for it. You have a feeling of stress and are confused about what is causing your stress. The first thing you need to find is the correct identity of the stressor. Your feelings evoked by the stressor will help you identify the stressor. Your Retrieval System The first purpose of the decoding process is to identify the stressor. At the beginning of the decoding process, don’t rush the answers and jeopardize accuracy. If your conscious mind cannot immediately come up with the answer that leads to identification of the stressor, allow your conscious mind to inquire of your unconscious mind. This inquiry activates your brain’s retrieval system. In The Percept Method, the term retrieval system refers to a process of inquiry and questioning. Your conscious mind can engage the vast energies of your unconscious mind to help you seek an answer by asking questions. It might be helpful to keep a journal to log in the various responses, thoughts, and answers that are sent back to you from your inquiry. Insight from Past Experiences Sometimes a review of a past effort to identify a stressor can be helpful in illustrating this process. Think back and ask yourself a few questions. 1. What have I felt in past stressful situations? 2. How long did these feelings last? 3. Have I experienced the same stress feelings under different circumstances, or do different stressful situations affect me differently? 4. How would I describe the feelings I experienced? 5. Did I know the identity of the stressor at the time I experienced the stress feelings? 6. If the answer to question number 5 is “yes,” was I able to take effective corrective action, or was I left bewildered to suffer with the stress?

The Aim: From Sentience to Cognition Remember, by simply asking the questions, you can begin to engage your brain’s retrieval system and, with patience and persistence, the answers can begin to emerge. Meanwhile, it will be useful to explore further how to turn old stress habits—the blocking of perception by various means is

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief

FIGURE 1 Perceptus Interruptus of Stress Sensations.

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FIGURE 1 Perceptus Interruptus of Stress Sensations. (continued)

STEP I: On the Meaning and Significance of Stress

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called perceptus interruptus (see Figure 1)—into a new pattern of perceptual enlargement and growth. Perceptual enlargement and growth can be termed perceptus expansus. The path of the message from sentience to cognition was described in the Two Stages of Perception section. The Work of Perception The term stressor is used to represent any internal or external environmental condition that causes you stress. It may come from a person, a place, or an event. It can be marked and sudden or subtle and prolonged. It can be very complicated and elusive or very simple and obvious. The term message refers to the data or information about external or internal conditions in your environment. The message is conveyed through your neural pathways in the form of coded signals (like Morse Code), which in the case of a stress signal, produce uncomfortable, noxious physical sensations (in varying degrees) or unpleasant or uneasy subjective feelings (your “sixth sense”). Your neural pathways or perceptual system, embodied by your peripheral nerves and brain, carry the message and are referred to as the messenger. While the messenger, which is in and a part of your body, may be experienced as uncomfortable, unpleasant, or noxious (“my nerves are shot!”) because of the quality of the message conveyed, the message itself may be important to you. So remember—acknowledge the messenger. It is your dear friend and, as an internal conduit, is part of you. It is trying to present information and data to you which it has picked up and which may be valuable and urgently important. It leaves the decision to you and your cerebral cortex whether its information is valid and relevant. The messenger is like the Pony Express Rider in the Old West. He didn’t read your mail or make decisions for you; he was just dedicated to transmitting messages. He was absorbed in one primary goal: delivering the mail—the message. How Perceptus Interruptus Is Implemented and Misused The sentinel sensations or feelings are the earliest warning system—the first and most subtle part of the stress response. It is at this stage that symptoms are minimal. You aren’t experiencing real physical harm, and you could gain significant early benefits by responding effectively to the signal (or message). However, it is also at this stage that perceptus interruptus is often invoked, whether consciously or unconsciously. Perceptus interruptus refers to the blocking of cerebral contact or conscious awareness before the problem-solving capabilities of your brain can be engaged. In other words, perceptus interruptus is invoked in order to block Stage II of perception. The block or interruption can be self-induced by psychological defenses or by suppressive substances such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or overeating. A critical problem is that the block must be reinforced (often with harmful substances) in order to continually suppress, because the signals of stress, in order to carry out their function, will increase in intensity

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and urgency in an attempt to overcome the barricade. In other words, you really cannot escape your body. Essential Connections Cognitive (cerebral) engagement and cognitive participation begin the Stage II of perception. This is the moment when the information carried by your nervous system as signals or nerve impulses is allowed to reach your conscious mind. It means you have allowed yourself to accept the message, and you acknowledge that you have picked up some data that tells you something may not be right. Here is where you allow Stage II of perception to do its work by first identifying the stressor. Your retrieval system is the mechanism by which your conscious mind asks for help from your subconscious mind (in this method, subconscious and unconscious are used interchangeably). Remember, your brain has unlimited reserves to draw upon; you need only make inquiry and ask for help to initiate the process of an active search or exchange between the subconscious mind and the intellect. This act of asking will initiate a search through the vast reservoirs of knowledge and experience that you possess, which will help identify the stressor and can put you on the road to solving your problem of stress. Identification is the process of specifically decoding what is causing your stress (usually a person, event, or condition). What causes stress may vary from moment to moment and from person to person. Therefore, the stressor needs to be identified specifically, so you know what you are dealing with and what direction you should take for resolution. Cognitive evaluation can be activated when Stage II of perception is engaged. It goes forward as you begin the process of mental assessment and review of the messages (information) being transmitted by your stress response.

The Messenger Is Not “The Enemy” It is a premise of The Percept Method that you may choose to treat your perceptual system as if it were an enemy, but remember, if you harm or destroy it, you are also destroying part of yourself. Your five senses and your whole nervous system comprise the messenger. The messenger conveys its message in the form of neural signals, sensations, and subjective feelings. Remember, the messenger loves you and is vitally interested in your survival. Nevertheless, it may "sting" you with the noxious edge of its signals, but only to inform you of a high priority message. That noxious edge is trying to give you a priority notification, to make sure that certain signals (which represent an important message) secure an urgent place in your attention.

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Your Perceptual System Is Your Friend It is a premise of The Percept Method that it is productive to develop a friendship with your perceptual system. Your perceptual system is beautiful; it is intricate; it is the highest accomplishment, the highest perfection in Nature. Your perceptual system is the neural pathways through your peripheral nerves and your brain. Its goal is to reach the neurons in your cerebral cortex. Warner Loewenstein (1999) tells us that our brains contain over 1,000,000,000,000 neurons, and each neuron has at least 1,000 to 100,000 interconnections. It can actually be called the billion billion network. It is a vast and beautiful universe at work within you. If you invoke perceptus interruptus, you must ask yourself why you would want to treat such a devoted, dedicated, and efficient friend, who is only there to help you in a brutal and careless way. Moreover, The Percept Method warns of the utter futility and ultimate self-defeat you will undoubtedly suffer, if you succeed in suppressing information from reaching your neurons. Any victory you celebrate would be paradoxical, because your victory would consist of subduing your most personal and dutiful ally. You should disarm the stressor rather than yourself through avoidant modalities, such as noninquisitive relaxation or sedating agents or various forms of psychological denial.

The Perceptual Function of Stress It is a premise of the Percept Method that stress, like pain or noise, performs an important function—an essential perceptual function. Stress has something to tell you that you may need to know. A stress feeling is a process that wants only to transmit information. So, in addition to sensing the presence of an external physical danger, so crucial in our evolutionary past, the stress feeling also senses the presence of another dimension of danger—a more modern aspect—concept crisis or concept danger. A concept crisis is a nonphysical danger, a nonphysical threat or uncertainty from within or without. It is an event that challenges our sense of wholeness, or balance, or the rightness of ourselves in our world. In this way, the experience of stress serves as a signal that something is not right, something is out of kilter—from either the physical or concept perspective. A very valuable asset! Give the Message a Fair Hearing Unfortunately for us humans, the sentinel stress response is the same whether it is responding to a physical danger or a concept danger. Therefore, instead of immediately responding with emergency physiology, you need first to learn to quiet down and “listen” to what the stress is trying to tell you. This is a vital interlude. It can change your direction from a mindless pursuit to a mindful experience. It can prevent the stress from becoming prolonged beyond its sentinel value and doing physical harm to your body.

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You have already learned that the message of stress is transmitted as a code of sentience—the vocabulary of feelings—usually in the guise of unpleasant physical sensations or emotions. You also know this code of sentience can be decoded and made intelligible. The goal is to engage the power of your conscious intellect which can decode the feelings of stress. Is this not preferable to enduring unpleasant symptoms (which continue to pursue their friendly function) with the sheer force of your body? Full Perception Saves Time and Energy The good news is that success in engaging the cerebral cortex in the clarification of stress feelings means you can identify whatever is bothering you; you can determine that your stressor is not a saber-toothed tiger or some other overwhelming “unknown.” However, you may have to confront a real concept crisis that is announcing its presence in a not-so-subtle way. You will find you have resources that your brain holds in reserve to enable you to deal with the stressor. There are additional benefits as well. If the problem arises again, you are more likely to have greater ability to recognize it and know how to keep it from causing further physical disruption. When a different problem or crisis arises, you need not be bowled over. If the same problem never arises again, you will have improved your problem-solving skills for the next challenge that comes along. Even better, you can learn to make the stress response work for you instead of against you by recognizing its perceptual or informational function. That improves not only your personal success and effectiveness in the present situation, but also your health and wellbeing over the long term. More Benefits of Perception It is a premise of The Percept Method that there are important advantages to allowing stress perception to work. Conversely, there are important disadvantages to not allowing stress perception to work. Remember, Stage II embraces your intellectual (conscious) mind, and your intellectual mind can seek for answers, seek for truth. Ancient wisdom reminds us that Aristotle realized the interdependence between the intellect and decipherment, when he wrote: “The attainment of truth indeed is the function of every part of the intellect” (p. 329).

The Step toward Solution It is a premise of The Percept Method that once you allow stress perception to complete its function of carrying its information to your cerebral cortex, even if you do not have an immediate solution, you have initiated a process whereby solutions can be forthcoming.

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Following the Pathway of Stress It is a premise of The Percept Method that Stage II of stress perception (data reaching the cerebral cortex) is vital and important. Why is it so important for this stress information to be transmitted to your brain? What actually happens in your brain when it receives the informational stress data? When stress perception works, you make use of the enormous power and reservoir represented by your conscious and unconscious minds which embody those one thousand billion (1,000,000,000,000) neurons working for you. Take a typical situation: your stress feelings are telling you that you are in a complex predicament. You have a problem, and you are only in the earliest stage of beginning to identify it. You don’t know how to proceed. You don’t see any way out. You don’t see any alternatives, and you don’t have an action plan. What awaits you when you allow your stress perception to be completed, i.e., when the informational transmission about your complex predicament is received by your brain? 1. Your information is first greeted by what you need out of 1,000,000,000,000 (one thousand billion) neurons which can be activated to work on your behalf. 2. Information about your predicament is further greeted by whatever you may need out of all of your neurons’ powerful interconnections—their allies. Each of those neurons interconnects with 1,000+ synapses multiplying their power exponentially—one thousand trillion connections in the cerebral cortex. 3. You have now brought to work on your behalf the most highly developed structure ever conceived in the universe. 4. It is a premise of The Percept Method that something sound, good, and productive goes on in the brain when stress perception is allowed to complete its work. One of those marvelous things is that when the cerebral cortex is reached, natural calming from the modulating centers is activated. This begins to soothe you and alleviate the noxious sensations that are making you uncomfortable. Nature can modify the noxious sensations better than you, because it knows that fundamental work and data processing is going forward, so there is no longer the need for your body to keep up the same degree of exquisite discomfort. The discomfort has served its purpose and the intensity of discomfort is no longer necessary, so Nature can begin to calm the body in a natural way by diminishing the intensity of the stress feelings. 5. If you sedate yourself before Stage II of stress perception is complete, you paradoxically do not achieve a natural calm. Instead, you have prompted your stress feelings to intensify, escalate, and heighten, because they have not completed their perceptual

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function. However, when Nature produces the calm, it is as if Nature is saying “since this information was able to reach your cerebral cortex, your highest brain center, I know that problemsolving work is taking place; therefore, you no longer need the same intensity of toxic sensations that you were experiencing previously.” In marketing terms, when a salesman hears footsteps approaching, he can stop leaning on the doorbell. 6. Relaxation the Natural Way. The cerebral cortex’s modulating centers begin to calm your stress after they “know” what is going on, i.e., after contact is made between the information and your cerebral neurons. Nature can begin to relax the intensity of stress and ease its strenuous efforts, because it knows that once your cerebral cortex has been reached, the vast power of your being, a portion of those 1,000,000,000,000 neurons, is going to begin the problem-solving work, even though no alternatives or solutions are yet in sight. 7. When your stress information and the neurons of your cerebral cortex are in contact, your retrieval system can be set in motion. You have now allowed the message and your neurons to make contact, but they don’t know exactly what you want to accomplish, unless you consciously make inquiry. Your inquiry gives direction and focus where previously there may have been confusion or chaos. Imagine being in the finest department store in the world. Salespeople in all departments are waiting to serve you, but they need your inquiry or instructions or requests. You can actually feel quite deprived in the midst of plenty, if you don't express your intentions.

How do you do that within your own brain? You do it in much the same way you would in that department store—you express your intentions in order to get some service. You make an inquiry; you ask a question; you let your desires, requirements, or bewilderments be known. Most of the power of the 1000 billion neurons in your brain resides in your unconscious mind and is held in quiet reserve. If Nature had the unconscious mind working continuously at full pace, it would burn your body out. It would be like the power of a Boeing 707 Jet engine at full speed housed in a Volkswagen chassis. The power would tear the chassis apart. For that reason Nature does not activate the full power of your unconscious mind; it only activates the particular part you may need at a particular time. Because it doesn’t know your conscious request, it stands by and awaits your instructions, requests, or inquiries. If all the “lights” in your brain were activated indiscriminately without your direction, it would be called a “nervous breakdown.” In other words, if all of the mind’s power, knowledge, data, and replies were to inundate your consciousness (unbidden, indiscriminate, and not utilizable), this would constitute a nervous breakdown.

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Cerebral Engagement Has a Calming Effect It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature does have a reason to be confident when Stage II of stress perception has been completed. Nature knows how the brain works and the potential that is being activated. The Percept Method poses a question for you: why would you possibly want to exclude (via perceptus interruptus) the vast power and versatility of your brain from the problem-solving process? To use a medical model let us say that you have a mysterious illness, and you are taken speedily by ambulance to Great University Hospital Center. You are able to describe your symptoms, albeit at this point neither you nor the experts know what your symptoms are trying to tell you or them. They don't have immediate answers in terms of the diagnosis for your condition. However, you may begin to experience an almost pleasant and unexpected calmness, simply because intuitively you feel you are at a place where you are getting help, and you know you have many of the world's most famous experts working on your case. Immediately after they have determined what the symptoms are trying to tell them, they will want to give you relief by addressing or relieving the pain. Symbolically, the Great University Hospital Center team works the way Nature works. The team wants to give you relief, but it first needs to know the “something else” that lies behind your symptoms.

Nature Protects the Brain from Overstimulation It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature protects your brain from overfiring and burning up needless energy by holding its power in reserve until it is requested. Can you imagine the salespeople in the department store all running around grabbing clothes from the various shelves, racks, and hangers and dumping them in your lap or flinging them at you without waiting for instructions and requests from you? This would be chaos (a nervous breakdown). Thus, Nature keeps the energy and data in reserve until it is requested. Making the request, via your retrieval system, is one of the roles of your conscious mind. “Active” Relaxation: Rx for Perception Relaxation is included in almost any program of stress management. However, in The Percept Method, relaxation is not the end in itself. Instead of using relaxation to try to avoid the stressor, The Percept Method asks you to put relaxation to work. The goal is to achieve a higher level of perception about what is causing the stress in the first place and what to do about it. Relaxation modalities can help you do that. Active relaxation can enhance perceptual enlargement. You can increase the problem-solving capabilities of your mind by giving it the tools of

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mental calmness and peace. Calmness generates alpha waves in the brain; alpha waves indicate your brain’s problem-solving capabilities and its creativity are optimal. The full potential of the human brain is boundless. When given the chance, your mind can be counted on to help resolve stressful situations. Consider just one aspect of the data exchange between the conscious intellect and the subconscious mind, and you will better understand the role of active relaxation. The conscious mind thinks in sequence, one thought follows another. But the subconscious mind is not so structured. It contains all of the thoughts, feelings, experiences, and knowledge of your lifetime in its vast reservoir. Think of how immense a filing job you would need to do to backtrack consciously through everything you have ever thought, felt, known, or experienced in order to pull out one single item. This is a massive amount of data. But with active relaxation, your retrieval system is better able to work for you. It helps you open the file drawers, so to speak, and puts your mind in an optimal mode of receptivity so as to discern data when it appears and recognize specific information when it is found. To gain specific answers, you need to ask specific questions. That is the starter or trigger to start your retrieval system working for you. And this process can work more efficiently when you are not agitated, apprehensive, or frenzied. Also, the production of alpha waves, which accompanies relaxation, indicates your mind is reaching an optimal state for problem solving. How could your brain possibly do its best if your body is in a toxic, overadrenalized state and your brain is oxygen-deprived? Thus, the vital need for active relaxation and homeostatic restoration. Remember Dr. Robert White’s admonition about the disruptive effects of stress on cognitive functioning. Maybe you have experienced the disruptive effects of stress when you’ve tried to solve a problem that is bothering you or taken a test in school. Your subconscious mind probably had the data filed away at the moment you needed to recall it, but your stress slowed your access to the information. In other words, stress slows your associative thinking and the file-retrieval process. Most likely, you remembered the needed data when you were relaxed, thinking about something else, and not flooding your mind with emergency signals. Active relaxation helps enlarge perception, and it provides an ideal milieu in which to pinpoint the source of your stress.

Stressors Come in All Sizes It is a premise of The Percept Method that your perceptual system can be triggered by everyday matters—not all of equal importance. In modern life, when a stressor triggers your stress response, you may be virtually certain that it will not prove to be a saber-toothed tiger. Let the following example demonstrate the functional value of stress feelings from an everyday occurrence.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief The supervisor in the furniture division of a busy suburban department store drove to work one morning. In the rush to leave home, she had left a teapot of water boiling on her stove. As she drove farther and farther from home, she began to be disturbed by uncomfortable sentinel feelings of stress. Those stress feelings agitated her, but she had no conscious awareness of a problem at work—her first thought. Despite this, she began to experience persistent, strong physical signs of stress such as fast heart rate, muscle tension, headache, and sweating palms. She took a deep breath and began to review her schedule for the day ahead. She reviewed it several times, but in all aspects only a routine day was anticipated. No detectable problems were on her horizon. Maybe she was coming down with something? The feeling of discomfort persisted. Because this young executive had an active retrieval system, she knew that her feelings were trying to tell her something. She wasn't about to panic. Instead, she set her retrieval system into motion. “What is this stress feeling trying to tell me?” Having already previewed the work day, she now tried to pinpoint when the sentinel feelings of stress had begun. It suddenly came to her. She had left the teapot boiling on the stove which could possibly create a fire. She addressed the problem at once with a telephone call to the building superintendent. He would enter her apartment and turn off her stove. Her stress feelings had actually begun to wane the moment she became aware of the problem and began taking steps to solve it. A few minutes later she was able to confirm that the matter had been resolved. Her symptoms of stress were completely relieved. Stress feelings are functional. What if she had started taking sedatives when she felt anxious? Ignoring the stress signal does not solve the problem.

Try to recall a time when you were relaxed and were able to decode a stressful situation. Use it as your measuring stick. That’s what active relaxation helps you accomplish. Try this exercise to demonstrate the principle of active relaxation. 1. Think of the last time you experienced stressful feelings and sensations. 2. Think about your identifying the stressor and the source, cause, and significance of your stress. 3. Next, recall how the stressor was resolved. 4. Finally, when the stressor was resolved, did the unpleasant feelings disappear? If your answer to the last question is “yes,” then you can understand the importance of your ability to identify the source of stress accurately. This process of accurate identification is the first step in The Percept Method. You may be able to proceed quickly through this challenge in some situations, while other stressors may be more elusive and confusing. Active relaxation helps perception to function efficiently.

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Use Your Relaxation Wisely It is a premise of The Percept Method that the period of relaxation, properly used, can also be a quintessential period (a) for allowing your stress perception to be completed, (b) for allowing problem solving to be maximized, and (c) for allowing your creativity to work fully. A period of relaxation puts the mind in an optimal mode for problem solving and creativity, but the relaxation must be used—not wasted. Breakthroughs of enlightenment can come forth more readily when the mind is calm and not hindered from receiving the information that stress is trying to transmit. If you block perceptions, you are actually trying to reverse a development of Nature that was established with specific functions over thousands and thousands of years. Think of trying to reverse the law of gravity or electromagnetism. Would you be successful?

Accurate Stressor Identity Is a Priority It is a premise of The Percept Method to place high value on the accurate identification of the stressor. If you miss accurate identification of the stressor, you may undertake alternatives or an action plan on a fallacious and erroneous basis. Middle-aged G. is under stress for reasons he has not identified. In reality, he happens to have a tumor in his lung, which causes him to have a chronic cough, productive sputum, weight loss, generalized weakness, easy fatiguability, poor sleep, worry, and apprehension. In his own words he feels “stressed out.” However, with his denial that anything can be wrong except “long, cold winters,” he does not associate his stress with his physical condition, nor with an immediate need for a physical examination with chest X-rays. There are many great medical centers near his present residence. However, in his denial, he misidentifies the stressor and concludes that his condition will improve if he moves to the desert. He leaves his job in order to move to a new environment—sunny Arizona.

He implemented an alternative, but was it an appropriate alternative? Will his choice of alternatives reduce or remove his stress in a meaningful, longterm way? If the stressor is not accurately identified, you could pursue nonproductive alternatives and can go far astray. Image-in the Identity of the Stressor An early goal is imaging-in the stressor (or imprinting its identity) in your mind. Image-in the identity and eventually the meaning of the stressor, so you can facilitate bringing the powers of the whole brain into the problemsolving process. Your unconscious mind can problem solve, even when you are not concentrating on the problem and are unaware it is working on your

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behalf. However, it needs to know what it is working on. Hence, imaging-in the stressor keeps it at the edge of your unconscious, while you are pursuing other activities. If you only identify the stressor, but fail to image-in the stressor, the full resources of your conscious and subconscious mind are usually not fully available for problem solving. Think of imaging-in as a process similar to memorizing a word in a foreign language. You image-in very much as you would memorize that word. When you learn a new word, first you recognize it in the context of something heard or read. That is parallel to identification. But you want to be able to deal with that word when it is seen in different contexts. For this, you will want to aim at more versatility with the word. It is the same with stress. You must be willing not only to identify what is bothering you, but also to understand what this problem means to you, before you can begin fully to problem solve. Imaging-in: From the Conscious to the Unconscious It is a premise of The Percept Method that imaging-in the stressor is instituted by the conscious mind. This is to imprint the stressor into your unconscious mind. Whenever necessary, your conscious mind can then activate and reactivate a retrieval system request about such things as the meaning and significance of the stress, or request alternatives to deal with the stressor. This is important, because you can easily lose sight of the stressor. The imaged-in inquiry allows the unconscious mind to begin its quiet work, focusing not only on identification of the stressor but also on alternatives and eventually an action plan for resolution. The Stress Accuracy Test (S.A.T.) When you think you have identified the source and significance of your feelings of stress, use the Stress Accuracy Test (S.A.T.) to help you check your assumptions, direction, and progress. Ask yourself: "If this stressor disappeared or were neutralized, would my feelings of stress be relieved and disappear?" Remember, some stressors are minor, some are moderately disruptive, while other stressors may represent a major life change. The intellectual and emotional work of problem solving will be commensurate with the level of significance the stressor represents. So again, don’t rush yourself or jump to hasty conclusions. Inaccurately identifying the stressor or assigning a false value to the significance of the stressor can compound the stress feelings you are experiencing and further impair your problem-solving efforts by having you follow false paths and seek inappropriate resolutions. A Paradox in Mind Function When you are problem solving in an effort to find the identity of your stressor, or to understand the meaning and significance of your stress, or to come

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up with and examine your alternatives and eventually choose an action plan, the answers are usually not provided solely by your conscious mind alone, your intellectual processes. A further paradox is that sometimes, the data you are seeking is not even available to your intellectual (conscious) mind at the time you need it. It can be buried deep in your knowledge reservoir (your unconscious mind) filed away in some inner secret drawer that you may have forgotten about, hence the necessity and value of having a method to gain access to the vast amount of data being stored in your unconscious mind. Your retrieval system, which we all possess, can initiate a search for those answers buried deep in the storage compartment or great data center (your unconscious or noncognitive mind). Remember, your intellectual (conscious) mind works quantitatively a split second at a time, but your noncognitive (unconscious) mind has possession of all the split seconds in your life. It can be compared to the difference between an isolated drop of water and the infinity of water droplets in an ocean. Why would you limit yourself to only the conscious intellectual mind for problem solving? You may feel that the intellectual conscious mind is the totality of the brain. But that would imply that if problem solving and recognition do not happen by purely conscious processes, they do not happen at all. This is a fallacy. In reality, the unconscious mind remains active and “on the job” 24 hours a day, and it does most of your authentic and creative work for you. Quantitatively, it is a giant, compared to the contents of your conscious, intellectual mind. Well, if my unconscious mind has all this power and potential, why don’t I use it more frequently? The fact is we often don’t know how to access the mind’s problem-solving, creative treasures and valuable authenticity. Apply this to an ordinary life incident. Suppose you notice you've lost your watch. Would you rush home and just look on the front porch and hope you find it? You wouldn't dream of limiting your search to this one small circumscribed place. The conscious mind is represented by the front porch; the unconscious is the whole house.Your watch could be in any one of many rooms in your home. Confining your search to the front porch would be limiting and inefficient.

Pressured Thinking Not only can the limited effort (using only your conscious mind for problem solving) be relatively nonproductive, it can also be frustrating, exhausting, and discouraging. That type of limited effort (putting the entire burden of cerebration on intellectual processes) can be termed pressured thinking. Pressured thinking is usually neither calm nor reflective, and its narrow, restricted scope and dimension are not likely to produce desired results. Pressured thinking in itself can produce stress, because conscious mind is being overworked beyond its capacity. It is assuming a cerebration responsibility that should be shared with the giant—your unconscious mind.

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Be Patient with Your Intellect Your intellectual mind has limitations. Don’t beat yourself up when your intellect can’t solve your problem right away. To repeat, many people feel not only that their intellectual mind is the only area of the brain that can process information and problem-solve, but that they have to supervise the procedure. How exhausting! How nonproductive! Consider your beautiful, complicated, intricate immune system, which, in its decision-making powers, rivals the brain. Your immune system makes thousands of sophisticated, actually life-and-death decisions each minute of your life. Nobel Laureate scientist Dr. Baruj Benacerraf is quoted by Locke and Colligan as saying that “the only topic more complicated [than immunology] is understanding how the brain works” (1999, p. 25). Does your intellectual brain supervise each decision your immune system makes? That would be not only mentally depleting, but futile and impossible. However, there are many things your intellectual, conscious mind can do in that area. It can help remind you to put your immune system in a nutritionally and emotionally optimal condition to do its work. And it can make you aware of adverse activities that curtail your immune system. When you feel stress, a light can go on in your intellectual brain to remind you that prolonged, unrelieved stress can hormonally diminish your immune system’s function. Nature does not favor prolonged, unresolved stress. Nature’s answer would be to evolve us out. Consider your digestive system. After you eat a wonderful meal, your intellect doesn’t have to supervise the transfer of each molecule and the process of digestion, osmosis, metabolism, etc. Your intellectual mind already played its role; it helped you with your awareness about selection of food and what is nutritionally valuable. But beyond that, a mountain of other digestive processes become involved that are not controlled by your conscious, intellectual mind. In these illustrations, we have conveniently likened the immune system and the digestive system to the unconscious mind, because they work without instructions from the intellect. However, there is one important difference. Your unconscious mind will respond to suggestions from your conscious mind—like a “kick start” from the free will of your intellect. Your conscious mind can prompt your unconscious to become active in certain directions by giving it instructions or by making an inquiry of it. Many geniuses in history have learned to access their creative, problemsolving unconscious mind via their retrieval systems. Remember, it is basically sincere, contemplative questioning initiated on a conscious level that opens up the activity of your unconscious mind. The mind has evolved with vast potential, but it has been endowed with free will. Thus, the potential of your mind, those vast parts held in reserve, cannot be fully activated without your volition. There is a major difference between the power of your mind that you are using and your mind’s unused potential. Compare again this unique entity—your mind—with the

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immune and digestive systems. In the case of your mind, your gift of free will requires that the activity be initiated by your volition. You possess and retain executive control, except in cases of a nervous breakdown. In contrast, the immune and digestive systems “fly pretty much on automatic pilot.”

Both the Conscious and Unconscious Minds Process Data In summary, both the conscious and unconscious minds—the intellectual and the noncognitive minds—process data. But they both work for you in different ways. One (the conscious, intellectual mind) you are aware of; the other (the unconscious mind) you may not be aware of. Your brain power is greatly limited if you use only the smaller part (quantitatively speaking) of your brain—your conscious, intellectual mind. Your retrieval system can be a major line of communication between these two entities. They were evolved to complement each other. Historic Illustrations: Retrieval System Rewards Albert Schweitzer had been searching for years for a concept that would embrace his philosophy of life and integrate his feeling and need of purpose with his intellect. This search or inquiry had been initiated some time before as a conscious inquiry, which is an example of the retrieval system triggering the unconscious mind. When the answer was received and became conscious, it was like an enlightenment. Late on the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset, we were making our way through a herd of hippopotamuses, there flashed through my mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase, “Reverence for Life.” The iron door had yielded: the path in the thicket had become visible. Now I had found my way to the idea in which affirmation of world- and life-affirmation and ethics are contained side by side! Now I knew that the world-view of ethical world- and life-affirmation, together with the ideals of civilization, is founded in thought (1949, p. 155).

Another example of the retrieval system's power can be found in the life of Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock, who broke barriers to previously unknown dimensions in human knowledge by being able to use her retrieval system to question biological differences and exceptions. In A Feeling for the Organism, her biographer Evelyn Fox Keller quotes the great biologist: “The important thing is to develop the capacity to see one kernel that is different and make that understandable... If something doesn’t fit, there's a reason, and you find out [question] what it is” (Keller, pp. xiii–xiv). Keller also recorded that McClintock “cannot quite say how she ‘knows’ what she knows. She talks about the limits of verbally explicit reasoning: she stresses the importance of her ‘feeling’ for the organism in terms that

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sound like those of mysticism,” but she know how to unleash the genius capacity of her mind.

Retrieval: A Right Way and a Wrong Way It is vital that the retrieval system be activated in the right way, the natural way, through active relaxation and inquiry. Your retrieval system needs to be functional, like a door that can be opened and closed by you. If that door is forced open by unnatural means, such as mind-expanding drugs, you can lose control of its function or it can be left permanently open. That can overstimulate the body. Media coverage provides examples of such crises in the lives of many creative people who become overstimulated and then rely on sedatives in an effort to regain calm. There is a notable article, “Why Writers Drink,” by Geoffrey Wolff, which illustrates this phenomenon: Many American writers are alcoholics. How many? Too many. The dead cannot sue, so I’ll name the dead: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack London, Hart Crane, Conrad Aiken, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Thomas Wolfe, Dashiell Hammett, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, Ring Lardner, Dorothy Parker, John O’Hara, James Agee, Robert Lowell, John Cheever, Raymond Carver. I think I neglected to mention Jack Kerouac, Edgar Allen Poe, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Ambrose Bierce, J. P. Marquand, James Thurber, Robert Benchley, Theodore Roethke, Stephen Crane. Oh, and five American writers who have won the Nobel prize: Eugene O’Neill, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Sinclair Lewis, who once asked, “Can you name five American writers since Poe who did not die of alcoholism?” (p. 128).

Summary Stress, like pain, is noxious and uncomfortable. But Nature is not trying to persecute you. The noxious quality of stress is part of its efficiency. The stress feeling wants only to be acknowledged; it wants to take a priority position for your attention, because of the information it wants to transmit—information that may be vital for your survival and betterment. Paradoxically, it is noxious, because it doesn’t want you to suffer or endure its presence any longer than it takes (a) to deliver its message (information), (b) for you to acknowledge the information it is transmitting, and (c) for you to understand its message. Only when you interfere with the message do you extend and prolong its noxious character and endure needless discomfort.

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The Percept Method details the vital mission of your feelings, focusing on stress feelings because of their immediate urgency. It shows why Nature made stress feelings the way they are; why they need to be noxious; why you so often view these feelings as enemies; the extensive means you might employ to avoid the information they want to give; the consequences that result to your body when you try to suppress or impede the function Nature gave feelings to perform; and finally the benefits you can inherit by allowing your brain to work in harmony with the information provided by your feelings.

Self-Evaluation 1. What are some advantages you can gain by allowing Stage II of perception (cerebral engagement) to be achieved? 2. What are some of the handicaps you impose on yourself when you practice perceptus interruptus? 3. What is your understanding as to the reasons that Nature evolved stress feelings the way they are? 4. What is your understanding of the informational function of stress feelings? 5. Have you been able to become familiar with the terms and concepts in this Step? 6. If the characteristics of stressors have changed over the years, wouldn’t it be reasonable and adaptive to modify our stress response? 7. What is your understanding of a physical danger vs. a concept danger? 8. Which type of danger was more prevalent in prehistoric times and which type is more prevalent in modern times? 9. What could the consequences be on our body and mind if we still react as if a vicious animal is chasing us when our only problem is that we have misplaced our door keys? 10. What are the two stages of perception and what purpose does each serve? 11. What do you understand as the reasons Nature has encrypted our feelings? 12. What is your understanding of the "missing link" in our understanding of stress? 13. How does your brain power become involved when Stage II of perception is achieved? 14. How is your brain power enhanced when your retrieval system activates your unconscious mind? Remember Albert Schweitzer and Barbara McClintock.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 15. What is the reason Nature obliges you to activate your brain? Why couldn’t it just be on "full burner" all the time? 16. Why is relaxation so vital to perceptual enlargement? 17. Why is it important that you actually identify your stressor? 18. What are the similarities between imaging-in a stressor and memorizing a telephone number, a street address, or an important appointment? 19. What advantage can imaging-in a stressor provide for your problem-solving endeavor? 20. What is considered "a paradox of mind function?" 21. What are some of the reasons that Nature can begin to modify stress symptoms after cerebral engagement has been achieved?

Goals to Go 1. 2. 3. 4.

To succeed in identifying and imaging-in my stressor. To be certain my stressor has passed the Stress Accuracy Test. To learn more about the meaning and significance of stress. To learn more about working in accord with the function of my stress feelings, so I can reduce their duration and intensity.

Exit Strategy If the first two goals above are fulfilled, then you may proceed to Step V, the Emotional Literacy Step. In that Step you can determine which specific feeling the stressor has evoked in you. In addition, in Step V, after you have determined the specific feeling that has been evoked, you can begin to better understand the specific meaning and significance of the stressor. If you have not accurately identified the stressor, you should proceed to Step II. You may want to go to Step II to enhance your fund of knowledge about stress.

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STEP II: Removing Roadblocks in Pursuit of a Confusing Stressor People deny reality. They fight against real feelings caused by real circumstances. They build mental worlds of shoulds, oughts, and might-havebeens. Real change begins with real appraisal and acceptance of what is. Then realistic action is possible. —David Reynolds quoted by Michael Crichton, in Afterword, Rising Sun, p. 393 That we, with Thee may walk uncowed By fear or favor of the crowd. —Rudyard Kipling, fom The Children’s Song, p. 210

Status Check (Any Item) If you enter this Step, you may still be trying to identify your stressor, or there are aspects of the stressor you want to understand and consider further. This step can also help you move closer to your goal by helping you to better understand the messenger and decode its message. Decoding can be hard work (remember the code of sentience). Decoding by The Percept Method involves not only identifying the stressor and its meaning and significance, but also making intelligible the feelings that have been evoked by the stressor and their meaning and significance. To better understand this hard work, first, remember you are dealing with an inverse problem. In other words, you are presented with an outcome or condition or result, and you have to figure out what has caused it. Imagine that you have a message in Morse Code in front of you, and you need to figure out what it means. In the case of your feelings, decoding them is more than just an intellectual exercise, because personal, subjective elements are involved. It may deal with matters you are not prepared to look at or review, such as your business associates, your family, your job, your career. Your reluctance to review them can distract and detour you from accurately identifying your stressor.

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Proper Use of Relaxation You have already learned that relaxation is a facilitator for this work. But here is one caution. If you use relaxation to maintain perceptus interruptus—the avoidance or blocking of signals from the messenger of stress—you will usually finish your relaxation without being any closer to understanding the identity of your stressor. If properly used, relaxation can facilitate perceptus expansus—the opening of the conscious mind for awareness, exploration, and problem solving. Now to continue your status check: 1. I still have not been able to identify my stressor. 2. I have identified my stressor, but there are aspects of it that are not intelligible to me. I still want to better clarify my stressor and understand why it produces this feeling of stress. 3. I have identified my stressor, but I hesitate to explore it further. Perhaps I am anxious about what I might learn. 4. I have identified my stressor, and I have imaged-in the stressor in my mind. But I want to enjoy a deeper state of relaxation before I proceed further with the problem-solving exercise. I want to prolong the enjoyment of the “quiet time” and insights I have already gained. If one of the above items describes where you are, then continue with this Step. If you have already identified and imaged-in your stressor, you may wish to skip to Step V. Remember, some stressors are easier to identify than others, and this Method is designed to help you find the wide variety of stressors that may arise.

Initial Step II Goals 1. To use physical relaxation and mental calm in order to facilitate perceptual enlargement (perceptus expansus) and to reduce the need to block out data. 2. To accurately identify and image-in the stressor. 3. To be able to process data with less need for distortion, avoidance, or other forms of perceptus interruptus.

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Principles of Step II and Premises of The Percept Method It is a premise of The Percept Method that there are grave disadvantages to obstructing completion of stress perception. You may have felt there were grounds for blocking your perceptions (perceptus interruptus). You may still feel you would not know what to do or how to handle the information, even if you could see the problem clearly. If so, you are doubting the power of the highest achievement in Nature, namely, your marvelous brain and its profound power.

Dangers of Perceptus Interruptus Modalities used to maintain perceptus interruptus can lead to addictive disorders (see Figure 1). It may seem surprising that addictions are a very likely result of constant perceptus interruptus. However, when you set out to impede stress perception on a chronic basis, it is super-humanly difficult, if not utterly impossible, to maintain the block. Meanwhile, your stress sensations become heightened. And that is exactly the reason that the trap of addiction becomes a real danger. Here is what the process involves. Say that you want to prevent certain vital information from reaching your cerebral cortex and obtaining its goal of cognitive awareness. The reasons you may want to block this can be numerous. It could be fear of identifying the stressor, fear of embarrassment, fear of failure, fear of exposure, fear of inadequacy, fear of an overwhelming unknown, fear of blame, fear of seeing your personal role, fear of guilt, fear of insecurity, or fear of uncertainty about what to do. Regardless of reasons, you are actually trying to keep the inform a t i o n y o u r s t re s s f e e l i n g s h a v e p i c k e d u p f ro m re a c h i n g t h e 1,000,000,000,000 (1,000 billion — 1012) neurons in your brain that are waiting to receive that data. Can you possibly imagine what a Herculean task it would be to keep sensory data from reaching cognition? It would be similar to trying to exclude fresh air molecules from getting into your house or trying to deaden your five senses so they could not register data. It is actually trying to reverse a vital role of Nature. In order to undertake this gargantuan task, you have to use suppressive, addictive substances, in toxic quantities, to assist you. And you would have to repeat their intake over and over again, in your effort to maintain the suppression. Say there are 5,000,000,000 (five billion) people in the world. Can you imagine the impossible task of trying to block the information they get? Now imagine trying to block the information meant for your brain, with its 1,000,000,000,000 (one thousand billion) neurons. What suffering that can cause. Now, how does this lead to addictions?

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Silencing the Messenger—What Does It Involve? Repetition. Not only must you use powerful sedating/suppressing modalities to implement perceptus interruptus, there will be a need to use them again and again, because as the neurons recover, you will continually have to “knock them out.” Toxicity. The amounts of the sedating/suppressing modalities you use need to be at near-toxic levels to achieve their gargantuan task. At those levels they are near-poisonous. You have created a war between yourself and your perceptual system. Compulsive need. In order to keep certain information out of your consciousness (away from cerebral engagement) you are driven to subdue yourself again and again. Psychological avoidant modalities. There are numerous defense mechanisms whereby you can, among other things, distort, rationalize, disguise, and deny incoming information in order to block cerebral cognition. Meanwhile, your stress sensations increase. Habit-forming. The sedative/suppressive agents that you choose to accomplish your task have addictive qualities. They build up chemical and/or psychological dependency in your body and mind. Result. Anyone who is determined to impede completion of stress perception (Stage II) must inherently fail. If it “succeeds,” the person would end up destroyed. You initially sedate yourself in order (a) to not feel and (b) to not be aware of certain incoming information, both of which define the two quintessential stages of stress perception. If you continue that course, you are no longer free. You have surrendered your perceptual system to sedative/suppressive modalities that can take over your body and become addictive. All of this has been done in exchange for trying to dull and deaden your brain or distract and detour information from achieving cerebral engagement. Beware of Data Distortion Many psychological modalities tempt you to go down a false path and disavow or distrust your precious perceptual system by advising: forget it, deny it, rationalize it, avoid it, create physical distractions, misinterpret it, dismiss it, distort it, etc. These psychological mechanisms can cause you to lose intimacy with reality, lose your effectiveness, lose time, lose your sense of fulfillment, and lose the creativity of your cerebral cortex.

Perceptus Interruptus Cramps Cortex Versatility Perceptus interruptus can deprive you of your cognitive ability to evaluate data or to carry out a mental assessment and review of a stressor. Referring again to ancient wisdom helps to highlight an important principle: Isaiah expressed the simple fact that mind-altering substances, such as alcohol, can subdue and

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distort perception, ”...they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way.... they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment” (Isaiah, 28:7). Individuals often practice perceptus interruptus because of what they may find out if they allow Stage II of perception to proceed. Hence, the tendency to subdue, suppress, and shut out the messenger. When perceptus interruptus “succeeds” in silencing the messenger, the “successful” blocking from conscious awareness of one’s stress feelings has two drawbacks. It brings only temporary respite, and it can be extremely costly in the long run. The symptoms often intensify or assume other forms when their route to consciousness is interrupted.

Inescapable Stress When you interfere with cognitive engagement, you are in essence creating the phenomenon of “inescapable stress.” The phenomenon of “inescapable stress” is a well-documented laboratory occurrence (Brown and Jacobs, 1949; Overmeier and Seligman, 1967; Anisman et al., 1991; Maier, 1991; Nilsson and Archer, 1992; Lee and Maier, 1988; Maier, Jackson, and Tomie, 1987; Shors, Weiss, and Thompson, 1992). But it may be considered metaphorically in a variety of ways. It can be viewed as maximum torture. It can be viewed as self-imprisonment. It can be looked at as “locked-in” syndrome. It can be viewed as a state of hopelessness. It can be viewed as enduring pain or stress without alternatives for relief. But practically speaking, this phenomenon can be self-imposed when we deprive ourselves of cerebral participation in the crisis we are experiencing. We are forcing ourselves into an inescapable situation without the power of our mind to help us. Would you consider undertaking a manual task while handcuffed? Would you consider undertaking a visual task while blindfolded? In terms of stress, if you deprive yourself of cerebral participation, you would be needlessly compromising your effectiveness and concomitantly prolonging your suffering of stress symptoms.

The Amoeba Factor With cognitive engagement, you are beginning to change controllability from the stressor to yourself. Consider those species that have only sensory responses to address noxious stressors. The lowest amoeba is sentient. But it has no cerebral cortex to work out creative solutions. It has only a limited range of motion as its alternative. But with the ability for cognitive engagement, when you feel the noxious elements of sentinel stress, not only can you level the playing field, you can creatively regain the power advantage. Cognitive engagement is the leap to Stage II of perception. It is the completion of perception. There is a popular adage: “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” It might be more engaging, when faced with a

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relentless stressor, to tell yourself: “when the going gets tough, the tough perceive, perceive, perceive.”

From Perceptus Interruptus to Perceptus Expansus Perceptus expansus (greeting the messenger) means tuning into your intellect, your consciousness, like tuning in the frequency on a radio receiver, and allowing perceptions to complete their journey to cerebral engagement (Stage II of perception). It does not mean your problems are over, or that the noxious feelings of stress will immediately cease. It does mean, however, that you have identified what is bothering you, so that eventually your alternatives can begin to emerge. With alternatives you can decide what direction you should take and the changes that can be made to halt or remedy the stressor. Perceptus interruptus (silencing the messenger), as you will undoubtedly remember, means blocking or interrupting the signals and preventing the message from reaching the level of conscious awareness. You will recognize the following blocking modalities which are most frequently used: 1. Psychological mechanisms, such as repression (unconscious) and suppression (conscious), denial, distraction, rationalization, and other avoidance modalities 2. Sedation by way of chemical substances, tobacco, alcohol, or misuse of food The consequences of perceptus interruptus are inefficiency and slowdown in your functional perceptivity. This causes you the loss of valuable time that you need to gain perspective in the process of perceptual recognition and understanding of incoming data. This blockage prevents the conscious “receiver apparatus” (your cerebral cortex) from perceiving the information that is being transmitted to you. In other words, this blockage decreases your ability to understand consciously and evaluate what your various stress feelings are trying to tell you.

Addiction Spawns Other Public Health Problems People become susceptible to addictions when they are looking for symptomatic relief from stress. As you have learned, perceptus interruptus via substances can lead people to habituation and eventually addiction. These cause health crises of their own, which can become life endangering and life shortening. It is also important to remember that substance abuse affects not only the user but also the lives of loved ones and significant others. In a major study sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, conducted at Brandeis University, and reported by the Associated Press (“Addiction,” p. 23), some tragic statistics were revealed. Addictions to nicotine, alcohol,

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and drugs were estimated as being responsible for half a million American deaths a year! In addition to the inestimable cost in human life, the total economic cost in the year 1990 was $238 billion! A Real-Life Example People all over the world were moved by the untimely death of Marilyn Monroe. Besides the legacy of her great talent, she left us lessons about her attempts to handle stress. She practiced perceptus interruptus on an ongoing, intense, and escalating basis. You have learned that when you attempt to interfere with troubling messages from your stressor (in Ms. Monroe’s case there were many), you can create a greater crisis, depriving yourself of the cerebral participation needed to decode the problem. Hence, you are left without problem-solving strategies that could be provided by your cerebral cortex. In the sad but insightful words of Donald Spoto's 1993 biography of Marilyn Monroe: When Marilyn Monroe awoke after an intake of barbiturates, she was just as anxious as before—over professional matters that were quickly exacerbated by drugs. Barbiturates, like Valium and Librium (then being widely introduced), clearly relaxed people, but there was an erroneous assumption that they also relieved stress. Quite the contrary: the patient simply awoke with the same anxieties, which often seemed worse because of the depressing effect of the drugs themselves. (p. 491)

Listening to Your Sentinel Alert When you first perceive threatening or confusing data, stress can often be heightened. The perception of data that heightens stress can, at times, seem indistinguishable from the real cause of the stress. And that is where many people have a tendency to “turn off,” to blame their perceptual system (the messenger), instead of seeing the stressor. That is when a protector, a helper, a buffer, a facilitator, in the form of relaxation with mental serenity is essential. The distinguished physician Dr. Herbert Benson reports in The Relaxation Response (1976) that a prayer or meditation augments physical relaxation. Undoubtedly, prayer gives the expectant individual an added feeling of protection from the impact of a threatening perception. In The Percept Method, while you are relaxed, you ask yourself, “Why am I avoiding this message? What is the reason it is causing me physical discomfort and emotional stress?” It is vital to remember that the noxious sensations associated with stress are important because they augment the perceptual function of stress. These sensations want you to reprioritize or at least consider reprioritizing a fixed program in order to favor pro-betterment or prosurvival choices. Your stress signals become destructive when they are ignored and needlessly prolonged. Remember, Nature did not intend them to be endured and protracted. These noxious feelings basically have only one primary concern—your best interests and your survival. They are actually a

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friend who is looking out for you. However, these feelings first need your attention in order to function optimally.

Stress Feelings Are Not the Enemy Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to consider the noxious feelings of stress as a purposeful friend. This appreciation cannot take place until you understand and value their functional role. After you learn to recognize that they have a functional role, you are less likely to be frightened of them. The fear usually arises when you experience awesome or unexpected sensations and cannot trace them to a purpose. Such sensations are often looked upon as undeserved, as if a punishment were being meted out. This attribution can create more mental confusion and additional feelings of stress. Initially, there may be no evident cause or apparent rational explanation. The oft-quoted assurance of President Franklin Roosevelt, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” is particularly applicable to the fear that is a reaction to the feeling of fear. Since fear has a perceptual or informational function, it only mirrors what it is conveying. The stressor can manifest as fear (see Step V, the Stressor Compass), but it is really that “something else” that needs to be decoded. Your conscious evaluation helps you determine an appropriate response to the stressor, after you understand what it involves.

Why Do Stress Feelings Feel So Noxious? Stress feelings are experienced as unpleasant and uncomfortable. It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature has evolved the experience of stress to be uncomfortable for specific survival reasons. Why would Nature give stress feelings that extra “punch” and make them noxious? When you think about it, how else is Nature going to get your full and undivided attention? Specificity. It is a premise of The Percept Method that stress feelings have evolved to approximate what has been registered on them and the data they are conveying. In other words, stress feelings are basically conduits for information. You do not ordinarily experience noxious feelings or discomfort when there are only pleasant and nonthreatening events taking place. Stress feelings attempt to mirror your environment or that with which you are contending. They can be likened to a barometer which registers atmospheric pressure and thus indicates certain weather conditions. Early recognition of the stress. It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature does not want stress to be endured any longer than necessary for it to carry out its informational function. Nature does not want you to suffer or for your body to be damaged. Any force as strong as the magnitude to which stress can escalate can cause bodily damage.

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Prioritization in the informational overload. It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature wants stress feelings to become a priority in your mind for your survival and well-being. A great deal of information is flooding into your brain at every moment. Nature had to choose or evolve a way to get your attention and stimulate you to place a higher priority on certain bits of information. Nature wants to make certain their urgency is addressed. By tagging stress feelings with a sting or punch, Nature anticipates you will more readily focus on those particular feelings that are creating discomfort in order to get relief. This will happen because of the noxious feelings they create. In other words, stress works by causing negative feedback. This prompts the person who experiences stress to address it as soon as possible. Rapid relay, rapid transmission. It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature wants early, speedy relay to the brain. Noxious sensations (such as pain) travel faster because Nature wants to accomplish early recognition and wants to minimize any damage that could be done to your body. A strong force. It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature wanted to create a strong force, in order to be unequivocal and minimize your confusion. The stress sensation is a strong force. In the general realm of feelings, stress is designed to be less equivocal and thus minimize your confusion and delay. If stress were a mild or vague sensation, it could create tentativeness, equivocation, or even indifference on your part. If you had acute appendicitis and it were associated only with a vague physical sensation, you might make the wrong decision, such as going to a business meeting instead of to the hospital. Diversification of stress feelings. It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature wanted to potentiate stress feelings by diversifying them. Stress feelings are diversified and potentiated through sympathetic, nonmyelinated fibers. This process is similar to an electric cord without insulation which short circuits everything it touches. Nature does not want a smooth, orderly transmission that you might miss. Nature's purpose, in the case of stress, is to create a form of chaos or upheaval so palpable that you could not miss it unless you were unconscious and, obviously, your insensate condition by definition becomes perceptus interruptus. Nonmyelinated fibers help accomplish this purpose. They can cause a wide variety of symptoms, depending on the organ they stimulate (short circuit). They can speed up your heart, cause you to lose bladder and bowel control, dilate your pupils, cause the hair on the neck to rise, tense the muscles in your back and neck, cause your blood pressure to rise, cause your head to ache, cause you to feel numbness in your body, cause sickness in your stomach, and on and on. Nonmyelinated fibers, when stimulated, can short circuit to every organ system. There is a tendency to have more pronounced responses in some organs than others. Minimal tolerance. It is a premise of The Percept Method that inherent with stress feelings, Nature wants to create a setting of minimal tolerance. Nature did not intend that you endure or tolerate the stress feeling for prolonged periods. Because of their force, power, and diversity, they can cause damage.

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Efficiency. It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature hoped that by creating a palpably uncomfortable stress sensation, you would more efficiently give it your attention and address the information that it is attempting to transmit to you. Volume of data. It is a premise of The Percept Method that stress transmits a particularly large amount of vital information. Why does Nature choose stress, a noxious feeling, to transmit so much information? Stress by its definition usually means that you are at a crossroads, at a possibly critical stage in your life. Stress can mean you are uncertain, feeling unsafe, facing potential danger, and needing alertness. Such large amounts of vital information need extra “punch” to stimulate your vigilance and commitment. Mild feelings are usually not associated with critical moments. By their very definition mild feelings are within the range of homeostasis, which implies no threats, no danger. Homeostasis is experienced as feelings of comfort and satisfaction and nonthreat. Happy or pleasant feelings reflect that you are secure and safe. Sometimes we turn to great literature for metaphors that help us understand science. It seems the brilliant writer Aeschylus, whose work was emblematic of the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, understood Nature's rationale for the unpleasantness of stress when he said: “Zeus [Nature] ... hath stublished that wisdom cometh by suffering [experience noxious sensations]” (p. 19). In Politics, Aristotle articulated an acknowledgment of pain [stress] as a function of perception: “We cannot learn without pain.” In A Vision of Poets, Elizabeth Barrett Browning conceptualized the same principle: “Knowledge by suffering [experiencing noxious sensations] entereth...” (p. 175). Stress Feelings Help Regulate Homeostasis It is a premise of The Percept Method that Nature developed stress feelings as vehicles to preserve order and homeostasis within each life form. Stress feelings paradoxically perform this function by being conveyors of negative feedback information. Stress feelings give you an extra incentive to self-correct or right yourself when something is going awry. By producing negative feedback, they prompt you to self-correct. You can see how stress feelings enhance survival and longevity by alerting life forms (human or other) to adverse or disordering antilife pressures in their external and internal environments. Stress feelings in their numerous manifestations attempt to do this and more by mirroring conditions in your environment and creating a certain type of internal disequilibrium. You will understand this principle better as you recall how a certain stressor can manifest through certain feelings (see Figure 3). These stress feelings operate in most areas of your everyday activities. They are available to guide or nudge you in the most subjective areas of your life in an effort to preserve your personal authenticity, whether you are buying a home, remodeling a room, making a date, or looking for a job.

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Sentinel Stress Can Be Difficult to Detect Although it may be relatively easy to recognize a stress feeling when it appears as full-blown panic, it is not as simple to be aware of subtle stress signals, when they are in the early, sentinel stage. Further, the sentinel feelings can be dulled and blunted by years of neglect, abuse, misuse, and insecurity. In other words, this alerting system may have become damaged by harmful treatment, like any vulnerable organ system. Compare it with your delicate hearing. If subjected to continuous noise, such as a loud buzz saw or frequent explosions, your hearing would be progressively damaged and blunted. Eventually, there would come a time when you could only perceive sound that was turned up full blast. A time lag between the sentinel alert and conscious perception is another factor. For example, a frustrated executive says, “Whenever I feel stress, I go to the gym and punch the heavy bag.” He is relieved by the physical exertion and sweating and exhaustion. Although he often obtains temporary symptomatic relief, is he any closer to a useful understanding of the meaning and significance of his stress feelings? Does he understand that his stress may be related to the pending loss of a business opportunity? Does he sense the competition moving ahead of him? Is he unhappy in his present line of work? These problems are not terribly mysterious or profound. However, they take some decoding to identify, which is not automatic. Although the executive feels symptomatically better after punching the bag, has the cause of his stress fundamentally changed? Considering that a more serious problem may have gone unnoticed and unaddressed, his primary use of the gym is getting him only symptomatic relief. Without some concomitant perceptual work, he may be engaging in avoidant behavior, another form of perceptus interruptus. If you would prefer not to look at your stressor, to not “lose the time” in perceptual improvement, then you may be impeding or reversing your perceptual function. The value of sentinel alertness was highlighted by Wolff (1950) who wrote “... man feeling threatened, may use for long term purposes devices designed for short term needs. They are not designed to be used as lifelong patterns and when so utilized may damage structures they were designed to protect” (p. 1059). Your perceptual function has taken millions of years to evolve its present qualities, and it is a valuable asset. Interfering with it, is like trying to block your biological need for oxygen. You are likely to be defeated in the process. Tragically, too many people suffer or die each year from stress-related disorders, when paradoxically they think their actions are dealing with it. The evolutionary significance and development of the nervous system can be handicapped by mind-altering substances. If your feelings are chemically altered, your perceptions (Stage II of perception) of valuable data can be altered of impeded. You won't be anxious when you should be anxious. You may be overly bold when you should proceed with caution. Mind-altering drugs can also delay crucial problem solving, and once drugs begin, real problem solving is likely to be distorted.

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Chronic Stress Can Hasten Neuron Cell Death Research has shown that high levels of corticosteroids (stress hormones) can damage brain cells, especially in the hippocampus, which is extremely sensitive to circulating steroids (Woolley, Gould, and McEwen, 1990; Sapolsky, Krey, and McEwen, 1985; Sapolsky and Pulsinelli, 1985). Cell degeneration and cell death can follow as has been demonstrated in laboratory animals. The hippocampus is especially important in recent memory retention and learning new tasks. With hippocampal compromise, individuals “demonstrate an inability to learn new facts and skills” (Carpenter, 1991, p. 317).

Welcoming the Messenger You need to realize when you are under stress, even when you have been unable to identify the stressor. For some reason, you may be reticent about identifying the stressor, or the stressor may not even be “on the radar screen” as yet. You may have made a tentative identification of the stressor, but are anxious about what it may indicate or what you may find out. You need an unpressured period or quiet time, during which you can withdraw privately for physical relaxation. The protection achieved with relaxation is prized not only for its symptomatic relief of discomfort, but for the perceptual clarity and enhancement it can provide. Actually, knowing the feelings that are evoked by the stressor may, by an inverse process, help you identify the stressor. Clearer perceptions are possible with relaxation. Relaxation physiologically facilitates the unfolding of clear perception, together with the production of helpful alpha waves, associated with creativity (Benson, 1976). The connection between clarity of perception and mental calm was captured by Wordsworth in “Intimations of Immortality”: “Hence in a season of calm ... Though inland far we be, our souls have sight of that immortal sea” (p. 212). Great awarenesses have been made and problem-solving enhancement has been recorded by historic figures when they achieved their unique styles of relaxation while facing a stress-related complexity or decision. For example, Executive ESP (Dean et al., 1974) describes for us a number of modalities for relaxation among famous personages from the worlds of business, literature, and science: J. P. Morgan used the card game of solitaire to “unblock the mind-line to his creative” thinking and decision making.... “Conrad Hilton also explains his decision-making process this way: you do all you can, he says—thinking, figuring, planning—then you listen for a response. ‘I know when I have a problem and have done all I can to figure it, I keep listening in a sort of inside silence ‘til something clicks, and I feel a right answer” (p. 169). The theory of relativity sprang into the mind of Albert Einstein while [he was ill in bed]. He also found his thoughts crystallized more readily while he drifted about aimlessly in his canoe. A.E. Housman’s poetry came to him

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sometimes in whole stanzas as he took relaxing walks; Mendelyev saw the periodic table of elements roll out for him in a dream” (p. 170). When the mind is calm, alpha waves proliferate in your brain. They are an indication that the mind is becoming optimal for problem solving and creativity (Benson, 1976). When the mind and body are calm, the oxygen and energy supplies to the brain are less diverted by demands from the skeletal muscles. Relaxation can also help your body when it is jolted by the powerful impact of unpleasant perceptions, especially when you feel that your equilibrium is shaken, and you feel unable to handle what you are perceiving. Remember, accurate perception of the problem needs to take place before efficient problem solving can happen, including your assessment of alternatives and your implementation of an appropriate action plan. So it is not surprising that you may experience some feelings of uncertainty and heightened symptoms during the early moments of stress.

Relaxation for Enlarged Perception We all need and value relaxation. Relaxation prolongs life by allowing the body to restore itself and enjoy recuperative periods of homeostasis. However, relaxation should not become a substitute for perception. If it does, it is not being used much differently from other forms of avoidant behavior. It is bringing only symptomatic relief while the cause of the stress goes unaddressed. Since relaxation can be an optimal milieu for accurate perception, problem solving, and creativity, it makes sense to use it for those purposes. When you realize that noxious feelings of stress—emotional or physical—serve a useful purpose, you can stop reacting to them with offense, fear, and high alarm. A fundamental reason for negative mental attitudes toward stress feelings is that you do not understand that they are only doing their job. Your noxious sensations, which are interrelated with perceptual function, will persist for the purpose of delivering the message they are in the process of transmitting. Stress feelings function to deliver information that is intended to focus your attention on a special need affecting your well-being. Whether you answer the call or ignore it, the messenger will keep ringing, because its turbulence is a protective mechanism with a perceptual message. If you correctly “read” the message, your assumptions, interpretations, alternatives, and action plan are more likely to be appropriate and effective. When you base your assumptions and interpretations on reality, you are behaviorally and perceptually in a better position to deal with crises and make wise decisions. Accurate identification and interpretations are vital to help you gauge the appropriate physical and emotional response to the stressor.

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The message you silence may be vital to your health, success, or survival. Know what you may be silencing. Learn to appreciate the special function of your messenger. Learn to value its services.

Techniques for Protective Relaxation Protective relaxation is a technique by which you shelter your body from symptoms of stress while you allow the information of your perception to present itself. You especially need protective relaxation when the stressor is intense, confusing, obscure, or prolonged. At this Step you will find it physically helpful and comforting to have a protective relaxation technique. But you will also discover that relaxation can help your pursuit of a confusing stressor. There are sound physiological and psychological reasons for your being able to take in more data when you are relaxed. Remember, your perceptual system registers the problem (the stressor) in advance of any alternatives for relief. The stressor can put your body in a jolt or destabilize you, especially if you are “caught off guard.” The intensity of stress feelings indicates an urgent need. Deep relaxation is all the more vital while the stressor is as yet unintelligible and remains unidentified. In order to contend with the complexity your stressor may represent, you need to be equipped physically and mentally to handle the data it symbolizes. Equipping yourself with relaxation is a way of providing yourself with protection. Lowering your metabolic rate reduces peripheral demands for oxygen and energy needed by the brain. If you were getting ready for a camping trip, you would want to protect yourself from uncertain weather conditions in the wild. You would want to be outfitted with a warm coat, warm inner garments, a tent, etc. Similarly, in preparation for the exploration of threatening stressors, you equip yourself physically with the protection provided by deep relaxation. In order to go deeper and continue to widen your perceptual range, you may need protection from what you may find out.

Here in Step II, physical relaxation exercises are used, but not solely for their obvious value in temporarily relieving certain physical stress symptoms. Relaxation modalities can also provide valuable periods of perceptual clarity—a window of opportunity—to be used for perceptual enhancement. In moments of relaxation, your mind can “clear its channels” so you can better read reality. You are allowing improved perception to take place with the brain’s oxygen and energy supplies at better levels.

Relaxation Vital for Problem Solving and Creativity It is a premise of The Percept Method that when stress is experienced, any number of approved and reliable relaxation modalities can serve a vital role.

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Relaxation can optimize your mind to attain its creative heights. When you are relaxed, your brain produces calm, flowing alpha waves, which are conducive to problem solving and creativity. We have already reviewed the hazards involved in attempting to induce this state artificially (Step I). Remember, the "light" needs to be turned on naturally in the room you want to enter.

Relaxation As It Affects the Retrieval System Relaxation can put the mind in the best position to work for you, but you need to use your retrieval system to get the benefits of the relaxation period and activate the part of your reserve brain that is needed. Great scientists, such as Thomas Edison and George Washington Carver, knew how to initiate their retrieval systems in periods of reflection, meditation, or prayerful calm, so as to get answers to a problem or crisis. Your retrieval system also helps make the meaning and significance of the stress experience intelligible to you. Remember, stress is something that indicates the existence of “something else.” If you seek relaxation for the sake of relaxation alone, you may miss the opportunity to know that “something else,” when knowing it could address and calm your stress on a more purposeful basis. Relaxation and calm periods are ideal times to visualize or “hear” the answers your retrieval system has found for you. George Washington Carver was under great stress after he had warned the poor Southern farmers that the overproduction of cotton would drain the vitality from the soil. He had advised a shift to peanut growing. Soon the peanuts were ready for market. What market? Enough peanuts to fill the paper bags at carnivals and circuses were already being imported from the Far East. What would he do with these extra peanuts? There was a great economic crisis among the poor farmers whose welfare and lives were at risk through the loss of farms, homes, and sustenance. Let Dr. Carver’s own words describe the calm which brought him answers: “At no other time have I so sharp an understanding of what God means to do with me as in these hours of dawn [relaxation, meditation, prayer]. When other folk are still asleep, I hear God best and learn His Plan” (Holt, 1943, p. 228). The result? Ultimate creativity in response to triggering his retrieval system—a virtual storehouse of products was discovered that were derived from the lowly peanut: “a dozen beverages, soup, sauces (Worcestershire, chili), meal, instant and dry coffee, salve, bleach, tar remover, wood filler, wash powder, metal polish, paper, ink, plastics, shaving cream, rubbing oil, linoleum, shampoo, axle grease, cough medicine, synthetic rubber. About 300 uses were found. Wall board was made from the peanut shells; nothing was wasted” (“Peanut Wizard,” pp. 66–67). Thomas A. Edison gave us another example of this principle. He had a legendary ability to trigger his retrieval system by ingenious inquiry and questioning. Edison also had the genius to recognize the answers when they came

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to him, often after a significant time lapse. As testimony to this skill, he compiled over 1,100 patents in his lifetime, during windows of calm, in the midst great pressures. Edison also epitomizes ultimate creativity in response to triggering his retrieval system. Edison found himself faced with a complex problem, and he was under great stress. He had discovered the principles of the electric light bulb, but he could not find a filament that was workable in terms of producing longevity of the light and also being economically feasible. After years of frustration and waiting, his investors were beginning to feel as if they “had poured money down a drain.” His advocate and attorney, Grosvenor P. Lowery, was having difficulty fielding the discontent and pessimism of “these ever-nervous moneymen” (Adair, 1996, p. 71). Edison set his retrieval system to work on a solution to the problem. In a moment of calm, a substance that he had previously tried and found unworkable, was realized to have the right resistance needed. This substance was carbon, which Edison had crossed off his list when early on it had proved unworkable because it burned up in the presence of oxygen. But that had been before Edison developed the vacuum tube. The vacuum created an environment that could prevent carbon from burning up. History has it that one day, Edison was idly, absent-mindedly, and calmly twisting carbon lampblack between his fingers into a string when the enlightenment struck him. Carbon might now work! Coincidence? Chance? Not likely. Edison had long ago made his inquiry of his retrieval system. He was awaiting an answer. In his mind set, he could recognize the answer. In an 1854 address, Louis Pasteur told his listeners, “Where observation is concerned, chance favors the prepared mind.” To gain physical relaxation solely for the sake of relieving physical discomfort addresses the body's symptoms on an ad hoc basis, with its implied transient effect. But it neglects the mind and its creative ability to find alternatives and answers. Trying to force relaxation as one might force a sense of calm by using suppressive or other sedating modalities ignores the reality of the situation. Would you want to relax if danger were brewing or something in your life were being neglected? Not likely, unless you at least knew that informational contact had been made with your cerebral cortex and your retrieval system was at work on your behalf. With those two processes activated, at least meaningful problem solving can be underway.

Goals of Relaxation 1. To protect and “buffer” the body from the impact of noxious sensations or fears of what your perceptions may convey. 2. To increase your perceptual range and increase your introspective capacity.

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3. To protect your body from a dysfunctional physical or catastrophic reaction after confronting a personal crisis. 4. To allow greater supplies of oxygen and energy to be routed to the brain from nonessential peripheral muscular metabolism. A Typical Relaxation Exercise 1. Find a private, quiet place where you can be undisturbed for at least 20 minutes. Lie down. Remove shoes and any tight garments, belt, necktie, jewelry. Gently close your eyes. 2. Compare the state of relaxation with the state of tension. At a count of “one” have your conscious mind give your unconscious mind the suggestion to slow down, “let go,” and relax. Take deep, long breaths, slowly and deeply inhaling and exhaling. Allow yourself to take a minimum of ten slow, deep breaths and feel that you have released the tension from your body. 3. Now create a heightened tension. At the count of “two” clench your fists as tightly as possible, make ramrods out of your arms and fists. Push your toes downward and make ramrods out of your legs. Tighten your buttocks and abdominal muscles and make a ramrod out of your torso. Bring your shoulders up toward your ears and chin down to your chest and make a ramrod out of your entire body as tightly as you can. Keep all of your muscles as tight as you can. Take a deep, deep breath and hold it for a long, slow count of three. Then let go. As you exhale deeply, have your conscious mind instruct your subconscious mind to relax completely and allow the relaxing feeling to move down from the top of your head and throughout your body. Contrast the feeling of tension with the feeling of relaxation. Next, have your conscious mind inquire of your unconscious mind the source or cause of your stress: What What What What

is my stress feeling trying to tell me? is bothering me? could be causing my stress. is the identity of the stressor provoking my discomfort?

4. Allow your body and mind to enjoy the relaxation as if time were unimportant. When you feel the effects of relaxation, you can further ask yourself: Do I know the cause of my stress? Do I understand what this feeling of stress is trying to tell me?

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief Do I know the meaning and significance of this stressor to me? Do I feel comfortable imaging-in the problem (this stressor) so my unconscious mind can work on solutions while I am going about other business?

If you can answer yes to these questions, and your stressor can pass the Stress Accuracy Test (S.A.T.), you may wish to proceed to Step V. If not, Step III will help you reach a deeper level of relaxation in pursuit of the accurate identification of your stressor and its significance to you. Remember, the S.A.T. is simple. If you feel you know the identity of the stressor and you can image-in the stressor, then simply ask yourself: If this stressor were removed, gone, if it disappeared, would my stress symptoms also be gone?

Self-Evaluation 1. Have I become familiar with the principles and the importance of relaxation? 2. What are some of the goals that relaxation can help me accomplish? 3. Have I become familiar with the ways in which relaxation can be used as an avoidant modality? 4. What are optimal uses of relaxation? 5. Do I understand the interrelationships among relaxation, inner calm, and perceptual enlargement? 6. Do I understand why Nature chose to make stress feelings noxious to varying degrees? 7. Do I see a similarity between the feeling of pain on a physical level and the feeling of stress on an emotional/feeling level? 8. Do I better understand that stress, like pain, has a perceptual (informational) function? 9. What are the modalities used to keep perceptus interruptus in place? 10. How can these modalities lead to addictive disorders? 11. How can perceptus interruptus interfere with my ability to evaluate data and carry out a mental assessment and review. 12. What are some of the consequences of allowing stress to persist unchecked?

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13. When I encounter a concept crisis (a nonphysical threat), do I feel that strong physical and physiological reactions are inevitable? 14. If I am in a business or occupation or profession in which I encounter many concept crises on a daily basis, and I react with strong physical and physiological reactions, will my health and longevity be affected? 15. What are my sentinel feelings? 16. What is a sentinel alert? 17. What is sentinel cognition? 18. What harmful modalities might I use in order to maintain perceptus interruptus in its place? 19. If I rely on perceptus interruptus, what modalities have I been using to keep it in force? 20. Why do these modalities usually have to be repeated? 21. Have I become familiar with the terms and concepts in this Step?

Goals to Go 1. Have I been able to identify and image-in my stressor? 2. Has my stressor passed the Stress Accuracy Test? 3. Have I been able to use a relaxation technique to enhance my perception?

Exit Strategy If the answers to the above questions are “yes,” then you may proceed to Step V, the Emotional Literacy Step. In that Step you can determine the specific feeling(s) the stressor has evoked in you. In addition, in Step V, you can begin to better understand the meaning and significance of the stressor. If you have not accurately identified and imaged-in the stressor, you should proceed to Step III.

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STEP III: Tracking the Elusive Stressor There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast. — Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 69 ... it is better to face them [outside messages] with a smile, and with head erect than to crouch at their approach. — William Osler, Aequanimitas, p. 8

Status Check (Any Item) 1. I still do not know the identity of my stressor. Maybe I will feel threatened and afraid of what I find. 2. I can’t afford to experience undue stress. I need to achieve deeper physical relaxation and mental calm as I go forward in my quest. 3. I know there are advantages to perceiving my stressor accurately. However, I seem to have a mental block. What is the reason I cannot face this hidden stressor without hesitancy and apprehension? I want to find answers.

Initial Step III Goals 1. To protect and buffer my body from the impact of physical duress and fears because of what my perceptions may convey. 2. To increase my perceptivity and my introspective capacity. 3. To protect my body from a dysfunctional physical or catastrophic reaction when confronting a personal crisis.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 4. To prepare and protect my body by physical relaxation and mental calm for the intellectual assessment and further decoding work of Step V. 5. To identify the stressor specifically. To remember to continue to subject my feelings to the Stress Accuracy Test by asking myself: if this stressor were removed, absent, deleted, would my stress feelings diminish and stop? When the answer is “yes,” and when I have imaged-in the stressor, I can proceed to Step V. 6. To maintain physical relaxation and mental calm while perceiving, especially during Stage II of perception. 7. To access and record examples of my perceptual enlargement. 8. To be able to process more data more accurately and with less need for distortion or perceptus interruptus. 9. To access a belief system or transcendental principles to gain additional courage to face the information I may be avoiding. To consider how effective Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous have been. A paramount consideration for their success has been their spiritual foundations. I can also be fortified to face my task, however formidable, with a belief system and spiritual principles. 10. To continue a record in my personal journal of all essential developments—negative and positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

Principles of Step III and Premises of The Percept Method It is tempting, but possibly naive, to think stress always comes from something easy to identify: your employment, a recent argument with a friend or spouse, or a change in your financial status. But if you have followed the easy path and you are still feeling the discomfort, you may be placing blame in the wrong place. It is only when you can face the stressor clearly and accurately that you can take steps to identify and solve the problem that it represents. First, you need to know the cause, then, why it is stressful to you, and what the stressor means in your life. Why is it so hard to figure these things out? There may be many reasons. 1. Your stressor may represent something so important to you that you are afraid to face it because of the potential for loss or change that it represents, for example, a perplexity about a situation or person who has authority to affect an important aspect of your life, anywhere from a college professor who grades you, to the job interviewer, to a potential financial investor.

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2. Maybe the source of stress is an old one, literally buried under years of coping and defense mechanisms that, until now, have helped you be avoidant. Now the stressor can no longer remain buried, for example, the association of your stress with a person with whom you are in business, or you are in a questionable situation that can no longer be contained. 3. Maybe you have a sense of what the source of stress is, but you know that effective problem solving will mean difficult, life-changing decisions and follow-through, for example, long-standing marital problems that require clarifying the family situation realistically. 4. You may be looking on the outside when you should be looking on the inside. Maybe you don’t feel you are qualified to accomplish a goal that is most dear to you. Reason enough to hide? No one wants to make his or her life any more difficult than it has to be. But if you want, in a meaningful way, to rid yourself of the stress and restore your sense of well-being, you need to be aware of the cause for your discomfort.

The Fine Art of Noninterference The principle of noninterference can help you as you continue your search for the identity and meaning of your stressor. The principle of noninterference, stated most simply, means to let the information through, without the barricade of fear, defensiveness, or distortion. However, this can be difficult. Remember, our egos want to protect us from what they may consider (often erroneously) a “loss of face,” either real or imagined. Various defense mechanisms become recruits of our personality to carry out this “protection.” The defense mechanisms can alter how we interpret and respond to stressful situations. They can thus do us a disservice; they can become a problem in their own right. To perceive reality effectively, we need to know accurately what we are dealing with, where it is coming from, and what resources we need to mobilize in order to resolve the problem it represents. Don’t forget about the man with the lung tumor who rationalized that moving to a warmer climate would relieve all of his stress. Inaccurate perceptions can lead to inaccurate assumptions, inaccurate interpretations, inaccurate conclusions, then inaccurate decisions, which can lead us to pursue inappropriate alternatives and undertake an inappropriate action plan. After sensing a sentinel alert, your vital goal is to achieve accurate perception. Think of yourself as a reporter. Consider what a reporter may have to view, investigate, and report in the course of a typical day. When the news is bad, or

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the scene is horrific, don’t you think the reporter would most likely prefer a happy ending? The same is true when a physician has results of a diagnostic test that will have a life-changing or life-threatening significance for his or her patient. These examples serve to illustrate the principle of noninterference and the importance of truth and accuracy. What good could come of a physician’s ignoring an abnormal finding on a patient’s chest x-ray or tumor biopsy or electrocardiogram? The answer goes without saying. It is the same when you have experienced a sentinel alert and ignore it, or distort it, or try to hide it, under an assumption that it should not be important or that it will just go away.

Stress Is Not Cruelty As we have learned in previous Steps, a stress feeling is informational. Your stressful feelings are trying to tell you something. Stress is not cruelty; it is actually trying to protect you. Stress is functioning in the way it has been evolutionarily perfected to function. We make stress dangerous by impeding it, distracting it, prolonging it, and trying to throw it off its functional course. That is, we can force stress to magnify itself and become prolonged and harmful. If you choose to alter the information being perceived, you do not get an accurate or clear picture of what is happening. Consequently, it will be very difficult to identify the stressor, to find appropriate alternatives, or to achieve an appropriate action plan. The process of noninterference requires great inner honesty and integrity, and it greatly enhances your capability for accurate perception. Achieving accuracy in identifying the stressor will be your first goal when you allow data and information to find a home in your conscious mind. Noninterference is like saying, “Don’t jam your radar.”

Noninterference Can Be Heroic The term noninterference receives a lot of “bad press” because it implies passivity. It is frequently used pejoratively, with its connotations of “waving the white flag,” or acting the “sissy,” or just “surrendering.” Paradoxically, the word noninterference, as envisioned in The Percept Method, is actually heroic. You need courage to view reality or see the truth as it really is. Noninterference says, “keep your hands off the raw data.” Yes, it is a quiet period, a passive proceeding, but a courageous and noble one. Noninterference in The Percept Method means simply perceiving what is. That requires strength not weakness, bravery not cowardice. At times, it requires strength of unusually great proportions and a priority on inner honesty and objectivity. It values impartiality, reality, and authenticity. To achieve Stage II of perception with proper information transmission or accurate reading of a situation, you must have the strength not to succumb to the temptation of interfering. Being able to practice noninterference means you are not tempted to use psychological defenses or chemical substances to try to

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modify what needs to be a clear perception of what is happening. If you are listening to the news, you would think it ridiculous to muffle the commentator’s voice or alter his words so they imply facts that are vastly different from what is actually taking place. But this is often the way we attempt to alter or interfere with information from our own perceptions. Instead of allowing the information to declare itself, we often try to “contaminate” it or distort the raw data. Perceptus Interruptus Is Not Being Brave We often try to elevate this interference to a level of high principle by calling it “being active,” “doing something” about a situation—not just “taking it lying down.” Instead of letting the information come through and simply be what it is, we often try to arrange incoming data to fit other assumptions, in order to give ourselves a false sense of security and deny what the stress feelings really represent. We can pay a very high price for that temporary false sense of security. Let us characterize it accurately. Perception is a basically passive but heroic phenomenon. This does not mean that you are supposed to feel happy or satisfied with the news of the world or the news from your sales department or your local weather forecast. But it does mean you are letting the information through. Only then can meaningful action take place. There is a place for action and for taking the initiative, but only after you have allowed accurate reports to be received and understood. Perceptus Interruptus Can Muddle Things at Any Level Perceptus interruptus can interfere with your ability to make accurate interpretations of the stressor’s significance, even after you have accurately identified the stressor. Perceptus interruptus can often act as a computer virus; it can interject at any point while you are processing mental data. Therefore, you need to be on constant alert not to let perceptus interruptus subvert cerebral engagement, mental review, and assessment. If a business crisis is bearing down on you, you need to let the facts authentically be perceived. You need to perceive the situation as accurately as possible. This does not mean you have to be pleased with the status of data confronting you, but you need to perceive realistically, so that, later, your alternatives and action plan can be based on reality. When the information coming to your cerebral cortex is not distorted, altered artificially, or interfered with, then your next Step of alternatives can be undertaken with more confidence.

Act Like an Objective Researcher Maximizing and perfecting your perceptions is crucial, for unless your perceptions are accurate, your subsequent assumptions are likely to be erroneous. Perfecting your perceptions means letting your perceptual system (your feelings, five senses, neural network, and brain) perform its function of

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transmitting information and achieving cognitive participation. The noninterference of perception does not mean that what you perceive is what you want or something you intend to permit to continue or something you agree with. It only means that you want to be accurate about what you are assessing. Using this noninterference technique, you are like a great researcher or investigator examining data. In a research experiment or similar investigation, if you desire the advantages of truth, reality, and predictability, you would never consider altering or “fudging” the raw facts, calculations, or results of your findings. If you were to alter the data, the whole experiment you are undertaking would be meaningless. You would only be fooling yourself by forfeiting the truth. There is a time and place for being active—for high activity. But that comes after accurate perception.

Learning to Let Go Noninterference on a mental level is roughly equivalent to “letting go” on a physical level. Both can facilitate the goal of enlarged perception. The mental calm and physical relaxation that you want to accompany noninterference serves to protect your body from the corrosive effects and impact of stress. Physical relaxation and mental calm enhance perceptual enlargement. They enable you to heighten your perceptivity, to “see” the bigger picture. When you are first exposed to perceptions that may represent a peril, before you have viable alternatives, you may feel threatened, exposed, vulnerable, and frightened. However, there is great consolation in knowing that if you pursue perceptual accuracy, you are positioning yourself to find alternatives for meaningful relief “right around the corner.”

The Ostrich Syndrome It is a premise of The Percept Method that behaving like an ostrich can be dangerous to your survival. The ostrich is endangered in the wild. Frequently, it is devoured by predators. There is every indication that the ostrich experiences perceptive–protective noxious feelings on a sensory level when it senses danger (so does the amoeba). However, the ostrich has two main ways of coping with sensory feelings of sentinel stress. (1) It can choose to take appropriate action and outrun the predator. That is a wise and prudent course of action, because fortunately the ostrich is endowed with great speed in its powerful legs. It is reported to be able to outrun most predators, including the streamlined and speedy cheetah. Or (2) it can choose to bury its head and indulge in Ostrich Magical Thinking, i.e., avoid incoming data.

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Each second that its head is buried, the sensory stress response is increasing and theoretically saying, "Dear Ostrich, you are in great danger! Please move quickly. Each second the predator is getting closer and closer." The ostrich's heart is pounding, its blood pressure is elevated, and the adrenalin is pouring into its bloodstream. However, the ostrich's magical thinking is theoretically countering with: “Ignore the message of your stress response. Ignore the importance it seeks to convey. You are just making a big deal out of nothing. The predator probably hasn't even noticed you. Why should he see you when you can’t see him? Besides, the predator probably isn't even hungry. Why waste your time taking meaningful action when it is so much easier to stay put and do nothing!” However, the predator was hungry. The predator had noticed the ostrich. The predator had a big meal of ostrich meat that night.

Henry David Thoreau (1854) was troubled by man’s adoption of avoidant modalities which typify the modus operandi of the ostrich: “Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths ... by closing the eyes and slumbering and consenting to be deceived” (pp. 139–140). It has been scientifically demonstrated that the brain grows more neurons when it responds to challenge. The reverse can take place when the brain is sedentary. The brain that remains inactive can lose neurons, just as an underused muscle or a vestigial organ is diminished. Is this what has happened to the ostrich brain?

Techniques for Letting Go The perceptual training presented here uses a series of hypothetical situations, in order to learn not to cheat or interfere with perceived data. You can gain power by becoming an accurate observer. 1. Imagine you must produce a critically important business report. You need to know what your company is actually doing. Imagine that the company made $103. You want to record and deal with $103 rather than pretending it was $1,003. You want to realize there is a greater advantage in dealing with reality and addressing that reality rather than distorting it. 2. Imagine you are conducting a research poll to determine whether potential customers exist for a new product. You like the new product, and you believe it is an excellent idea, if there is a market for it. You need to test the market, and your research findings need to represent reality. If you choose to alter your research findings and project more customers than there actually are, you will harshly clash with reality.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief You want to train your mind to be an accurate observer by noninterference with data. You are preparing your mind for the future alternative and action Steps both of which depend on accuracy for success. You see data in your life that you may not like, but which you need to recognize and register clearly, so you will be able to take appropriate steps to handle them. 3. Now, allow yourself to review any stress feeling you may be experiencing. This can cause initial discomfort, but do your best not to block incoming data unless you absolutely cannot tolerate the experience. The latter may be an indication to seek professional assistance. Try to act like a reporter or scientist, who is attempting to collect the information being presented—the whole story—as it becomes available to you. You may wish to record notes in a journal to help during this Step. But, remember, don’t shape or edit your notes. They are your raw data, the elements of the story you are trying to understand. Let the feelings, thoughts, memories, and physical sensations take anchor in your mind. You don’t need to force meaning or try to make sense of them immediately. The answer or whole picture may not even be on your mental horizon. Your retrieval system can be activated by inquiry and will offer answers when it opens the appropriate “file.”

Inner Authenticity The incoming data may represent your inner authenticity; and your inner authenticity may even come out with your “mistakes.” Picasso understood that inner authenticity expressed itself in many ways (Ashton, 1988): What does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of So-and-So or to actually imitate someone else? What’s wrong with that? On the contrary, it’s a good idea. You should constantly try to paint like someone else. But the thing is, you can’t! You would like to. You try. But it turns out to be a botch ... And it’s at the very moment you make a botch of it that you’re yourself. (p. 53)

The Direction of Evolution: Sentience to Consciousness Over two centuries ago, the renowned German philosopher Immanuel Kant realized that “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to understanding” (1781, p. 222).

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Ever since life took form on this planet, evolution has moved in the direction from sentience to consciousness, from the sensory response of a onecelled organism to the sensory and cerebral (conscious) responses of a human being. This great but recent evolutionary achievement of Nature allows feelings to reach and have cognitive awareness. Consciousness is possibly the most significant development of Nature, greater than the opposable thumb or walking upright or communicable speech. The evolutionary reach involved in allowing feelings to achieve cognitive awareness coincided with the development of the cerebral cortex. Consciousness contrasts dramatically with the amoeba, the paramecium, and the oyster, all of which are limited to sentience (Stage I of perception). Progressively, however, carried over the span of evolution, we see a central nervous system developing which has as its aim fortifying, enhancing, and enriching the sentient capacity of the body with the marvelous dimension of awareness provided by the brain. To attempt to imperil or impair or impede consciousness is the same as attempting to reverse this unique dimension, evolved through Nature, which makes us human. The resistance you would encounter from Nature is comparable to trying to impede the flow of time or reverse gravity. The central nervous system, although a relative newcomer, is the quintessential development in evolution’s striving for maximization. One of its primary functions is to make conscious that which is sentient. Just pause and imagine the versatility and power and creativity that this cerebral activity (consciousness) places within you. When an amoeba feels a noxious sensation, it has a limited range of alternatives. When you feel a noxious sensation, your brain can provide you with an unlimited range of alternatives, depending on the type of stressor you face. The development of the human brain: What a wonder! What a marvel! With all of our research and scientific knowledge, consciousness still retains its aweinspiring greatness and mystery. Let us resolve to cherish this priceless gift and use its immeasurable potential.

Self-Evaluation Some of these questions are being repeated for emphasis. 1. Have I been able to become familiar with the principles and the importance of relaxation and mental calm? 2. What are some of the things that relaxation and mental calm can help me accomplish? 3. Have I become familiar with the way relaxation can be used as an avoidant modality?

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 4. What are optimal uses of relaxation and mental calm? 5. Do I understand the interrelationships among relaxation, inner calm, and heightened perception? 6. Do I understand why Nature chose to make stress feelings noxious in varying degrees? 7. Do I see a similarity between pain on a physical level and stress on an emotional/feeling level? 8. Do I better understand that stress, like pain, has a perceptual (informational) function? (Remind yourself not to be like the ostrich!) 9. Knowing that evolution has taken the direction from sentience to consciousness, do I better understand why the harmful modalities included under perceptus interruptus have to be repeated in order to continue blocking perception? 10. What are some of the modalities that are frequently used to maintain a state of perceptus interruptus? 11. How can these modalities lead to addictive disorders? 12. In what other ways can these avoidant modalities be harmful? 13. How can perceptus interruptus interfere with my ability to evaluate data and carry out a mental assessment and review? 14. How can perceptus interruptus prevent an accurate interpretation of a situation? 15. Can a misinterpretation of a situation heighten my stress? 16. Can my bodily response be affected by the interpretation I place on events? 17. What are some of the consequences of allowing stress to persist unchecked? 18. When I encounter a concept crisis (a nonphysical threat), do I feel that strong physical and physiological reactions are inevitable? 19. If I am in a business or occupation or profession, in which I encounter many concept crises on a daily basis, and I react with strong physical and physiological reactions, do I feel my health and longevity will be affected? 20. What is my understanding of my sentinel feelings? 21. What is my understanding of a sentinel alert? 22. What is my understanding of sentinel cognition? 23. Can I better understand why the ostrich in the wild is being evolved out? 24. As I face a stress challenge, do I understand that my brain has a reserve of neurons to help me? 25. In what direction has Nature taken perception?

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26. Have I been able to become familiar with the terms and concepts in this Step?

Goals to Go 1. Have I been able to identify and image-in my stressor? 2. Has my stressor passed the Stress Accuracy Test? 3. Have I been able to use a relaxation technique to enhance my perception?

Exit Strategy I have finally found out what is troubling me. I have identified my stressor and it has passed the Stress Accuracy Test. I have imaged-in the stressor and its significance. I have the option to proceed with more confidence to Step V. Or, I realize I am going to need deeper relaxation and mental calm to face and identify my stressor, so I am going to proceed to Step IV.

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STEP IV: Meditation in Pursuit of the Ultimate Stressor ... for to bear all naked truth, And to envisage circumstance all calm That is the top of sovereignty. —John Keats, “Hyperion,” ii, ll. 203–205 Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close; And let us all to meditation. —William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II, III, iii

Status Check (Any Item) 1. Identification of this unintelligible and unknown stressor is still eluding me. 2. I feel I need more calm and inner peace for protection while I continue to pursue this unknown stressor. I want to learn what there is about this stressor that makes me apprehensive or afraid of even knowing what it is.

Initial Step IV Goals 1. To achieve a deeper level of physical relaxation and increased mental calm so I do not have to block my perception of the stressor. 2. To identify my stressor. 3. To image-in the stressor and its significance after I have subjected it to the Stress Accuracy Test and feel comfortable that it has passed that test.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 4. To continue with Stage II of perception for mental processing of the stressor. 5. To continue a record in my personal journal or notebook of all essential developments—negative and positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

Principles of Step IV and Premises of The Percept Method The ultimate stressor is defined as that stressor which you have been unable to identify by all prior procedures and approaches. It is the one that causes significant stress but still eludes identity. To this point you have not been able to decode it. Its identity seems to remain behind a screen. Relaxation is a state that can be achieved by numerous means. Some people can feel relaxed by simply sitting in a comfortable chair and letting their minds unwind. Others achieve relaxation via physical activity, working out to a level of tiredness that distracts the mind from worries and anxiety. Still others find relaxation in social interaction. “Whatever works” is the typical mandate, and most people find that one technique is effective some of the time, while another technique works better another time. It should not come as a surprise then that, when the goal is to identify the source of extreme or persistent stress, a person might need to audition several relaxation techniques to find an effective method.

Meditation in Pursuit of the Ultimate Stressor Meditation may be the technique that works when others have failed or when the stressor is deeply buried. Meditation is often misunderstood, with one of the most common misperceptions being that its sole purpose is to clear the mind of all conscious thought. In fact, meditation is much more. Most authorities define meditation as a highly active exercise, one used to consciously or purposefully focus your attention on the inner self, while clearing the mind of distracting “outer” thoughts. Using a slightly expanded function, the role of meditation can be to provide a period for allowing the mind to be receptive to the identification of the stressor. During meditation, the source of stress can become clear. Meditation is also the ideal milieu for initiating inquiry and activating your retrieval system. Whether stress comes from within or without, you may require meditation to achieve the deepest level of relaxation and mental calm. Meditation helps

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to eliminate thoughts and feelings that stand between your conscious awareness of stress feelings and your recognition of their source. However, elimination of extraneous thoughts is not a substitute for inquiry, which can optimally take place during meditation.

Some Benefits of Meditation Research has shown that the physiology of meditation offers important benefits that contribute to stress relief. These include: • lowered respiratory rate • • • • • • • • • • • • •

lowered blood pressure decreased heart rate alert restfulness abundance of alpha brain waves associated with creativity and heightened perception lowered metabolic rate less oxygen used by skeletal muscles, heart, and lungs more oxygen and nutrients available for brain activity minimization of psychological defenses better access to unconscious mind focus and concentration toward Stage II perception heightened perception contact with cerebral modulatory centers more natural calm

Remember, when Stage II of perception is in progress, the brain can begin to modify the symptoms of stress naturally, because cerebral recognition and participation have been obtained. The Percept Method acknowledges the bonuses of meditation, which can be vital facilitators when you are trying to identify and resolve the more inaccessible sources of stress.

The Productivity of Meditation The questions you pose to your subconscious mind, to seek the identity of your stressor, can stimulate your brain to productivity during your busy waking hours, even when you are occupied with other things. The following questions can be presented when you are at work, taking a walk, riding a bus, at literally any time at all. To initiate the process, you can begin by writing each of the following questions in your personal journal or notebook. It is

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helpful to record every idea, thought, feeling, and response that relates to your inquiry. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

When did I first remember feeling stress? What did I feel was the reason for the stress? What time did it first occur? What was the date of its occurrence? Where was I when it occurred? What were the circumstances? Were other persons involved?

8. Who were the other persons? 9. Specifically, what did each person do or say, if anything, that might have aroused or accentuated stress in me? 10. Do I feel the stressor is related to a person, a situation, an event, a place, or what?

Stay Receptive to Answers; But Do Not Rush Them It is important to remember that when you ask a question, you are setting into motion the tracer, or retrieval process, that stimulates reserve powers in your mind. It works something like this: Suppose that you call the Records Department and request a file. The file and its contents are not in your hands yet. You are only initiating an information retrieval process. Nothing dictates exactly where you will be or what you will be doing or thinking, when that file is presented to you. You may be walking down the hall, your mind on something entirely different, when the file clerk calls out your name and tells you the file you requested has been located. The answers may come out unforced at unexpected times or may coalesce during a quiet visualization period of meditation. The answers tend to come when your mind is calm. There are many physiological reasons why data presents itself more readily to a calm mind. When you ask questions, you should not necessarily expect the answers instantly. Give yourself time for your mind to work on your behalf. The fact that the stressor is unknown to you may mean it is extraordinarily important, or you may be close to a high personal mission that may involve an important life change, or it may be a complex situation that involves sensitive others. If answers to these questions were immediately accessible, you wouldn’t have to ask them in the first place. So give meditation time to facilitate your retrieval system. It takes practice to learn how to meditate effectively. You may add to your feelings of stress by expecting answers or results too soon. And that can produce a situation called performance stress .

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Conscious and Unconscious Minds As Partners It is a premise of The Percept Method that the conscious mind can give the unconscious mind directions or suggestions. In addition, the conscious mind can make inquiries of and requests to the unconscious mind. It is also a premise of The Percept Method that eventually the more specific your conscious requests or inquiries, the more specifically your unconscious will be able to work for you, which is the function of the retrieval system. In other words, the more specific your requests, the more specific the answers can be. Nevertheless, in the beginning, you can more productively start with broad questions; there will be time later for more specificity. If you want to get to California from New York, you might eventually get there driving randomly without making inquiries or seeking answers. But the chances of getting there in your lifetime can be remote if you drive without intention. If you are purposeless and unstructured, you will find yourself taking many detours, possibly interesting ones, but not necessarily ones that will bring you any closer to California in your lifetime. Nevertheless, leaving from Ohio, it’s vital to know you have to go West. Your retrieval system may start out with broad, unstructured questions, but it can graduate to clearer, more specific questions. As you get to Council Bluffs, Iowa, you may need specific answers—whether you turn right or left at the next corner.

Conscious and Unconscious Minds in Action It is a premise of The Percept Method that your conscious mind and your unconscious mind can work together effectively to decode a long repressed and confusing stress reaction if (1) the functioning and assets of either mind are not excluded and, (2) you recognize and utilize the attributes and the unique contribution that each mind can make to the problem-solving process. Your unconscious mind has compiled and is the repository for all the raw data from your entire life. One of its functions is to help you make authentic protective and survival decisions by preserving data you may need about future situations. To help you, your unconscious can trigger an accompanying feeling consistent with your best interests and authenticity, that says, among other things, “stop,” “go,” or “caution.” Generalizations often resulted when Nature tried to protect you as a child. Nature attempts to overcome the limitation on the child’s abilities of discernment by broadening the parameters for caution whenever the child has been confronted with a specific stress. These parameters may become sweeping. Nature makes a hierarchical trade-off. It places a higher priority on the child’s protection and survival by having the child protected with a generalization,

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rather than burdening the child’s mind with trying to make specific determinations that require the ability to draw subtle distinctions. In later life, the adult intellect or conscious mind has the ability to be a reality tester and make corrections, amendments, and modifications. Here is an example of how the profound combination of your conscious and unconscious minds can work together and inform you. Once upon a Time There Was a Mean Man Something unfortunate happened to you as a child. It constituted a stressor! You were insulted aggressively and treated unfairly by an elderly man with a thick mustache and large ears. Nature attempted to protect you by reminding you, through your stress feelings, to be cautious or avoid a person with those characteristics, i.e., a man with a thick mustache and big ears. In other words, Nature attempted to protect you as a child by evoking in you a stress reaction (a moderate to marked hesitancy, a suspiciousness, or physical discomfort) whenever you encountered a man who had those two characteristics. Nature knew that, as a child, you would have difficulty distinguishing a good person with a thick mustache and big ears from a harmful person with a thick mustache and big ears. Therefore, the generalization developed to protect you while you were a vulnerable child, but you would be able to amend it later in life as an adult. As an adult, you are not consciously aware of that stressor experience, because it happened many years earlier and you have forgotten the actual incident. Nevertheless, as an adult, your conscious mind or intellect, with the aid of your retrieval system, can test the meaning, significance, and validity of your generalized stress reaction. Your conscious mind can also use reality tests to determine whether it is valid to have a stress reaction for a current encounter. With your conscious mind you initiate your retrieval system, by making the following inquiry: “What is the reason that I am having a stress reaction with this old gentleman?” Your retrieval system, initiated by your conscious mind, can help give you an answer. Maybe not immediately, but in the first Five Steps of The Percept Method you can be helped in your search. Once initiated, your retrieval system scans your unconscious mind, like those old data processing machines used to riffle through stacks of punched cards. Without the conscious mind (Stage II of perception), you would be left with the raw stress feeling, which often works by generalization from that early childhood experience. The conscious mind, aided by your adult intellect and retrieval system, can now make specific distinctions and identify differences. To repeat, generalized stress reactions can frequently be formed by the experiences of early youth and evoked in current situations without conscious assessment. Those raw stress feelings often affect your interpretation of current events or a new situation. Unless the stress feelings evoked by your unconscious mind are brought up to date by the reality tester—the intellect of your conscious mind—they can imprison you with a false premise. The reality tester enables you to modify and alter the interpretations you place on a stress feeling. However, you must give your raw feelings

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their just credit. Without them, you would have no reservoir of data upon which to draw. Among other things, the raw feelings serve as a caution or alert when you are faced with a possible danger. All the data in your entire life congeal in these raw feelings. These feelings do have a meaning and a basis for manifesting stress: there was a traumatic incident; there was an old man with big ears and a mustache who caused the stress. But it may not be happening now. The raw feelings need the intellect (consciousness) because those previous feelings may not accurately interpret a current situation. The source of your stress reaction needs to be placed in its proper context. The intellect has the ability to place the stress reaction in proper perspective and make an appropriate interpretation. If you did not have the conjunction of both your conscious and unconscious minds with the aid of your interactive retrieval system and the interpretation provided by the reality tester (your intellect), you could have a stress reaction when you encountered two very great individuals: Albert Schweitzer and Albert Einstein, both of whom had heavy mustaches and big ears. How constricted your life would be without the assets of both your minds!

Past traumatic experiences are registered and manifested in your stress feeling as an alert to your present situation. Remember that the stress feeling, the stress sensation, is informational. It is trying to tell you something. Is that something valid or not valid? The conscious mind, the intellect, working in conjunction with the unconscious mind, helps you answer that question. The unconscious process works with all the data in your life; this makes it extremely complex and difficult to track. It goes to the core, the origins of your reactions. The intellect or conscious mind works by a conscious process. The conscious process can be tracked more easily, so we often place more confidence in it. But you need both your conscious and unconscious minds. They both serve vital functions. Why do you need both? That elderly man who insulted you when you were a little child, he did have a heavy mustache and big ears. That is true. But your intellect tells you that not every man with a bushy mustache and big ears is dangerous. Carl Jung, the noted psychiatrist, summarized the interactive responses and interdependence described above in Memories, Dreams and Reflections (1963): “It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, so the increase in our consciousness affects the unconscious” (p. 326).

A Double-Bind The conscious mind may not immediately have the answer to your stressful situation. If the identity of the stressor has been blocked from reaching your cerebral cortex, then your conscious mind may not know what questions to ask your unconscious. In such a situation, it is unlikely that your retrieval system can become active. It may be left “out of service.“ In frustration, individuals begin consulting lists, seeking a stressor that applies to them, searching extensive lists for a stressor that may be the caurse of their problem. They

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are often at a loss for the appropriate niche where they feel they fit in. Individuals can often be led astray by looking outside instead of inside. Stressors come in all shapes and sizes, but it is your unique response to a stressor or the way a stressor affects you—the interactivity of stressed and stressor—that coalescence to proclaim the identity of your Stressor. And that comes from within you! Your retrieval system can eventually provide you with a more authentic answer to your stress bewilderment than any list. However, you have to listen quietly and patiently for answers from that creative process you can activate.

Tuning in to Your Brain’s Power Your retrieval system activates the part of the brain you need and allows the unneeded portions to remain at rest. Meditation provides the optimal setting to implement your retrieval system. It is a premise of The Percept Method that this power of the subconscious mind can be turned on by initiating your brain’s interactive retrieval system when you want to search out or find an answer or when you want to maximize your brain’s power to reach peak performance or be creative. You may have heard the statement many times that “only a small percentage of a person’s brain power is used.” Did you ever stop to ask why this limitation? Did you ever think how brain usage can be enhanced? Creative people have known this secret for ages. They know how to turn on their brains’ power by inquiry. Your retrieval system saves time and energy and basically activates the part of your brain that you need, as you would turn on a light switch in the room you want to enter. It is a principle of Nature that latent diversity and power are held in reserve until called upon by special circumstances. Pretend that a building the size of the Empire State Building were necessary to contain all of the information stored in your brain. Now suppose you need some information that is in Room 305. Would it be energy-efficient to turn on every light in every room on all 102 floors of the building in order to use one room on the third floor? The energy surge would be wasteful, devastating, and financially crippling. Remember that Boeing 707 engine (the potential power of your brain) and the Volkswagen chassis (your body).

It is a premise of The Percept Method that the retrieval system can be initiated in the case of a stress reaction by making basic, introspective inquiries. That process is selective and energy-saving and addresses the information you need without activating your entire brain. Inquiries include: 1. What is the identity of the stressor? 2. What is this stress feeling trying to tell me? 3. What are my most authentic alternatives?

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4. What are my most authentic action plans? Many other creative inquiries can also be made.

Why Brain Power Remains in Latency It is a premise of The Percept Method that your retrieval system cannot be initiated seriously without an inquiry, because Nature wants to protect your brain from overstimulation. The vast resources of your brain are like a very wise and well-informed professor who has retained a great amount of knowledge and enjoys many years of experience. In your cognitive bewilderment, you are like a young student sitting in the classroom. The wise old professor can have an answer for you about your bewilderment. However, you need to ask a question in order to make contact with the professor’s knowledge. Without your inquiry, the chances that the wise professor will address your specific bewilderment are only coincidental. Maximizing your chances of gaining the knowledge you seek depends on initiating a basic and simple inquiry. Usually, the professor does not answer you instantly, because he doesn’t want to give you flippant or off-the-cuff answers. He may want to do some research. He may want to give you a range of answers appropriate to your question. He also prefers to answer you when your mind is calm, attentive, receptive, and clear. The old professor may meet you in the hallway, at the water fountain, or on the quadrangle and say, “Remember that question you brought up to me? Well, one answer could be such and such.”

This type of experience can be like an enlightenment. You may have coincidentally experienced such awarenesses a few times in your life, but it can be experienced more often by knowing how to initiate your retrieval system. Great creative people have known for ages how to access that power in their minds. With the vast power of your mind working for you, there is real reason for hope and optimism.

A Technique for Meditation Meditation has certain characteristics that you read about earlier. These characteristics provide the optimal milieu for your retrieval system to be initiated and perform its work.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 1. Find a quiet place that is ideal for relaxing, where you can plan to be uninterrupted for at least 20 minutes. Choose one of your favorite spots indoors or outdoors, at home, the office, a library, a garden, an empty pew in the church. You should prepare yourself physically and mentally (as described in Steps II and III) to relax physically and use mental calm to provide yourself with a state of mind in which you can be a fair, objective, accurate, and passive observer. 2. Close your eyes and lie back. Become passively observant of the stress incident—how, when, and where you believe it originated. Continue to maintain the physical relaxation and mental calm that you achieved in earlier steps, and have your conscious mind instruct the subconscious mind, as described in the following exercise: I want my body to remain relaxed and my mind calm and open while pursuing the identity of my stressor. The identity of my stressor has eluded me. Possibly I am afraid of what it is, who it is, and what it may imply. I realize that the stressor may already have an advantage over me, because it is already underway, and I do not even know its identity. I want this physical relaxation and mental calm to persist so I can continue my pursuit. In this state, my mind will be less resistant and less afraid. I want this comfortable state to be maintained as long as necessary for me to identify my elusive and unintelligible stressor. In this state of relaxation and calm, I am now going to let my mind be unrestricted and play back events for myself that could be related to the stressor. I will try to focus on that period of time when I first realized I was experiencing stress. I will do this as if I were observing a movie. 3. With eyes closed, as if you were watching a mental moving picture, visualize the life incident(s) that you feel is/are associated with the origination of your stress. Mentally, in that movie, retrace your steps. Reassure yourself that you are merely a viewer calmly observing this quest. If your feelings of stress begin to intrude on you or if they escalate, it may be a sign that you are getting closer to the unknown stressor. 4. You can often mitigate the stress discomfort by mentally viewing yourself behind an invisible shield that lets you see the stressful situation without allowing the noxious feelings evoked by the stress to cross that invisible barrier and impede your observation. You can remove that invisible shield when it is no longer necessary or after you have identified the stressor. If runaway emotions

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STEP IV: Meditation in Pursuit of the Ultimate Stressor and physical discomforts become too strong, you may stop for now. It is important not to force pursuit of the stressor. Keep in mind, though, if you become too uncomfortable, you may be closer to the stressor than you think. But don’t force it. Consistency on a persistent basis is helpful, but force can be counterproductive. When you feel you need professional help at any point during this course, seek help from a qualified mental health professional. 5. While remaining in a quiet state with eyes closed, resume watching the movie. Allow yourself to visualize the episode in your life where you feel the first stress occurred. Try the following scenario to enhance your pursuit: You are the advance scout for a hunting expedition seeking and pursuing the identity and whereabouts of the elusive stressor. The parallels with hunting are pertinent and relevant. Since you are on a hunt, you might reasonably anticipate dangers of the unknown, and you may have to return to safer areas to re-equip and reprepare yourself as needed. As the advance scout, your accurate perceptions and interpretations are one of your highest responsibilities. You need to collect accurate data, not as you might like it to be, but as it really is. If you misperceive, you could lead the expedition in the wrong direction with a loss of time and energy and other potentially serious consequences. Misperceiving the true stressor is like taking the wrong fork in the road and leading your party into dangerous terrain. You can jeopardize the safety of the whole mission.

6. Unless your perceptions of the stressor are factual and reliable, your subsequent alternatives and action plan could be based on false data. Use the Stress Accuracy Test: If this situation were removed, how would I feel? Would my feelings of stress be removed? 7. If you feel you have identified your stressor, subject it to the S.A.T. If the stressor passes that test, image-in the stressor, then hold it up to the scrutiny of your subjective feelings. Ask yourself how you feel about it. What does the stressor mean to you? What do you feel is the reason it is provocative? Ask yourself about other elements in the stress episode: the place, circumstances, and persons. Was it a no-fault stress episode? Was it a his/her/its/their fault stress episode? Was it a my-fault stress episode? Be as objective as possible. Apply the same rigorous assessment to yourself as you would apply to others. All of this continues as the mental motion picture. 8. If you cannot figure out the stressor, reevaluate your possible mental resistance. While in a period of calm, again put your mind to work, this time in slow motion. By slowing down the movie,

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief you can focus in on more detail. Allow yourself to continue observing passively, but objectively. For this Step to work, you want your mind to be open, receptive, and protected from fear. Another way to facilitate this Step is to repeat the retrieval questions recorded in your personal journal or notebook. This enables your mind to work on the problem while you function in other areas. If your questions seem too narrow, you may need to begin with broader questions: • Do I remember what was happening in and around the time my stress developed? • When do I first recall feeling uncomfortable? • When do I last remember feeling comfortable?

Later, more specific questions can follow. But for now, do not be surprised to learn that your unknown stressor may not even exist in the present time. It may be a stressor you have been enduring for some time. You may have been interrupting (using perceptus interruptus) a prior perceptual message that has been bothering you over a prolonged period. Usually, the longer you have been blocking the stressor, the more difficult the job for your retrieval system. On the other hand, the stress could represent something that you anticipate in the future. You may have interrupted the awareness of some dreaded future event from reaching your conscious mind. Of course, it may also be something in your current life that is signaling the stress. In viewing the movie of this enigmatic episode, you need to maintain physical relaxation and mental calm. Eventually, mental imagery indicating the possible stressor can begin to emerge with increasing authenticity. Give yourself sufficient time for this pursuit. It can be counterproductive to feel rushed, pressured, or impatient with yourself. Traveling back to a point prior to the stress can be a big help in orienting you to the event or events that contributed to it. It can help you to recall when last you felt no stress and when you started feeling stress. This can help bring you back to events and circumstances, people and places that may suggest the identity of stressors. Again, the movie is continuing. After your answer to the S.A.T. is an unqualified “yes,” a few other questions may give you a broader appreciation: 1. What made this process so difficult? 2. Do I better understand the integral relationship among physical relaxation, mental calm, and heightened perception? 3. In the future, as I seek to identify a stressor, will I feel better qualified to perform this task?

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Now, having identified the stressor accurately, you can image-in that stressor into your mind, in order not to forget, so your unconscious mind can work on it.

Nature ’s Protection It is appropriate in this Step to caution you never to open the retrieval system doors except by the natural means of active relaxation and inquiry. Some have tried to force perception by figuratively prying open the access doors of their brains with stimulants or mind-altering drugs. These latter can take executive control out of your hands and overload you with indiscriminate data irrelevant to your problem-solving needs. With artificial unrepression, you can lose crucial timing, selective control, and thoughtful appropriateness. Insight and judgment can fly out the window. With unnatural means of unrepression, your natural fatigue levels can also be breached. One of the ways Nature holds the reserve power of your mind safely in check is to allow it to come forth by inquiry as needed, while you keep executive control in your hands.

Self-Evaluation 1. How would I characterize the ultimate stressor? 2. What are some reasons it may be difficult to access or identify the ultimate stressor? 3. When I run into a wall of resistance in identifying my stressor, what are some of the benefits of meditation? 4. How would I compare meditation with relaxation? 5. How do my conscious and unconscious minds complement each other? 6. How can my conscious and unconscious minds, working in conjunction, facilitate my pursuit of an obscure or hidden stressor? 7. How can my conscious mind activate the power and potential of my unconscious mind? 8. What is my understanding of the reality tester? 9. Why would Nature seem to protect children by the use of generalizations?

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 10. What can happen to an adult whose generalizations and interpretations have not been submitted to reality testing since inculcated during childhood? 11. What difficulty could an adult encounter in making sense out of a current stressor, if reality testing of generalizations has been omitted. 12. Why does Nature hold the power of my brain in latency until it is selectively activated? 13. What could happen to my body if the full power of my brain were unrepressed and unhampered on an ongoing basis? 14. What would I be tempted to do to relieve the uncomfortable sensations of overstimulation produced by an artificially unrepressed brain?

Goals to Go 1. To learn to use meditative techniques when needed so as to facilitate the identity of an ultimate stressor. 2. To learn to use my retrieval system to access needed data being stored in my unconscious mind. 3. To learn to benefit from the unique qualities possessed by my conscious and unconscious minds so as to be able to identify the ultimate stressor. 4. To maintain physical relaxation and mental calm while I pursue and identify the ultimate stressor. 5. To maintain physical relaxation and mental calm when imaging-in the ultimate stressor. 6. To be able to eventually identify and image-in the ultimate stressor, using whatever natural principles and techniques work for me. I want confidently to proceed to Step V.

Review and Exit Strategy If you have finally identified the stressor which passes the S.A.T., and you have imaged-in the stressor in your mind, you can proceed to Step V. You are to be congratulated on your patience. Although finding your elusive stressor may have taken you longer, you have gained valuable practice in meditative

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techniques. Your mental calmness can stand you in good stead in other stressful situations. To ignore the identity of your stressor would be like a driver beginning a trip without a destination or a map, or a surgeon operating without a diagnosis. Meaningful progress requires accurate identification of the stressor and its ability to pass the Stress Accuracy Test. To become overly involved with the principle of alternatives without first identifying the stressor and knowing what it is telling you may complicate your life unnecessarily. Therefore, your time in pursuit of accuracy has not been wasted. Take your cue from the story of the tortoise and the hare. The victory in meaningful stress reduction does not always go to the swift. If you have not identified your stressor, it would be helpful to repeat Steps I through III. If you feel your condition is too complex for a self-help method, don’t hesitate to seek professional help. Be reasonable and patient with yourself. Remember how long it took many geniuses to decode certain encryptions such as the famous Enigma code in World War II, and they were working only on an objective task; subjective factors were not necessarily complicating their work.

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STEP V: Achieving Emotional Literacy As you study this feeling, what is it telling you? —Elvin Semrad, M.D., quoted in Rako and Mazer, The Heart of a Therapist, p. 131 Our feelings are our sixth sense... Feelings tell us whether what we experience is threatening, painful, regretful, sad or joyous.... Feelings make up a language all their own. When feelings speak, we are compelled to listen. —David Viscott, M.D., The Language of Feelings, p. 9

Status Check (Any Item) 1. I have identified and imaged-in my stressor, but I don’t understand why it has caused such discomfort. 2. I have identified and imaged-in my stressor, and I want to avoid prolonging these stressful feelings—now or under similar circumstances in the future. Reaching this Step in The Percept Method means you have worked hard to understand what is causing your stressful feelings. Arriving at this point was not an easy task, but it means you have identified the stressor—the “something else” that entered your life uninvited and unwelcome. In essence, it reminds us that we can’t always be in control. But you are to be congratulated for reaching this level. You have faced the unwelcome guest and know that no good will come of continuing to allow it to be prolonged. Now you face the next challenge, possibly the most sophisticated of human intellectual capabilities: to decode what a particular stressor means to you, to learn why it is causing you discomfort, to decode the feelings that the stressor has evoked, to decode the meaning and significance of the stressor, and to learn the meaning and significance of the feelings that the stressor has evoked. It is at this point that platitudes never work. It won’t help to say, “Oh, it’s just my job,” or “It’s just this mid-life crisis,” because that won’t help you solve the problem in a way that is appropriate and successful for you. 75

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To meet this challenge, you will need to explore your feelings and learn more about yourself, about your uniqueness, and about the very specific type of reaction or symptom this stressor is causing. Is it anxiety that is reducing your productivity? Is it a fear of not accomplishing your goals? Is it sadness over an important, but changing relationship? These types of questions can be answered only by you. The type of feelings elicited will tell you something about the stressor. And to answer these questions you have some more work to do. And that work can be very interesting!

Initial Step V Goals 1. To become emotionally literate and identify the feelings evoked by the stressor. 2. To be able to recognize different categories of feelings (see Stressor Compass and Emotional Literacy Categories). 3. To understand that stressors are different; one which produces fear may be different from one which produces embarrassment or suspicion. 4. To increase my capacity for introspection. 5. To determine how my stress feelings and physical stress sensations are related to the stressor. 6. To learn that in some situations, I may need to reach a deeper state of relaxation in order to see the relationship between the stressor and my physical stress sensations and stress feelings. 7. To understand what my feelings are trying to tell me about the stressor and to observe for myself the protective function of stress. 8. With the above information, to decode the meaning and significance of the stressor and the meaning and significance of my feelings which were evoked in response to the stressor. 9. To continue a record in my personal journal of all essential developments—negative or positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

Principles of Step V and Premises of The Percept Method The causes of stress can vary from moment to moment and situation to situation. In some cases, a chronic cause will linger; in other cases,

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there may be multiple causes. There usually will be no routine or fixed answer for every stressful episode. What may seem obvious can be complicated and difficult to discern. That is one reason why taking advice from a well-meaning friend needs to be very carefully weighed, because what may cause stress for you may not cause stress for your friend, and what may be a good solution for your friend may not work for you.

Emotional Literacy In some situations, it is helpful to be your own best friend, and emotional literacy is a key step in becoming a closer friend to yourself. Emotional literacy is defined as learning to decode and “read” your feelings the way your intellectual mind learned to decode and read words in a book. Remember, stress can be caused by a variety of circumstances, including sudden and overwhelming changes. The cause, however diverse or multiform, is termed the stressor. A change might even be a happy change, (a promotion, an engagement) but still may be overwhelming and cause you to experience physical and emotional disequilibrium. When you can accurately identify not only the stressor but also the specific feeling that the stressor evokes or manifests in your body, then your work in decoding the meaning and significance of the stressor is facilitated. At that point you are really moving ahead! It is fascinating to read that the great minds in our ancient past were trying to decode feelings and achieve emotional literacy in much the same way as you are doing. Reading the words of Zeno the Stoic (c. 335–263 B.C.), the Cyprian-born Greek philosopher, we see his dedicated and sincere efforts to identify and categorize stressors and to identify the specific feelings produced by different stressors. Under fear are arranged the following emotions: terror, nervous shrinking, shame, consternation, panic, mental agony. Terror is fear which produces fright; shame is fear of disgrace; nervous shrinking is a fear that one will have to act; consternation is fear due to a presentation of some unusual occurrence; panic is fear with pressure exercised by sound; mental agony is fear felt when some issue is still in suspense. —Zeno, Diogenes Laertius, p. 221

Zeno’s early efforts were admirable, and they creatively show the interrelationship between the stressor and the stress feeling that is

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evoked by the stressor. Here are Zeno’s observations presented as if in a table: Stressor 1 Fear “which produces fright.” Stress Feeling Evoked: Terror. Stressor 2 Fear “that one will have to act.” Stress Feeling Evoked: Nervous shrinking. Stressor 3 Fear “of disgrace.” Stress Feeling Evoked: Shame. Stressor 4 Fear “due to a presentation of some unusual occurrence,” e.g., a change. Stress Feeling Evoked: Consternation. Stressor 5 Fear “with pressure exercised by sound,” e.g., explosion. Stress Feeling Evoked: Panic. Stressor 6 Fear “felt when some issue is still in suspense,” e.g., an uncertainty. Stress Feeling Evoked: Mental agony. Ancient wisdom has much to contribute to our present understanding. At this point, you may find it helpful to become familiar with Stressor Compasses I and II (see Figure 3 and 4) and the Emotional Literacy Categories, because, in a graphic way, they illustrate the interrelationship between the stressor and the stress feelings that the stressor evokes or manifests in your body. You can begin to widen your understanding of the meaning and significance of your stress response.

A Broader Stress Definition We now need to enlarge the definition of stress, keeping in mind that stress feelings have a perceptual/protective/informational function. This amplified stress definition, including the fundamental characteristics of stress, albeit a little technical, needs to be fully comprehended, because it is essential to the functional understanding of stress. Stress is a bodily disequilibrium or deformation (initially reversible) caused by a stressor and manifested by various physical sensations and emotional feelings, which provide negative feedback indicating that your body has been extended beyond its homeostatic range. This negative feedback is transmitted through the body as neural sensations, which are often called symptoms. It is a basic premise of The Percept Method that the stress response has a perceptual/informational/protective function.

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Characteristics of Stress 1. Stress has a perceptual/protective/informational function, which works by producing negative feedback (varying degrees of unpleasant or noxious feelings/sensations). 2. The negative feedback manifests itself as a bodily disequilibrium or deformation. This disturbance can be initial (sentinel) and slight (minimal/reversible) all the way to prolonged (chronic) and dysfunctional (harmful/intense). 3. The bodily disequilibrium or deformation can take many forms and be manifested by a wide variety or admixture of sensations/feelings (like the keys on a piano), depending on what conditions you are facing. In this new definition, stress is not just one separate feeling, because it is inherent in any feeling that extends your body beyond its homeostatic borders. Why would stress manifest itself in such a variety of forms? Why would Nature provide such a wide variety of feelings and sensations? Because there is an endless variety of conditions with which you could be presented and which you will need to interpret. In addition, when you have been extended beyond your homeostatic range by a stressor, which produces negative feedback in the form of noxious feelings, Nature wants to give you the extra incentive to speed up your cognition of the stressor’s identity, meaning, and significance. By stimulating you to problem-solve expeditiously, Nature wants to nudge you back into your safe, homeostatic range. As with the old song refrain, “Baby, it’s cold outside!” Nature wants to bring you back into the warmth, comfort, safety, and equilibrium of your homeostatic borders. In summary, stress is the state that results when your homeostatic range limits have been stretched, overextended, and breached by a stressor (see Figure 2). In the Stress Graph, the stress areas are indicated by points beyond the borders of the Homeostatic Range. In the body, these areas manifest via negative feedback sensations or feelings with which you are already somewhat familiar. Graphically interpreted, if you are stretched in one direction too far, you may feel blue and depressed in the range of negative feelings; if you are stretched in the other direction too far, you may feel anxious and agitated. Anything outside your homeostatic range will result in feelings that give negative feedback. The bodily disequilibrium or deformation these feelings cause are also known as symptoms: blood pressure changes as well as problems with the heart, skin, stomach, brain, blood vessels, chemical imbalances, etc. The stress symptoms vary according to the sensations or feelings involved, but they are intricately interrelated to the stress response. Remember, by the negative feedbacks, Nature wants to direct you back into your homeostatic range, and that can be efficiently and meaningfully accomplished by problem-solving the stressor, i.e., resolving the stress.

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FIGURE 2 A graphic illustration of stress.

It is important to have a working understanding of the words emotion and feelings. An emotion is a specific feeling sensation that you experience in your body. It is accompanied by a physiological and biochemical response. In The Percept Method an emotion basically represents Stage I of Perception because an emotion has not necessarily reached cerebral engagement in terms of being made cognitively decipherable or cognitively intelligible. A feeling is a subjective physical sensation that is the result of neural signals that carry information. Feelings and emotions have a perceptual, protective, and informational function. As with an emotion, a feeling also represents Stage I of Perception, because the feeling has not necessarily reached cerebral engagement in terms of being made cognitively decipherable or cognitively intelligible.

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Encryption As mentioned in Step I, stress feelings are encoded. They are signals full of meaning and information, but they are encrypted. They speak to you in that code of sentience or vocabulary of feelings. In order to understand the information or data (the message) that is being transmitted to you, it is essential that you undertake an effective procedure to decode them (your feelings) and the message they are carrying. To repeat, the signals or feelings have an encrypted meaning. They symbolize or represent something else. You are presented with a so-called “inverse problem” (Singh, 1999). In your case, you have an outcome, in terms of your resultant feelings/sensations, but you don’t necessarily understand what they are trying to tell you. The process of the inverse problem is not unfamiliar to you. You take the result or the outcome of a situation and try to understand its underlying meaning or cause or composition. In popular terms, the television hit Jeopardy is based on a witty variation of inverse problem theory. On a higher order of abstraction, the entire theory behind code breaking deals with the principle of the inverse problem. Decoding Stress Feelings Taking a lesson from inverse problems, you begin at the end or the outcome to decode your stress feelings. 1. You have or are experiencing a certain feeling that is the outcome of “something else.” By now you know that something (the stressor) is causing your discomfort. 2. As you have learned by now, you first needed to make accurate identification of the stressor, so you will know specifically what is causing your stress. 3. Again, you are familiar with the procedure—when you feel you have the answer, you test it with the Stress Accuracy Test. Will its absence indicate the end of your stress? 4. You also need to make another accurate identification. This time you have to identify the specific stress feeling that has been produced by your stressor. 5. You need your emotional literacy (the ability to read your own feelings) to help make the meaning and significance of the stress feelings decipherable and intelligible. For example, if the stressor produces feelings of depression, it may have significance different from the stressor that produces stress feelings of suspicion or apprehension or anxiety or confusion. The Stressor Compass I and II (see Figures 3 and 4) and Emotional Literacy Categories can help you identify some basic feeling categories.

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FIGURE 3 The Stressor Compass I.

Emotional Literacy Categories There are twelve emotional categories that convey stress to you even when you haven’t pinpointed the stressor. This is not an exhaustive list of emotional

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FIGURE 4 The Stressor Compass II.

categories, only twelve showing a range of feelings within each category. Learn to read your own feelings, so you can describe in words as precisely as possible your mental and/or physical feelings when you experience the following: 1. Embarrassment, shame, humiliation, disgrace 2. Irritation, indignation, anger, rage, etc. (These are “fight” emotions.) 3. Subdued, scolded, guilty, defeated 4. Sadness, depression, grief, melancholy 5. Anxiety, fear, panic, terror (These are “flight” emotions.)

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Apprehension, surprise, hypervigilance, shock Uncertainty, perplexity, confusion, disorientation Frustration, boredom, worry, distraction Self-doubt, helplessness, indifference, loneliness Defensiveness, vulnerability, exposure, insecurity Blame, pervasive doubt, distrust, suspiciousness Hopelessness, negativity, cynicism, pessimism

Stressors can produce responses in a number of ways. The Percept Method has chosen just twelve significant categories for purposes of simplification. There can be more. Each category involves a range of similar emotions/feelings. If a stressor produces feelings in Category 11 as compared with Category 4, this knowledge used by your retrieval system can help you decode the identity as well as the meaning and significance of the stressor. For example, what is the reason this stressor is making me depressed? Or, what is the reason this stressor is making me suspicious, or what is the reason this stressor is making me angry? How does this identification of the resultant feeling, aided by your retrieval system, help you to identify and understand the meaning and significance of the stressor? 1. Remember, a stress feeling, like pain or touch, has a perceptual– protective function. 2. Remember, that means the stress feeling is informational, i.e., it is trying to transmit some information to you about the stressor. 3. Further, it is important to recall that in order to be effective in its perceptual function (which is the transmission of information), the stress feeling, in its ingenious way, needs to proximate or mirror the condition it is trying to transmit. In other words, the stress sensation and feeling produced have some correlation with the stressor. For example, if the stressor is that a loved one is ill, the feeling that this stressor produces will be different from the feeling evoked by a business partner cheating you. The two incidents represent different stressors. The two stressors manifest themselves via different feelings. 4. Revisit the simple perceptual example of touch and pain. When a soft ball of cotton was rubbed against your skin, the sensation/feeling it produced mirrored the texture and quality of the cotton. When a sharp pin was placed in contact with your skin, the unpleasant sensation/feeling produced mirrored a possible threat from the sharpness of the pin. Feelings, and stress feelings in particular, are also a guide: “In Latin, eidos became informatio from informare in Latin to ‘give form,’ ‘to shape,’ ‘to guide’” (Loewenstein, 1999, p. 338). To reemphasize a premise of The Percept Method: Nature gave you feelings as a coded information guide. Feelings transmit vital

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information from sources outside—your external environment—and within—your internal environment—your body. For example, whether it is just chilly outside or you are actually experiencing a possible danger, Nature makes you experience certain feelings, so you are guided to act appropriately and in your best interests. You can deny or override Nature’s guide signals by your own will, but at your own risk. Diversity of stress sensations covers a wide range of incoming data. It is a premise of The Percept Method that feelings of stress, in its many forms and through the ways they make you feel, are trying to transmit potentially important information to your cerebral cortex about a particular situation. That information is being transmitted in the form of coded messages that travel along the nerves in your body—your intricate neural system. Those nerves all lead to the brain, just as “all roads lead to Rome.” Thus, it is Nature’s plan that the information carried via your nerves will eventually reach your brain.

Other Varieties of Stress Uncomfortable stress feelings can also be “a blessing in disguise,” when they have a reference to personal areas of your life. The discomfort of stress feelings also attempts to help you mold and maximize your life into areas for which you are innately best suited. This ingenious process is a gift from Nature to help guide you into areas where you innately are best suited—where you can maximize your natural gifts. When you are tempted into detours, false paths, and misdirection, you can experience a misdirection stress. This stress signifies an internal nonattunement between yourself and your course of action; it is a form of concept stress. In general, your stress feelings function in a way that attempts to guide you away from paths that would compromise or diminish your best suitabilities. Say that you are born with special talent as a violinist. Assuming that your feelings about your gift have not been adversely or artificially suppressed, you will be guided toward this talent by experiencing a good feeling whenever you practice your instrument or even when you visualize playing it. If your musical gift is subverted (again by influences that are not innate or authentic) and you become a traveling salesman, where you lack talent, you would usually experience constant stress feelings. Those stress feelings are acting as a guide, trying to move you away from an area where you may have meager or no talent, where your best accomplishments would be doomed to mediocrity, or where you could fail completely. By the sensitivity and direction of your stress feelings, Nature wants to guide you into those areas where you can more likely reach maximum fulfillment. When you experience examples of this guidance via your feelings again and again, you have to be amazed at the prescient genius of Nature—a dear friend who is moved by your best interests! In addition, not to fulfill something you are gifted to do can cause another form of concept stress—unfulfillment stress. It can feel similar to the emergency

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alarm signals that prehistoric humans experienced when an imminent predator was putting their physical lives in danger. Modern humans often experience this form of stress feeling when dealing with a concept crisis that is felt as a lack or loss of meaning in life. Individuals may initially look on the outside for the cause of this stress, but they usually discover that the unfulfillment is on the inside: “I feel that life is passing me by”...“I feel I am missing the boat.” Snoopy got the point: “We have seen the enemy and he is us!” Psychologist Abraham Maslow realized the nature of unfulfillment stress when he said: “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be” (p. 46). There are stress consequences when a gift lies unfulfilled within you. The gift does not have to be the type that brings world renown; its importance lies in its significance to you. What if fulfilling your gift doesn’t relieve stress? That cause also may lie on the inside, when the dominant goal for fulfilling the gift is an ego drive primarily for praise and self-glorification. Under those circumstances, performance stress can replace the unfulfillment stress. The motives for fulfillment can play a strong part in how effectively stress is managed. Performance stress occurs when the desire for self-aggrandizement and selfembellishment is more important than the stated purpose of your action. For example, say that one gives a lecture to a group which is in need of and welcomes the knowledge. However, the motive is more for the praise and congratulations than for the sharing and importance of the information. Result: this is a recipe for built-in performance stress, because the need for praise and personal enhancement and immediate feedback sets up a “test situation” and keeps one on edge. If your primary motive is not driven chiefly by self-promotion, you can do your best to share your information and calmly await any outcome. When confronted with a bewildering intellectual situation, one way to keep runaway stress in perspective is to elicit your Curiosity Response v. Anxiety Response. The curiosity response is a favorable and authentic response to an enigmatic, complex concept crisis. It is favorable because it can help calm dysfunctional stress responses, and it is authentic because the very mystery and complexity can serve to trigger your intellectual powers with awe and respect, even when you are uncertain, confused, and have no answer. When your intellect repeats respectfully, This is interesting ... I wonder how this works ... This appears wonderfully made and intricately presented ... , etc, you can truly marvel instead of panic. As you continue this Step, you may find it helpful to ask yourself these questions: 1. Can I describe how it feels when I experience the discomfort of stress during those times when I am trying to do or be something that is not authentically me? 2. Can I describe how it feels to get relief and satisfaction after stress is resolved and I “get back on track”?

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3. Do I ever examine the underlying motive behind what I do? 4. Do I ever notice the stress I can build into a situation when I obfuscate my actions with primary self-promotion? 5. Can I break stress down into separate feelings? 6. Can I use my emotional literacy to identify my feelings well enough to help me also identify the stressor and learn what it means to me? If your answer to this question is No, this Step may help you get there.

The Monologue and Dialogue of Feelings The specificity and genius of stress feeling are is similar to a musician touching specific keys to compose specific types of piano music. When experiencing stress, Nature is endeavoring to have you experience an admixture of feelings that simulate or represent the condition that caused the stress—anxiety, fear, boredom, depression, etc. This feeling depiction or representation can be relatively simple in that your feelings strive to mirror the causal situation, for example, an anxiety-causing situation, a fear-causing situation, a boredomcausing situation, a depression-causing situation. In other words, Nature is presenting as a monologue of feelings, describing what is happening to you by depicting sensation-wise the condition from your environment that is causing stress. Your environment is both external and internal. To get a little more complicated, your feelings may mirror or represent an inversely reciprocal feeling that you are picking up from another person. For example, if someone is angry or disappointed with you, your feelings may experience that situation in a dialogue of feelings with the other person involved, and in that case you may respond with inversely reciprocal feelings of guilt. The dialogue of feelings is defined as the feeling exchange that takes place (often without verbal exchange) between two or more persons. In the dialogue of feelings, the specific feeling that you experience may not be initiated by you, but it may mirror or represent an inversely reciprocal condition or situation you are perceiving from the other person. In a monologue of feelings, there is usually a direct depiction in the environment. For example, a depressing outside situation is being experienced internally as depressing. In the dialogue of feelings, the exact feeling expressed to you by a person in your environment is not necessarily exactly mirrored feeling-for-feeling by you. In the dialogue of feelings, your feelings may register a reciprocal or inversely reciprocal feeling to those you are picking up from another person. For example, in the dialogue of feelings you often feel fear in response to anger or aggression, guilt in response to admonition, shame in response to disappointment, suspicion in response to distrust, and so on. In the dialogue of feelings, the sense of danger or aggression being projected toward you by someone may be translated into fear or apprehension.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief The Dialogue of Feelings in Action An article in The New York Times (April 2, 2000, p. 11.), reviewed the history of the famous Frick Mansion on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, built 100 years ago. The article quoted an earlier interview from 1982 in which a former neighbor, Ms. Wynne Froshee, had related an anecdote: when the fabulous building was new, she was a child and had boldly written on the Frick wall with chalk “Robbers, rob this rich man.” Ms. Foshee stated no sooner had she written the words, than “the gates opened and Mrs. Frick herself drove out, noticed the deed, stopped to speak to the young miscreant and said: ‘Wipe that off immediately! I have a little girl, and she would never do anything like that.’ [Disgust/Anger] Again, reflecting on how Mrs. Frick’s anger made her feel, she said: ‘Of course, I felt awfully ashamed.‘ “ [Shame/Guilt]

Emotional literacy is achieved with the ability to read your own feelings and eventually to know their specific meaning and significance, as a result of experiencing either the monologue or dialogue of feelings. It takes some exploration and a feelings vocabulary. The Emotional Literacy Categories illustrate some of the many emotions or feelings that are possible to experience. The human heart is capable of a much wider number and degree of feelings, so use the examples in the Emotional Literacy Categories as a starting point. For an everyday example, suppose that you have a social meeting scheduled next week that you are really not attuned to attending, your heart just isn’t in it. You don’t think the meeting will be productive, and the people at the meeting are not special to you. What do you think your stress feelings will tell you each time the meeting comes to mind? Remember, the genius of your stress feelings is also anticipatory. The feelings can be prescient! They try to save you effort, time, and energy by having you experience events on the feeling or virtual level before you experience or encounter them in reality. This prescient trait of your stress feelings actually attempts to convey a foreknowledge of a future event—again, as a guide!

Looking Outside Your “Radar Screen” Quiet introspection is defined as a time of looking inward. Optimally, a relaxed, restful time allows your brain to become engaged in the recognition, decoding, and interpretation of the stressor, along with its meaning and significance. Introspection gives you an opportunity for mental assessment and review. Thus, the cerebral engagement allows Stage II of the perception process to be productive. Quiet introspection facilitates this process by bringing the less-encumbered power of your intellect to bear on problem solving. Remember, cerebral engagement can stimulate brain modulating centers to tone down noxious sensations and help restore comfort. A calm mind is freer to assess the alternatives and actions that are available to you.

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Your Retrieval System at Work Your retrieval system does much work for you. It is the mechanism by which you obtain data that is outside your “radar screen,” that is, outside of your conscious, but not your subconscious mind. This data can become consciously available when you pursue specific inquiry. You start this process by asking your subconscious mind a simple question: “What is this stress feeling trying to tell me?” Your conscious mind is actually asking that question of your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind has answers; it is often your more authentic self. Besides, it has retained more data, more answers, and more authentic personal assessments than has your conscious mind. Your conscious mind works a split second at a time, but your subconscious mind has retained all the split seconds you have ever lived. It is where much of your creativity resides. What is your stress feeling trying to tell you? “Listen” for the answers.

Emotional Literacy at Work Using emotional literacy, after you have correctly identified your stressor which has passed the Stress Accuracy Test, your chance of correctly interpreting its meaning and significance has improved. However, you still need to make inquiry as to the reason you have these particular feelings. You also need to inquire what these specific feelings are trying to tell you about the stressor. You need this information in order to better decode the message being sent. Remember, in order to become aware of your specific feelings, it is most helpful to turn inward, that is, to become introspective. As you look inward, however, don’t try prematurely to explain or rationalize or rush to judgment about the meaning and significance your feelings want to provide. Your first goal is to accurately identify them, then gradually and contemplatively to understand their full importance.

Introspection Helps You Know the Stressor 1. Introspection (knowing yourself) helps you learn more about the stressor. Don’t force answers in the process, because it can create added pressure, performance anxiety, and confusion. Data overload causes fatigue, discouragement, and uncertainty. It is better to be patient and persistent. You would not think it wise to rush out and run a marathon on the first day of practice, when your body has been inactive and underconditioned. So it is with your perceptual system.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 2. Introspection is essential. Your feelings are what you are experiencing. It is not likely that you can perceive these subjective feelings as readily by looking outward. To become aware of how external data is registering in your body, you need to examine your subjective feelings—that is an internal experience. Many people have a rich, diversified, and colorful inner life to which they pay little attention. Looking inward can help you make acquaintance with a very interesting person. But keep in mind that your stressor still may not be in your perceptual range, until you learn to widen and sharpen your perceptual capabilities. 3. Introspection advances beyond recognition. It is a stride toward “perfecting” the accuracy of what you have been able to recognize. In order to determine whether a physical reaction to a stressor is appropriate or inappropriate, you need to accurately interpret what you are perceiving. Only then can you know that a physical response is unnecessary and wasteful. It may seem obvious to you that a saber-toothed tiger is not chasing you, but your runaway physical and physiological stress response may not have incorporated this realization. Your conscious mind needs to remind the primitive centers in your subconscious mind that you are not in physical danger, except for the danger you are creating for yourself by needlessly extending the stress response. The process of introspection requires that you perfect your perceptions by internal mental assessment and review. 4. Awareness of your feelings or bodily sensations is heightened by introspection. Simple awareness becomes highlighted and sharpened during introspection. You may not be aware of experiencing fear. You may not be aware of experiencing anxiety. You may not be aware when you are experiencing feelings of like or dislike, well-being or adverseness, tension or calm. Introspection can fill that void.

Exercises in Introspection First it is important to view introspection as an exercise that, like relaxation techniques discussed in earlier steps, is intended to help focus and clear the mind of distractions so that difficult problems can be seen more clearly. It is not an escape exercise, but rather a cognitive form of active relaxation, in which you focus your mind to accomplish a mental review and assessment of incoming data. Suppose that some aspect of your business has taken a downward turn. When you apply the mental assessment and review process to the data coming to you about your business problem, various subtleties from your feelings can become more apparent.

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1. Allow yourself to quiet down and let go. 2. Tense all muscles as you inhale deeply. Hold your breath for a few seconds, then relax your muscles as you exhale deeply. 3. Give yourself the suggestion to quiet down and become aware of your internal being. 4. Go beyond your five senses and focus on your inner feelings. 5. Activate your retrieval system by presenting specific questions to your subconscious mind and record in your journal what you learn. • • • •

What am I feeling? What specifically am I feeling about what has happened? What is the message that my feelings are trying to give to me? Are any unexpected feelings involved?

6. Study your feelings of stress and endeavor to correlate them with the stressor. • What words would you use to describe your feelings? • Are your feelings what you expected to find? • Are there any differences between what you expected and what you are learning? 7. In summary, see if you can answer the question: What are some of the different ways that I am registering the stressor? Remember, you do not have to be able to answer this question immediately. Activating your retrieval system and learning patiently to listen to your feelings will keep your subconscious mind working on the assignment. 8. Note in your journal the unique characteristics of your feelings and how your feelings express themselves emotionally and physically. As you experience these feelings, see if you can describe them in specific words, and place them into one of the twelve emotional literacy categories. 9. Note any differences between how you felt before you began this exercise and how you feel after you have quieted down. Make notes in your journal.

Expanding Your Perceptual Range As you become more practiced in relaxation and introspection, challenge your mind to gain greater perceptual benefits. Techniques to help you widen your perceptual range are outlined below. You may find other tech-

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niques on your own that help you to lessen the demands on your conscious mind while sharpening your awareness of the answers your conscious mind is seeking. Exercise #1—The Protective, Invisible Shield 1. Find a quiet place in your home or office, where you can have undisturbed privacy. 2. Equip yourself with your journal or notebook. 3. Loosen any tight garments, your tie, jewelry, or belt. 4. Sit down, or lie down if possible. 5. Now, tune into your environment. For example, is there a clock ticking, or a furnace or air conditioner blowing, or are you able to pick up those “sounds of silence” that most of us normally don’t hear in our busy routines? 6. Become aware of the sensations that your garments create in contact with your skin. 7. Breathe slowly and deeply, in and out. Notice the depth and quality of your breaths. As you deeply inhale, endeavor to become aware of sensations that you had not noticed before. 8. Allow yourself to “let go” and perceive whatever data that becomes available, first through your five senses. Allow yourself to visualize a protective, invisible shield between you and the stressor. 9. Review your environment—the room and its contents—for details not previously noted. Then close your eyes gently and listen and feel. Gently turn the direction of your “mental” eyes inward to see more clearly what you perceive. 10. Again, breathe slowly and deeply and remain quieted down. 11. Make journal notes of the different sensations you felt when you quieted down and listened to your environment, and contrast it with the sensations you felt before you “let go.” To appreciate this contrast, it is helpful to record all changes of your perceptual range in your journal or notebook. Exercise #2—An Animal in the Wild 1. Imagine that you are your favorite animal stalking or being stalked, but keep in mind that you are really in the safety of your room. Instead of stalking prey, you are stalking the identity or meaning and significance of your stressor. You are going to put yourself in a keen, but relaxed vigil in order to understand your stressor and at the same time protect yourself from it.

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2. Allow all tension to be released from your body, to be replaced by simple animal alertness. 3. Imagine the poise of your favorite animal as it waits in safety. Its ears are positioned for keenest hearing; its eyes, alert and responsive. You can almost sense the very pores of its skin being receptive to data. Now, imagine yourself being alert, but quiet, relaxed, and poised. Breathe slowly and deeply. 4. Imagine you are listening, watching, waiting, taking in extensive data which your alerted senses are picking up. 5. Imagine yourself in the kind of profound silence that augments alertness. You are perceiving the most subtle bits of information from your internal and external environment. Continue to breathe slowly and deeply. Decisive action may be required of you in the near future, but for now you want only to remain poised and relaxed and keenly perceptive. You want to take your time, and save the information you perceive for a later moment, when alternatives can be developed for purposeful, appropriate, and effective action. 6. In keeping with your poise as your favorite animal, keep in mind that an animal often widens its perceptual range before an important action. You can do the same. And remember, the animal that panics rather than perceives usually misses its goal. 7. Now allow your mind to create a mental image of your stressor and monitor your response. • • • •

How do you respond physically? What feelings does this stressor evoke? What do your feelings, in turn, tell you about this stressor? Has your increased perceptual range helped lessen the negative response (feeling like the prey) and increase your sense of being able to resolve your feelings (becoming the pursuer of the stressor).

8. Again, record your feelings in your journal and give yourself time to see what is being presented. Remember, your retrieval system can be helpful not only in identifying what is bothering you, but also in determining why it is bothering you and, eventually, in viewing alternatives and developing your action plan. For now, enjoy the experience of having come to know yourself better. Endeavor to relax now for the work to come. Soon you’ll be able to have some alternatives to review and next you will begin working on an action plan to solve your problem. This practice also helps you to become better equipped the next time stress arrives, uninvited and unwelcome.

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Self-Evaluation 1. Do I reasonably understand how stress works? 2. Do I understand why Nature has evolved it to work as it does? 3. Do I better understand why Nature made the experience of stress an uncomfortable feeling? 4. Do I understand the difference between introspection and meditation? 5. Do I understand some of the feelings/emotions that a stressor can produce? (The Stressor Compass) 6. Can I distinguish some of the different emotions/feelings in the Emotional Literacy Categories? 7. Have I become familiar with the terms and concepts of this Step?

Goals to Go 1. To become emotionally literate, to be able to “read” my feelings. 2. To be able to better understand Nature’s rationale behind a stress reaction. 3. To be able to better understand the perceptual function of stress.

Exit Strategy 1. Have you attained some increased emotional literacy? This will be an ongoing process. 2. Have you attained the ability to appreciate your personal emotional Table of Contents? If so, you are better equipped to begin considering your feelings about alternatives, which can lead to an action plan for meaningful stress resolution. 3. Feel free to return to this Step as often as you need to become better acquainted with emotional literacy. This experience can add a new dimension to your general knowledge base and to your rensiturty as a person. 4. Proceed to Step VI.

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STEP VI:Reward! The Appearance of Alternatives and Gaining the Advantage When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which is opened for us. —Alexander Graham Bell I say unto you... .Seek and ye shall find; Knock and it shall be opened unto you. —St. Luke 11:9 God never shuts one door but He opens another. —Irish Proverb

Status Check (All) 1. I have identified and imaged-in my stressor. 2. By using emotional literacy I have gained and by activating my retrieval system, I have a fairly good idea of the meaning and significance of this stressor. 3. I am ready to seek and consider alternatives that can help relieve the situation that is causing me to experience stress. I want to begin my problem-solving process.

Initial Step VI Goals In the goals, the word naturally is emphasized, because occasionally there is a temptation to use mind-altering or mind-expanding substances to aid in the retrieval of inaccessible mental data. That practice can be harmful to your health.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 1. To naturally reduce or eliminate perceptus interruptus. 2. To naturally become more effective in the use of my retrieval system. 3. To naturally gain perceptus expansus and, with resulting perceptual enlargement, to focus on my possible alternatives. 4. To prepare a list of my viable alternatives. 5. To rate alternatives in terms of their consistency with my uniqueness, my intellect, and my conscience which are the bases of the Personal Authenticity Test (P.A.T.). 6. To continue a record in my personal journal of all essential developments—negative and positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

Principles of Step VI and Premises of The Percept Method Through the work you have accomplished so far in using The Percept Method, you have learned important lessons in self-awareness and perception, plus sensitivity to the messages of your subconscious mind and your bodily responses. This sensitivity is an indication of the progress you have made thus far, and it can continue to serve you as you begin your problem-solving process. It is a premise of The Percept Method that alternatives are an important modality in stress remediation. However, they need to be valid and you need to know their source. Don’t needlessly rush or you may cause a reactivation of the stress response. The answers can come—most likely they are already within you—from the knowledge reservoir in your unconscious. You need to remain alert for continuity between your conscious awareness of what is bothering you and the alternatives that emerge from your subconscious. A statement by Louis Pasteur, “Chance favors the prepared mind,” is good advice at this point. You have prepared yourself for problem solving; now you must seek specific ways this process can work best for you. How is stress reduction related to having alternatives? The concept of alternatives and its value in stress relief can now become more clear. Simply stated, alternatives are power, as you will explore in this Step. The Queen is the most powerful chess piece because she has the greatest number of alternatives. With alternatives, you cannot easily be put “in check.” One definition of alternative is an opportunity to choose among different possibilities. Menander, a dramatist in Ancient Greece, gave the highest status to this concept when he wrote, “Opportunity is a god.” Natural power. For you to be experiencing stress means that there is an unwanted, unwelcome stressor somewhere out there. When you have alternatives you have the power naturally at your disposal or in hand, to neutralize, minimize, subdue, or master the stressor.

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Gift of Nature. Nature is very kind at this Step, if you have accurately identified the stressor. No matter what you have perceived, if it was perceived accurately, Nature can begin to help you think in terms of alternatives. The availability of appropriate alternatives is one of the rewards for accurate perception. Alternatives are like gifts; however, they are only fully available and meaningful when your perceptivity has been accurate and functional. Alternatives can more readily present themselves to you when your mind is open, calm, and receptive. Don’t rob yourself of this precious asset by distorting or suppressing perceptual data. Personal Authenticity Test. Your alternatives need to undergo mental review and assessment in order to determine whether they are valid, authentic, and in your best interests. Use the Personal Authenticity Test (P.A.T.): 1. Is this alternative subjectively acceptable to me? What do my feelings tell me about the alternative? Do I like it or dislike it? 2. Is this alternative intellectually acceptable to me, consistent with my abilities? 3. Is this alternative morally acceptable to me? Is it a consciencecompatible alternative? Internal struggle. Once significant stress signals affect you, an internal struggle has already begun in your body. Do you have the alternatives to neutralize the stressor or will the stressor subdue or terminate you? Alternatives can increase your means, resourcefulness, and resolution. Immune system. An analogy can be made with your immune system in its life-and-death struggle with an infectious agent. Alternatives can boost your immune system by its means, resources, and power to subdue the infection. Battle array. You can view alternatives and the stressor metaphorically. The stressors and alternatives can be as two forces arrayed against each other: The stressor may force you into a locked room. Alternatives are the doors available to you—literally “ways out.” Access to “openings” can be victory strategies. Business. Take the principle of alternatives into other areas to further appreciate their value. If you are in business, and a broker offers you a proposition that you feel is unfair, you can reject that offer with comfort, if you have alternatives. Without alternatives, you might be made to “sweat blood” or to suffer with an untenable proposition. Additional benefits. Having alternatives available increases comfort and confidence and decreases stress. People feel their existence is less threatened and failure less likely, when more alternatives are available. Alternatives can offer an existential feeling of equanimity. Naturally, you have to have the courage and fortitude to implement authentic alternatives. Chess. A basic principle of the chess game, from its origin in antiquity, is that alternatives are paramount. When alternatives are depleted, the King is checkmated, and the game is over! Say that you are in a championship chess match and your opponent has forced you into a complex position in which you’ve never been. If you can see alternatives, you can feel relief. You gain the feeling that your questionable fortune can be reversed, and possibly you have the taste of victory. To further appre-

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ciate the quintessential importance of alternatives, it may be said that the whole game of chess is a game of alternatives—the ability to see and use alternatives. Nature loves alternatives. Otherwise each flower would generate one seed instead of hundreds. Nature promotes alternatives as a life-enhancing principle. When the seeds are released by a plant, they don’t drop neatly around the plant. When they are carried by the wind, they don’t blow only in one narrow direction. They are physically designed for maximum alternatives. They are dispersed to the four winds. They broadcast in such a way as to optimize the species’ alternatives for survival. “Big Blue” built on alternatives. An IBM executive said the company prophecy was “Diversify or die.” Diversity implies the need for alternative markets, research, and products. When alternatives are limited, versatility is limited, and the viability of the company is at risk. Lack of versatility puts the survival of the business in jeopardy. Cognitive therapy. There is one psychological school which holds that when an individual’s alternatives are narrowed, depression, either actual, virtual, or by self-interpretation, can follow. Meanwhile, the illness of depression itself has a number of features, including impairment of the ability to see alternatives. Depression can actually slow down thinking; it can make people feel pessimistic and hopeless, either of which would tend to impair their ability to perceive or appreciate alternatives. So there you have a vicious circle. Lack of alternatives. The philosopher Spinoza once described lack of alternatives as “impotence of mind,” and he saw a relationship between fear and lack of alternatives: “Fear arises from impotence of mind.” Like wound healing. There are physical processes, such as wound healing, that take place in the body with little effort on your part. You just keep the wound clean and let healing happen. In other words, don’t interfere. When there is stress, the presentation of alternatives is similar to wound healing. If you are not interfering, blocking, or distorting the data with perceptus interruptus, alternatives can begin to emerge in your mind. Nature helps you. You just need to let the alternatives unfold without interference—to keep your mental slate clear so you can explore and test their authenticity without blocking. Emergence of alternatives. Alternatives can begin to emerge in your mind after the following progression: 1. Accurately identifying and imaging-in the stressor. 2. Activating the retrieval system in your unconscious mind by appropriate inquiry. 3. Remaining physically relaxed and mentally calm via any number of natural modalities. 4. Resolving any personal conflicts about success, thus empowering yourself to minimize or remove internal resistance. 5. Being prepared to write down each alternative as it emerges in your mind. Don’t grab the first alternative that occurs to you. It may not be the first alternative, or even the twenty-first alternative,

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that will have the greatest chance to help you, so don’t be too eager to settle for an alternative that might come early in the process, unless it is authentic for you. Personal authenticity. It is a premise of The Percept Method that alternatives and the subsequent action plan you choose must pass a Personal Authenticity Test (P.A.T.), meaning they must be consistent with your being, your spirit, and your talents. To give you a role model for the Personal Authenticity Test, there is possibly no better example than young David—future king. Whether the event is historic or symbolic is unimportant; its elements beautifully demonstrate the P.A.T. in a vital way. David volunteered for a heroic mission—to dual with Goliath, a champion. David’s offer to dual with Goliath may have seemed grandiose, were it not for some unseen elements. David had sized up the strengths and weaknesses of Goliath, and David was acquainted with his own strengths and weaknesses. He was not stronger than Goliath, but he was faster and more agile. Besides, David had an innate proprioceptive skill, amazing balance, and a dead aim with a sling. These had already been tested under the rigorous conditions of the field, for as a shepherd boy, he said: “Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear.” The ultimate test for David was not his great defeat of Goliath. It came in the form of the temptation to be something he was not, which happened before David was about to meet Goliath. The powerful King Saul of Israel attempted to decorate David with his own personal instruments of war: “And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail”(I Samuel, 17:39). David, a lowly shepherd boy, was being made an offer by one of the most powerful living kings. It must have been a momentous temptation. These fine battle instruments were not authentic to David. Fortunately, David found the strength of character, the confidence in his own God-given abilities, and he was not dismayed by the comparison—Saul’s grand instruments of war measured against his own simple pebble and sling. Thus, according to I Samuel 17:39, he rejected Saul’s offer: “And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.” The battle with Goliath was actually decided and won before they met face to face. Young David knew what worked for him and where his gifts lay. To compound David’s difficulty, David’s older brother was embarrassed by his kid brother, and he tried to humiliate David for presenting himself to the troops and to King Saul with only rocks and his primitive sling.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief Goliath also ridiculed David, a shepherd boy. “And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him.... And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David” (I Samuel, 17:42–43). David himself might have felt moments of insecurity, reflecting how totally unsuited he was to wear Saul’s excellent battle gear. But David urgently restabilized himself with his strong sense of authenticity, a firm faith in his mission, and a harmonious feeling with his humble talent. David was authentic about his gifts, however humble. A simple sling and a smooth rock compared to the finest personal accouterments of war in that day. David’s reliance on his perfected natural gifts demonstrated his accurate perception and authenticity. His situation may be likened to one’s being offered the first chair in a world famous symphony orchestra, with all of its shining instruments, when the person’s musical gifts were perfected on a home-made piccolo. David was also equipped with a transcendental belief system that strengthened his courage and his resolve. A memorable epigram epitomizes David’s innate proprioceptive gift: “Remember that a pebble has the force of a bullet, if there is a David behind it.”

Your Talents, Too, Can Flow with Authenticity Creative alternatives flow more easily when they are consistent with your uniqueness and your talents. Another epigram tells us: “God created you for tasks that only you can perform” (Anon.). For example, when considering the alternative of a job change, a person may say: I like this; it feels right for me; I feel I have this special ability; it is intellectually and conscience compatible. But then there may come undermining and circumstantial arguments: How can I do this? I’m already 34 or 47 years old. I would need to spend extra money and time for new training. These circumstantial arguments may be your initial and overwhelming reaction, but it is vitally important that you do not batter yourself down with circumstantial negatives. Instead, recognize you may be undermining yourself and causing stress by crushing your gifts. So with this awareness, use these negative thoughts to begin an inquiry: What better investment can I make in life than to pursue my special abilities? The importance of your suitability and uniqueness also holds for Step VII when you begin to formulate an action plan. Each Step in The Percept

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Method is based on the foundation that your perceptions need to be accurate. If you do not assess the data properly, then the alternatives that present themselves, upon which you may later base the development of an action plan, may complicate your life and create greater stress, rather than give resolution and relief. Make note of all of your ideas for alternatives. Subject each to the Personal Authenticity Test. Don’t use this phase of exploring alternatives as an excuse to delay or escape commitment by jumping from one alternative to the next, being afraid to find out an answer. No matter how many alternatives you see before you, you must also have the courage to follow through with one to successfully relieve your stress. It may seem like a confusing paradox, but on certain occasions inaction will prove to be the alternative of choice, if that inaction has really been thought out and is based on decision rather than trepidation and indecision. Remember the admonition of Hippocrates: “To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.”

Exploring and Assessing Alternatives After alternatives emerge in your mind, you need a procedure of mental assessment and review (introspection) to help you appraise your situation: 1. A certain situation is causing stress. 2. This stress is associated with a particular stressor, which you have identified. 3. Some course of action will relieve that stress. 4. Before action, you need to know what alternatives are available to you. 5. Alternatives demonstrate that there are options or opportunities that are available for you. 6. With alternatives, the initiative to choose and eventually act can be in your hands. 7. To be meaningful and functional, however, alternatives must pass your Personal Authenticity Test (P.A.T.). The P.A.T. is simply asking yourself whether the alternative is in harmony with your spirit, your abilities, and your conscience. As simple as these requirements seem, they are crucially important. 8. Take time to distinguish in your mind data coming from within yourself as compared with recommendations coming from others. This helps you stay in touch with the internal realities you have discovered about yourself in previous Steps. Remember, you are looking for a longterm, meaningful solution, not just an avoidant, “feel better” mode.

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9. Relaxation again remains a key, because it enables the emergence of alternatives to be less inhibited. It also better enables you to activate your retrieval system as needed. So, as in previous steps, continue a relaxation technique that works best for you. You may use the following suggestions to help begin the process of conscious exploration and retrieval of the many files held in reserve in your subconscious mind. 10. Ask yourself: What are my options? or What alternatives are available to me? Remember that the answer may not come immediately, or alternatives that you might wish to censor may appear. Don’t interfere, because you can’t know yet what will work best. Maybe the solution is something you have always wanted to do, but were not sure how to accomplish it. Or maybe, it is something that will require extra training for a career change, and you do not know how you will find the time or the money. Right now is not the time for these practical worries. The means can follow if the alternative is authentic. Right now is the time to let these alternatives arise freely and unfettered by preconceived notions about what will work best or what is feasible. Keep in mind that you are looking for change in some aspect of your life or relationships, based on the accurate identification of your stressor and your ability to image-in the stressor. Putting obstacles in the way just as you have begun to explore alternatives can cause mental “shut down” and intensification of your stress. 11. Write down each alternative as it emerges in your mind. This is part of the imaging-in process that helps to equip your subconscious mind to carry out its retrieval mission. 12. Periodically review your notes and see if they prompt an awareness of additional alternatives. Write these down. Again, premature judgment or censorship can be limiting. That process of evaluation comes next, as you learn to test the alternatives for personal validity and potential for success with the P.A.T.

Feelings and Fantasies Acquaint You with Yourself Epictetus said, “Wherever a man is against his will that to him is a prison.”

Your recurrent feelings and fantasies (your visualization activities) can actually be experiences in which you relish personal or private joys. They can have deep significance concerning your uniqueness. Your recurrent feelings and fantasies can be times in which Nature is acquainting you with yourself and your special talents.

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Often, feelings and fantasies have a spontaneous component to them—they just present themselves. What is their function? Nature would not have a tendency to give you recurrent satisfaction and pleasure from having visualizations about being a mathematician, or an actor, or a golf player, or a violinist, if you had absolutely no talent in that respective area. These can be times of self-revelation. Nature would not say, “I gave you good feelings whenever you think about geology, but, ha, ha, I fooled you. It means nothing. You have no talent in this field.” Alternatives in stress remediation can be life saving, because with their appearance, stress usually begins to diminish. To be valid and workable, however, alternatives need to be consistent with your uniqueness, which can be manifested via your personal feelings and cherished fantasies. These criteria are summarized in the Personal Authenticity Test. As you review your list and notes of alternatives, the process of arriving at clear-cut distinctions between alternatives will be more complex. But, as always, the more work you put into the exercise, both emotionally and intellectually, the greater your chance for success. It is similar to assessing a chess move, when a player is trying to anticipate or project the consequences of different moves, and mentally process them through a what-if? exercise. Try the following exercises to help you as you review and test the alternatives you have identified. 1. Project yourself into a mental rehearsal for each alternative. Then monitor your response to each situation. Do you feel excitement? Fear? Curiosity? Satisfaction? Aversion? Take notes of all anticipated consequences in your personal journal or notebook. This simple process can save you and those close to you much time, energy, money, and the potential for failure that comes from acting impulsively or without anticipating the consequences. The rehearsal can also help you avoid regrets about actions you wish you could undo. Repeat the exercise several times with alternatives that appeal to you, and determine if specific alternatives are more or less often associated with positive responses within yourself. Remember, your feelings are equipped with a phenomenal trait: they can be anticipatory and often acquaint you with foreknowledge on a virtual level. With this foreknowledge you can experience the consequences of a future alternative again and again on a virtual level. 2. Next, expand the mental imagery to bring others into the picture, and ask yourself these questions: • How would I feel if this alternative were used by another person on me? Is this an alternative I would find acceptable if it were used in a situation that involved me? • If I were to ignore my feelings, my conscience, and my intellect and attempt to extend the alternative outward into my physical

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief reality as part of an action plan, what would be my chances of success? • Is this alternative consistent with my lifestyle, my special talents, and my true self?

3. Take notes of any refinements or questions you may have about specific alternatives that elicit a positive response from you. ¸4. Consider each alternative merely as a focal point and see if your associative thinking brings other, equally desirable alternatives to mind. 5. Finally, when you feel you have narrowed the alternatives to those that are most desirable, most appropriate for you and your special talents, and the most feasible for creating successful change, put each alternative through the Personal Authenticity Test again. Review your true feelings about the alternative or action plan; the recurrence of positive fantasies, daydreams, or visualizations; and the response of your conscience when you project yourself mentally into the situation the alternative offers you. The goal should be to identify alternatives that are compatible with you as a person and consistent with your uniqueness, that are intellectually compatible in that they do not contradict your conception of what is reasonable and logical, and that do not contradict your conscience. To contradict your conscience would be putting a heavy handicap on your project that could eventually sink it.

Newly Conceived Alternatives Are Fragile When alternatives present themselves to you, they are new, barely formed, creative ideas. Being barely formed and new thoughts, they are rather weak, and their versatility is limited. They have to be treated with the same delicacy, deference, and sensitivity with which you would treat a newborn baby. One way to generate enormous additional stress is to brutalize your new, barely formed, creative idea by overexposure to commitments inconsistent with what it is able to withstand. Creative ideas that have just emerged are like infants. When the newborn enters the family, you allow the baby to grow naturally without overburdening it with unrealistic demands. The infant cannot walk, cannot talk, or even sit. It is the same with alternatives that are newborn in your mind. If you have an idea for a new type of business, do you expect it to come fully outfitted with a business plan and financial backing? Keep your personal journal or notebook handy and keep

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writing in it as ideas come forward. Do not eliminate any reasonable ideas until you have given them a chance to develop and be assessed. Do not be like the harsh father who intimidates his child’s creative thoughts with indicting questions: “Don’t tell me you really want to do that? You really want to do that? Is that what you actually want to do? Are you telling me you are seriously thinking of doing that?”

Collect Data for Best Alternatives Consider how you would feel if presented with a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle and, at first, could only identify a few matching pieces. You could induce enormous stress by forcing yourself to speculate about the entire picture from the tiny patch you have. Without using your efforts to enlarge perception and expand data collection, you could squander your energy in guesswork and conjecture and assumptions that bear little relation or meaning to reality. This could result not only in more stress but could induce a state of confusion as well. The key is that whenever new, creative ideas and alternatives emerge, they may be only a few seconds old. Do not terrorize your infant ideas with tests they cannot possibly pass at this stage. If they pass the Personal Authenticity Test, your job has at least started with a good foundation. Your ideas may need more serious assessment, more exploration, and closer review, but you have made a credible beginning. You and your feelings via visualization and virtual projection will continue carefully to judge the idea’s compatibility with you and your needs. What about a catastrophic crisis, such as being notified of a cancer diagnosis? Hope may be the one remaining alternative. By reminding yourself of the physiology of hope, you can endeavor with your remaining resources to put your body into its optimal physiological or homeostatic state. Thus, the importance of a belief system.

Time and Distance Principle From the moment the Stressor presents itself, your alternatives usually begin to diminish (see Figure 5). If you were presented with a perceptual alert, your first step should be to perceive, perceive, perceive! There are risks to toning down the acuity of your perception. If you are in your bedroom and smell smoke, would you want to tune that perception out if there were a potential fire? Guided by the time and distance principle, it is a premise of The Percept Method that your alternatives are at their maximum when you first smell the smoke—the point and time of origin of the stressor. As Figure 5 demonstrates, the number of your alternatives usually diminishes with the passage of time, which in some cases can be measured in seconds.

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FIGURE 5 The Time and Distance Chart.

Optimal Time Value of Stress Response As important and useful as the stress response is, you usually don’t need it to go beyond its sentinel value, if your perception is functional and alert. When used as Nature intended, the sharp and keen or noxious stress response is an asset. In many cases, assuming optimal cognition, some crises or potential

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crises can be deciphered in a matter of seconds and appropriate action taken. Frequently, meaningful action cannot or need not be taken immediately. What is important is that you become aware of the manner of the challenge or the reality of any danger, so you do not have to suffer the stress accentuation of denial, producing illusions, or creating false realities. Accurate perception can actually lessen the stress response. Become aware of your alternatives when your reserves are at their height. In adverse situations there are distinct advantages to having your perception make available important alternatives when your reserves are at their highest point and when you are farthest from the danger. This can be preferable to having the information forced on you after a needless period of delay, by which time possible deterioration in your energy and your alternatives has taken place. Learn from the error of the executive whose symptoms signaled stress, the underlying facts of which he avoided perceiving. A tumor was long neglected, and the more time he let intervene between the signals and the diagnosis, the fewer alternatives were open to him.

Feelings Perceive First—Consciousness Follows Here is another aspect of the time and distance principle. There is also a time lag (that can last from seconds to months) between the moment you feel sentinel stress and when you become consciously aware of what you have perceived. In other words, you usually experience a feeling of stress before you become aware of the cause for that feeling. That phenomenon is termed sentinel cognition which may be subliminal. It follows the course of evaluation from sentience to consciousness. A Dangerous Stranger Say that an event occurs that makes a person or persons respond with sentinel stress. The moment of becoming consciously aware of having perceived something is usually later than the actual sentinel point of origin. In other words, there is already a time lag. The clock is already running. The stressor is already underway with its agenda. A group of people is sitting at a gathering joyful and unconcerned. A dangerous person enters their midst. There are no obvious signs that would give them conscious knowledge that the person is dangerous. The person is well dressed, utters no threats, makes no menacing moves. Yet the person has dangerous intent. This person’s dangerous intent is picked up by a perceptive member of the group who is made to feel uncomfortable. A sentinel stress has been experienced. The conscious mind may not have any evidence to justify “DANGER,” but one’s feelings, with their broader range of perceptivity, can pick up subliminal danger signals. The feelings of our party underwent a subtle change from a pleasant comfort level to a level of slight sentinel discomfort/stress

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief response. Our party could choose to ignore that sentinel uneasiness, or to inquire, Why did I begin to feel discomfort when that stranger entered our presence? Remember, sentinel uneasiness does not necessarily mean physical danger; it could merely be a caution response to a new situation. It could be the slight annoyance of having a new person enter a discussion already in progress, or it could be many other individual responses. However, at the very least, our individual should ask himself, What is this uneasy feeling telling me?

The Ostrich Hides Its Head Again You can suffer, in other ways, from aspects of the ostrich syndrome. You will recall that ostrich rationale deemed it preferable to keep as few things on its mind as possible. “Why clutter the mind with extraneous information?” “Why ask idle questions? Why not use one’s energy and mental resources to block out unpleasant information? Isn’t there a good chance that nothing may happen anyway?” The folly of these attitudes has been demonstrated. When there is too long an interval between your sentinel feeling and your conscious awareness (Stage II of perception), it can be difficult to discern accurately what your feelings were originally trying to tell you, (1) because of intervening events; (2) because of various mental avoidant mechanisms that can dislodge, detour, or distort the true meanings of the messenger feelings—usually attributing them to unrelated, inconsequential causes; and (3) because of the narrow aperture of the conscious mind, which works only in split seconds of time. You usually feel uncomfortable for a period of time before you are able to identify what is causing the discomfort.

Self-Evaluation 1. Do I understand the relationship between alternatives and the time and distance principle? 2. Do I understand the importance of an alternative’s passing my P.A.T. as part of its being seriously considered? 3. Do I understand the relationship between the existence of alternatives and stress reduction? 4. Do I understand the importance of accurately identifying my stressor and the pursuit of alternatives? 5. Do I understand the relationship between alternatives and power? 6. Do I see the relationship between the presence of alternatives and gaining the advantage?

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7. Do all alternatives have to result in action? 8. Under what circumstance can an alternative be inaction and still be powerful? 9. Can I name some of the ways in which Nature embraces alternatives? 10. Can I name some of the ways a business leader, a military leader, a political leader, or a football coach uses alternatives? 11. Have I become familiar with the terms and concepts of this Step?

Goals to Go 1. To implement one of my alternatives that have passed the P.A.T. into an action plan. 2. To maintain physical relaxation and mental calm during this process. 3. To remind myself of Hippocrates’ wisdom, that under certain creative circumstances inaction “is sometimes a good remedy.”

Exit Strategy As I approach the Action Plan of Step VII, I am equipped with a list of alternatives that have passed the P.A.T.

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STEP VII:Your Action Plan There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. —William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, IV, iii The Glory of Action —William Osler, A Way of Life, p. vii That they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same. —The Book of Common Prayer, 1st Sunday after Epiphany

Status Check 1. I have identified alternatives that have passed the Personal Authenticity Test. 2. I have selected one or more of the alternatives for further evaluation because they appeal to me intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually. 3. I am ready to form an action plan, but I am not sure how to proceed.

Initial Step VII Goals Pursuit of an action plan has the following as its goals: 1. To realize that relief from stress can come through an action that appropriately addresses the correct stressor. Of course, the action has to pass the P.A.T. 111

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 2. To decide on a course of action as a commitment, knowing it involves risk, especially the risk of reactivating stress. However, decisions are less risky and less stressful if they represent my sincere, unconflicted motive and are consistent with my uniqueness. 3. To keep in mind that overindulgence in and lingering among alternatives, without sincerely progressing them to a meaningful action plan, can lead to instability and indecisiveness. On the other hand, a premature or ill-thought-out action will be wasteful and harmful. 4. To follow a pace that is comfortable, realistic, and workable for me. 5. To appreciate that an action plan can enhance development of my potential. 6. To maintain physical relaxation and mental calm while subjecting my action plan to the P.A.T. 7. To be aware that an action plan is a step farther along than alternatives, but that it is important to review and reacquaint myself with the principles listed in Step VI for alternatives. 8. To continue a record in my personal journal of all essential developments—negative and positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

In order for your action plan to be effective and appropriate, however, your stressor needs to pass the important Stress Accuracy Test and your action plan must pass the Personal Authenticity Test. So, be patient. The work of self-examination is not yet complete. You may need to return to earlier steps to reevaluate or fine-tune some of the conclusions you have made. Also, continue being receptive to your retrieval system, data may appear in your mind after you have created what seems to be a feasible alternative. Your retrieval system can still be working on your inquiry.

When You See a Need for Change Although, you may be engaged in changing your life for the better, preconceived notions and inappropriate judgments about accomplishing change will not help. If you are ready to proceed, you must remain open to any and all additional thoughts that arise from your subconscious mind. Remember, it contains the files of your entire life and may have information about what is best for you.

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Principles of Step VII and Premises of The Percept Method Change is something that infuses everyone’s life. It can be a change for the better or for the worse. It can be a change that is thrust upon you, or one that you have controlled. It can be a minor change or a life-altering change. Considering these extremes in the evolution and impact of change, it should be no surprise that the prospect of change—even one that can have positive benefits—is a little frightening, a little stressful. It is at this point in your progress through The Percept Method that you must take heart in the fact that you have tested yourself all along the way. You have worked hard to identify your stressor. You have explored your personal emotions to learn the meaning and significance of the stressor. And you have tested your options against your very personal and unique principles, strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations. Much good can come from the changes that lie ahead if you have been honest with yourself, if you have been sincere in your pursuit of personal truths, and if you are now willing to follow the path you have laid toward meaningful action.

Natural Stress Reduction with Awareness Chances are you already feel better, and your stress feelings are lessening. Before you began this process, you didn’t know what was bothering you or what it meant. Now you do, and eliminating fear of the unknown will, by itself, initiate a stress relief process. Remember, stress is your signal; it is trying to send you a message. Once you have heard and correctly interpreted that message, the signal no longer has a purpose and should begin to weaken. Once the message is transmitted, your cerebral cortex can cooperate with its work toward stress resolution. This concept has been scientifically documented and verified. It involves the mitigating or symptom-reducing effect of cortical control produced by the neuroanatomical inhibitory or modulating centers in your cerebral cortex. It has been previously mentioned that the inhibitory or modulating process in your cerebral cortex is but one of the benefits of cerebral engagement in Stage II of perception (see Figure 6). Dr. Barbara Brown (1980) summarized this concept: “And once the need biological awareness detects is satisfied, the sensation vanishes” (p. 48). In our modern age, we can scientifically document this principle, based on reseach knowledge of neurology and neuroanatomy. However, it is truly amazing that the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama in his Sermon at Benares) “realized” this same principle long before scientific documentation when he spoke of “... enlightenment [cerebral engagement] which produces insight and knowledge, and tends to calm ...”

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FIGURE 6 Scientific Summary.

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Modern neuroscience has demonstrated that cortical (cerebral cortex) modulating control over stress emotions is mediated through the hypothalamus. When the connection between the cerebral cortex and the hypothalamus is interrupted or interfered with, the stress emotions of the sympathetic nervous system can be unleashed and unmodulated. The stress symptoms thus released result in increased “metabolic and somatic activities characteristic of emotional stress, combat, or flight. These responses are expressed by dilatation of the pupil, piloerection [goose bumps], acceleration of heart rate, elevation of blood pressure, increase in rate and amplitude of respiration, and somatic struggling movements ...” (Carpenter, 1991, p. 375–376). To reinforce your progress, it may help to go back to your earliest journal notes and review the stress feelings you documented before you knew what the problem was. Have those stress feelings changed for the better? Have they become less disruptive to your daily routine, and do you have a better sense of well-being? Have they perhaps disappeared altogether?

Toward a Successful Action Plan 1. First, work out your tentative action plan on a mind level. Write it out in your journal, then use the three criteria to test authenticity: feelings compatibility, intellectual compatibility, and conscience compatibility. This is important in order to clarify whether your action plan satisfies your uniqueness and whether it will be appropriate to address the cause of your stress. You may be tempted to rush past the conscience-compatibility test, because it can pose the hardest questions. But if you have ever experienced the pain and torment of regret, you will see that this basic issue has to be resolved and, if it cannot, then, sometimes, the action plan will have to be changed or discarded altogether. 2. Using your ability to visualize, now consider on a virtual level the consequences of each action plan and your feelings about these consequences. Write in your journal what you think will be the logical outcome of each alternative (an intellectual process), then how you feel about each of the outcomes (an emotional process). Take your time. You may spend several sessions with yourself before the answers are clear and complete. Use relaxation techniques to explore your true feelings. Remain receptive to your retrieval system. 3. Write down how each action plan can be accomplished. Be specific and project yourself mentally into a virtual rehearsal of each plan. This rehearsal, carried out in the virtual theater of your mind, is best done with your feelings, thoughts, and visualizations. When you have worked out your action plan on a mental level, you are laying

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief the foundation of a continuum. The continuum is a subliminal line between your thoughts and your actions. The distinguished 19th century American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841) recognized the power of this continuum. He expressed his realization this way: “Besides, why should we be cowed by the name of action? ... we know that the ancestor of every act is a thought ... To think is to act” (p. 317).

Now during your virtual rehearsal, ask yourself the following questions. Remember, during your virtual rehearsal, you are engaging virtual reality. 1. What changes will I need to make? 2. Do I need additional resources that I do not have right now? (Keep in mind that this might include the help of a friend or advisor, money, relocation, behavioral skills, a diet plan, additional professional training, etc.) 3. If I need additional resources, do I know how to obtain them? 4. What impact will this plan have on my family, co-workers, and friends? 5. Am I comfortable and satisfied with the outcome of my rehearsal scenarios? If not, why not? Again, we can refer to ancient wisdom to fully appreciate the crucial importance of visualization, virtual reality, and vision. It is written as a caution in the Old Testament Book of Proverbs for one contemplating an action that involves abrogation of a law. The caution or recommendation strongly and immediately speaks to someone about to jump into an action without considering all of its ramifications: “Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Prov. 29:18). With vision, one employs prescient and anticipatory powers in the mind. One no longer stumbles into situations. Foreknowledge (vision) of an action allows one to virtually experience (mentally walk through) the action and its consequences before the action is implemented. Vision is a safeguard against impulsive action whose consequences have not been thought out clearly.

Self-Evaluation Use the following questions to test the action plan that you have chosen as the best, and retest it until you are secure in the knowledge that this course of action will meet your goals. 1. How do I feel about this action plan? Do I feel it is workable? Do I feel relief from stress? Or do I feel worse?

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Is this plan compatible with my feelings? Is it compatible with my intellect? Is it compatible with my conscience? Do I like this action plan? Is this action plan something that recurs in my mental imagery frequently and with good feelings? Is this action plan consistent with my lifestyle and uniqueness? How would I feel if someone were to use this action plan with me? Is there a different way I would prefer to see things handled? When I subject this action plan to the rigorous mental assessment and review of virtual reality, does it work for me? If I were to ignore my feelings, intellect, and conscience in translating this action plan into reality, what would be my chances of success?

The self-evaluation for the action plan is a level further along than alternatives. However, it is important also to review and reacquaint yourself with the self-evaluation items listed in Step VI for alternatives.

The Dalai Lama and Heroic Action In a momentous example provided by a historic incident in the life of Dalai Lama XIV of Tibet, you will see how an action plan arose out of the most meager alternatives, and how that action plan, once decided upon, however perilous, provided lessening of the stress. This example, highlighted in the Dalai Lama’s own words, illustrates stress relief that can be provided by appropriate action. In this life example, the Dalai Lama was cornered in a narrow predicament between life and death. He had only a severely limited opportunity to act to save his life and preserve the spiritual office which his existence symbolized and which was so essential to the Tibetan people. The action plan he undertook was unprecedented and historic. This was one of the most critical episodes in the Dalai Lama’s life. It can be an inspiration for readers to follow his superhuman saga, which took him over the Himalayas and which was made possible by his uncommon bravery and belief system. Brilliance, intuition, and heroic courage were also necessary if he were to elude Mao Zedong’s entrapment in March of 1959, and safely traverse the mountain passes over uncharted courses under blizzard conditions. In a prior historic example, which remains a recorded precedent, Hannibal of Carthage crossed the Alps, whose highest peak is Mont Blanc at 15,772 feet. However, he was fully prepared and equipped, and he did not cross the highest ranges. Yet, Hannibal’s arduous crossing has seized human imagination throughout the ages.

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The Dalai Lama led a faithful band of followers over the Himalayas into exile in India, crossing at over 19,000 feet in virtually the dead of winter, without adequate provisions or time for preparations. Moreover, had he taken the time to organize ample provisions or waited for more clement weather, his plans would have been revealed to Mao’s generals, who were carefully watching him. They were preparing for his capture from the Norbulingka Palace or his assassination in a matter of hours. The event and his action plan are excerpted from a long interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV of Tibet and this author on September 29, 1989. An excerpt from that interview follows. Dr. Albert Crum: You were saying that it was unusual that they didn’t see the long column. [A plane apparently tracked the Dalai Lama and his group after their escape.] The Dalai Lama: Actually I still don’t know what was the real motivation inside the plane. In fact we don’t know the plane belonged to what nation. [We assume] the Chinese. But then you see, we already knew in the last two years, Tibetans leaving after the Chinese crushed their places, like monasteries or villages, so there was every danger....If the plane belonged to the Chinese and the motivation is something to attack. But no, I don’t know what was the reason or the cause, but they go and come around and then disappeared. So, really, I don’t know. Another thing, in my own experience, the very day I left Norbulingka, that was the day we already crossed the Gitchu River. And the route just nearby the Gitchu River, because it was wintertime, the river was quite low, small, and as a result the noise and sound of waves was not too strong, and just the other side was a Chinese military camp on the western side of Norbulingka, a big military establishment. So there were guards, sentries posted along the river. It could hardly be half a kilometer. They could hear. There was also some moonlight, although not bright, but I still think something happened mysterious [Belief System—Step X]. Somehow we were out of their sight. They didn’t notice. As a Buddhist, as a person who believes in the mysterious, then you can explain [Belief System—Step X]. Otherwise [it is] difficult to explain. You can understand that? Anyway, it happened like that. A.C.: How did you know that night ... that particular night [to leave Norbulingka]? D.L.: Actually that day, two shells fell near my quarter in Norbulingka. Then in the afternoon, at 3 or 4 o’clock there were also some shots—boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—some gun fire in the south near Gitchu. So things become really serious. Then you see we decided: now no more hope remained. So, better to leave. Once we decided, we felt better [Action Plan—Step VII]. No other alternative than to leave, escape. Then it’s a little better.

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According to tradition, usually the Dalai Lama consults the astrologists [before deciding upon] movements. It has to be a good day [by tradition]. But that day was definite. No time to consult whether good day or bad day. Too late [Review of Alternatives—Step VI]. We have to leave. A.C.: What date was that? D.L.: March 17. On March 10 the crisis started.

The Dalai Lama’s amazing saga, with all its drama, was reported widely in the international press and provided the cover story for the issue of LIFE Magazine dated May 4, 1959. The LIFE feature article was entitled “Miraculous Escape of the Dalai Lama.” The event epitomized what William Osler earlier called “The Glory of Action.”

Further Self Evaluation It has been stated many times that an action plan inconsistent with your feelings, intellect, and conscience has little chance for success. But it can be very difficult to feel certain about the results of these tests. If this were a math problem, you could be certain when you had the correct answer. The task of stress relief, which may involve life-changing decisions, is not easy, because these decisions are subjective and individual. Furthermore, they have to be accomplished ultimately within yourself, and not always with the advice and support of even a dear friend, spouse, or work supervisor. You may be wise to listen to such advice when it is offered, but keep in mind that others may have a vested interest in a different agenda, e.g., they may not have had your experience or your vision. They may sincerely not understand the forces with which you are contending. If you feel insecure about your action plan, or see that it has not passed one of the tests to which you have subjected it, give yourself some additional time for more self-evaluation. 1. It may be helpful to go all the way back and reassess the identity and nature of the stressor. You may need to refine or enlarge its scope, or you may have been incorrect in some of the assumptions that led you to its identification. 2. Reexamine the feelings you experience in response to the stressor with your emotional literacy. Maybe you think you are depressed, when you are really angry or disappointed or frustrated. 3. Reevaluate the meaning and significance of your stressor. Is it more or less important than you thought? Does it reflect feelings about yourself or about someone or something else? Will actions to

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief resolve this stressor be significantly life-changing or alter relationships, career goals, or finances when you were hoping it would not? 4. Have you been successful in achieving a deep state of relaxation and mental calm so your retrieval system can continue its work? 5. Have you become familiar with the terms and concepts in this Step?

Goals to Go 1. To implement my action plan which has comfortably passed the P.A.T. 2. To maintain physical relaxation and mental calm during this process.

Exit Strategy If you have worked out your action plan, and it has passed the Personal Authenticity Test, you can proceed to Step VIII in The Percept Method or to Step X to reinforce your belief system. These next Steps can help you further elicit and analyze your action plan. However, don’t hesitate to return to earlier Steps if you haven’t achieved a level of confidence and comfort with the answers you are currently offering yourself. Keep in mind that the answer is there; it just may take a little more work. Stress relief is a significant goal and learning the process of decoding your sentience can be a major subjective and intellectual experience. It can be one of the highest combined achievements of the human heart and mind.

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STEP VIII:The Perplexity of Change and Slow Progress The human brain contains the fossil memories of its past, just as a stratified landscape contains earth’s past in the shapes of horned type titanotheres and stalking dirk-toothed cats. —Loren Eiseley, Our species. . .probably has not changed during the last 20,000 years. . . Here we stand in the middle of this new world with our primitive brain, attuned to the simple cave life. . . —Albert Szent-Györgyi, Saturday Review, p. 11 The single greatest power in the world today is the power of change. —Kent M. Deutsch, The Churchman, Cover

Status Check (All) 1. I have identified and imaged-in my stressor and understand its significance to me. 2. I have identified alternatives that are consistent with my unique talents, strengths, and beliefs. 3. I feel I have found alternatives and an action plan that are consistent with my authenticity, but I find change very difficult. I still feel stuck.

Initial Step VIII Goals 1. I desire to change my dysfunctional stress responses. I realize they are not necessary for my survival. 121

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 2. I have continued to have prolonged physical symptoms as part of my stress response. I want to reverse this, especially when dealing with only concept crises. 3. To continue a record in my personal journal of all essential developments—negative and positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

Principles of Step VIII and Premises of The Percept Method Everyone faces choices or changes throughout life that contribute to feelings of stress. Some of these vicissitudes are minor and little thought is devoted to the activity. But other choices can be life-altering—where to go to college, choice of a spouse, choice of a career, when to start a family, etc. These are situations that deserve the best feelings and intellectual evaluation we can muster. We need authenticity of heart and mind that can often be found in our quiet time. As you begin developing your action plan to resolve the stressor, you may find that the task of resolution is more daunting than anticipated. Take heart! Remember, if the solution and/or change were easy to identify and implement, you would not be in this quandary. This stressor may have disturbed your sense of equilibrium sufficiently to be causing physical symptoms and reduced efficiency. Be patient. After you put your best work into the exploration and testing of alternatives, be honest and fair with yourself, so that answers can gradually begin to emerge.

Change Is Not an Easy Matter This Step in The Percept Method will help you understand why the process of change is often so difficult and so slow. This Step is basically a process of intellectual understanding. 1. Physical change cannot readily take place without a mental change and a new mental foundation. 2. Effective thinking cannot be forced. 3. Changes in your usual perspective or assumptions may be required. 4. Your habits are actually a part of organic “wiring” that resists change, even when that change may be in your best interests. 5. Understand that certain organic brain patterns may have to be altered in order to stabilize new choices. 6. Identify the alternative that is most authentic for you and your capabilities, and that will help you resolve your current problem successfully.

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7. Realize that a change in your dysfunctional stress response may not occur immediately, even after you have gained insight, even after you know your dysfunctional stress response is harmful and unnecessary. 8. Adopting a new appropriate response involves reeducation of the body and brain. That process takes time, especially when for many years you have reinforced outmoded evolutionary physical habits and practices. These habits and practices constitute a physical or organic basis within your brain, which requires reeducation and change. To change an old pattern, it is necessary to establish a new and better response. This process involves virtually a new organic pattern or basis inside your brain. Nature wants to give you stability and protect you from uncertain and whimsical change. Thus, change is usually slow; it requires time and repetition to establish a new pattern. Understanding this process helps your body and mind to cooperate with each other, and gives you the composure to be patient with yourself.

Reeducating Your Brain From infancy to adulthood, your brain has been hard at work “hardwiring” the patterns that are organically unique to you—how you respond physically to the circumstances of daily life, what you remember, and what habits you have established. This complex network of hardwiring can be viewed as your neural wall. Metaphorically, you can consider it a very strong structure, an edifice constructed of an infinite number of bricks bonded by strong mortar. Macroscopically, each brick in this structure can be described as a neurogram. Microscopically, you can liken it to a software byte that is responsive to imprinting. This then—the brain bytes or the bricks in a neural wall—graphically represent the organic basis of a habit. For purposes of illustration, we will use both the macroscopic and microscopic metaphors. Again, a great visionary scientist, Albert Szent-Györgyi, helps us to epitomize this concept: “Whatever a man does, he must do first in his mind” (p. 11). The functioning of the brain bytes can be described in this simple example. Sit quietly with your mind uncluttered for a moment and ask yourself what you did at noon today. A split second ago that question was not in your mind. But now that it is, you may know the answer instantly, or recall through a series of associations what you were doing at noon. You might ask yourself what makes this process possible. A plausible explanation is that your noon experience somehow became organically imprinted in your brain. When you consider a whole lifetime of repetitious acts, habits, and experiences which can become imprinted in your brain, you can imagine some organic substrate that provides the theoretical basis for preserving your memory and providing a basis for experience, which we shall call neurograms.

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Resistance to Change: Nature Has Its Reasons Nature’s reason for permanency is basically to provide stability and memory, so your equilibrium will not experience radical upheaval and precariousness with each change in your environment. In other words, you remember to look both ways when crossing the street, whether it is a dirt road out in the country, a two-lane blacktop in your neighborhood, or a grand boulevard in a central urban area. It is automatic and your memory does not have to figure out the importance of being careful. The establishment of the brain byte is one of Nature’s protective mechanisms that helps to preserve memory and stability. You can use the macroscopic metaphor of the bricks in a neural wall to illustrate permanency or resistance to change. The problem you face in making a change in a building is to take bricks out of the wall and either (1) replace them with new bricks or (2) reorganize those old bricks and move them to different locations in the wall. Your biological wall, like a brick wall, is resistant or slow to change, even when the change is in your best interest. Paradoxically, the wall may have served you well over the years. Thus, to facilitate change, it helps for your conscious mind to inform your subconscious mind (where habit patterns reside) that change is necessary, inasmuch as the circumstances that originally initiated or set the pattern are no longer in operation, no longer necessary, or now harmful to you. It isn’t easy. Just ask anyone who has tried to stop or alter an established physical habit pattern after it has been outmoded or become dysfunctional. Fortified with insight and motivation, and with persistent practice, you have some of the tools needed to accomplish this change. You can master the other skills that are required to rearrange and reorganize that wall of bricks or neurograms.

Seven Essentials for Change In this Step of The Percept Method, you want first to gain an intellectual understanding of the internal barriers that resist change. The process of rearranging an old wall or building a new wall requires seven essentials: 1. Time. It takes time to make change. You may have lived for some time with a present pattern or habit. 2. Repetition. Both habituation or new patterns require repetition to become established. 3. Energy. This takes work. You can become exhausted from this mental work, as if you were actually moving bricks in a household renovation.

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4. Motivation. You must really want to make change in order to maintain persistance. 5. Relaxation and Mental Calm. Use the technique that has worked well for you in other instances. 6. Intellectual Understanding. You need to understand that an old pattern is ineffective, unnecessary, counterproductive, or harmful. You can repeat an intellectual understanding to yourself; e.g., “I am not in physical danger except the one I may create for myself with an overreactive stress response.” 7. Coaching and Physical Reeducation. You will see various techniques in the next section. Remember, when you are practicing a new, hopefully beneficial habit, you are reorganizing and reassembling that wall of neurograms in order for meaningful change to take place. You are going to run into roadblocks or resistance. Have confidence that you can eventually modify your physical responses to spend no more energy than necessary for a concept stress experience. Once achieved, these new habits can have the same permanence, stability, and tenacity as old ones. Your goal is to establish new, appropriate, physical responses in place of old stress patterns. Once this goal is achieved and the new responses are established, they will not only afford you relief from harmful and wastefully dysfunctional stress responses, but will offer new opportunities for fulfillment and betterment. Your ability to reach peak mental performance is more accessible.

Coaching Reminders 1. When you encounter resistence to change, it is at that point that you can make mistaken assumptions and become discouraged, and consider abandoning your quest. This can happen if you have a magical belief that once you have an intellectual comprehension of the harmfulness of your physical reactions, changes will be immediately forthcoming. In reality, insight is a valuable first point, but getting to that first level does not mean that you have made a reversal. It will take those seven essentials to change your errant pattern. Let us begin the process of remediation with an appreciation of its difficulty. 2. You know and have verified over and over again that you are not in physical danger, but if you were asked to give a speech or enter an important interview, would you still notice your heart racing and the beginnings of the full-blown stress response? Repeat your intellectual awareness to yourself: “I am

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief not in any physical danger, but my body has failed to distinguish a physical danger from a concept crisis. I must help my body respond more appropriately by reminding my brain of the reality I am experiencing.” 3. You can actually become physically tired from doing the mental work of moving your “wall of bricks,” so don’t be surprised by the fatigue you feel, as if you have been hard at physical work all day.

This process is similar to learning how to ice skate or learning a gymnastic technique or learning a new language. Continued practice builds a new substrate or molecular/organic basis.

Visualization Reinforcements 1. You own a historic building. Your historic property needs restoration. You cherish its history, but you need to introduce certain new improvements. For example, you want to remove a leaded glass window and replace it with a large picture window, and you have to modernize the electrical and plumbing systems. You may even hire an architect to draw up plans for the anticipated changes. However, just having insight into the changes you want to make does not mean these alterations are already in place. Your insight and your desire are a crucial first level, but they are only the first level. Much work is going to be required before your insights become reality. It would be magical thinking to expect anticipated changes to become immediate reality just because you have an understanding of or a desire for how you want things to turn out. 2. You are lost in the catacombs. Visualize yourself as a traveler, lost in the elaborate, dark catacombs that lie beneath an ancient city. That you are lost is a physical reality in this visualization. Suddenly a lantern is thrust into your hand. The lantern is analogous to awareness and insight. The lantern in your hand provides you with a bright light. However, you are still lost. A light in your hands is only a first level in finding your way. You could complain dejectedly, saying “Now I have insight (lantern). But so what? I still don’t know where I am. I am still lost.” At that moment, if you remain passively in place, blaming fate, then basically nothing will change. The lantern must be functionally and repetitively used if you are to change your situation and find your way out. Now apply these visualizations to the present stress situation. It helps you appreciate the need for repetitive work to understand your present status and to change your physical and physiological responses to stress. Mentally

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you can comprehend and appreciate that it is inappropriate for your body to have runaway physical responses. Nevertheless, it will take some time and repetitive management before your understanding is incorporated into actual physical change. Remember, if Nature made change too easy or made you too susceptible to change, your stability would be jeopardized.

Self-Evaluation 1. Do I understand that Nature has a vested interest in making change slow, even when the change may be in my best interest? 2. Do I understand that Nature has a vested interest in my survival and my stability is part of my survival? 3. Do I see that a building of bricks and mortar, even when in need of change, is still a physical presence and its very presence, even if defective, will resist change? 4. Do I understand why change, even when beneficial, is usually slow? 5. What are the seven essential elements that make change possible? 6. What is the role of repetition? 7. Why does it often make me feel as if I were doing physical labor, when I am engaged in the work of mental change? 8. Why is intellectual appreciation and understanding helpful in ushering in a physical change? 9. Why is it important for cerebral change to precede a physical change? 10. What mental technique can I create to help me usher in a change? 11. Why do people often feel depressed when they have gained insight and understanding about a beneficial physical change, but the physical change still lags behind the insight? 12. Have I been able to become familiar with the terms and concepts in this Step?

Goals to Go 1. I need to understand why my physical stress dysfunction remains after I fully understand that it is not beneficial to me. 2. I need to learn how to use my intellect in ways that can help me to usher in change.

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 3. I need to become familiar with the seven essentials to usher in change. 4. I need to continue my practice of mental calm and physical relaxation.

Exit Strategy The next Step in The Percept Method is Physical Reeducation, learning how to coach yourself into a new response to stress and how to assess your situation when an action plan seems elusive. Use the following statements to see if you are ready for the next Step. If so, proceed to Step IX. If you wish or if you do not feel ready, feel free to review earlier Steps so that you are comfortable undergoing the important, but difficult changes you will be asking yourself to accomplish. 1. I am much more patient and tolerant of myself now, because I have a better appreciation of the meaning and significance of my stress response and why change is slow. 2. I can use my intellectual understanding of the physical responses to stress to promote change. As new changes are made, I know I can adapt my body to stop overreacting physically. 3. Ultimately my mental understanding from this Step and my physical reeducation from the next Step will provide a new way of responding to stress. I need persistence and tenacity to overcome the harmful stress habits with which I presently contend. 4. I can seek remediation and change first through gaining an intellectual understanding of the forces and factors I am contending with. In addition, I need patience, repetition, energy, and motivation to realign the bricks in my wall of neurograms. 5. I feel ready to proceed to Step IX.

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STEP IX:Physical Reeducation and Coaching Techniques Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world. —R. W. Emerson, Phi Beta Kappa Address, 1876. As imperturbability is largely a bodily endowment ... Education, however will do much; and with practice and experience the majority of you may expect to attain a fair measure... —William Osler, Aquanimitus, p. 4 Mind ... sways the whole mass. —Virgil, The Aeneid, VI, ll. 2

Status Check (Any Item) 1. I have imaged-in my stressor, but find that my body is still responding to the stress with wasteful physiologic reactions when it is clear that I am not in physical danger from an external threat. 2. I recognize that my energy is a valuable resource that can be viewed as analogous to my finances; by overreacting physically, I am harmfully wasting this valuable resource just as if I were throwing away money. 3. I have identified several alternatives and an action plan for resolving my stress problem, but it implies change, and I find that contemplating change itself produces stressful responses.

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Initial Step IX Goals 1. Enhance your ability to extinguish needless physical overreactions in the face of a concept (intellectual) challenge. 2. Learn and practice coaching methods that work for you. 3. Learn to conserve your energy and oxygen for peak intellectual performance by reducing the self-imposed handicaps of wasteful and inappropriate physical reactions. 4. To continue a record in my personal journal of all essential developments—negative and positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

Principles of Step IX and Premises of The Percent Method You would not want to halt the bodily processes that ensue when the sentinel signal of danger is sensed. Say that your house were on fire: Nature would not want to endanger your survival with a diminution of your sentinel alertness or responsiveness, because that is when it is most crucial to have it. However, in most cases of concept danger, you might be the one who endangers your own survival by allowing prolonged or dysfunctional stress responses to persist needlessly. The hyperreactive stress response, although the result of millions of years of reinforcement, can be changed. You may have just begun the remediation process that can help you distinguish between real physical dangers and the concept dangers so characteristic of modern life. At this stage, you should know whether your current situation involves a real, external, physical danger or whether it is a concept danger. If you are not in an external, physical danger, you need to confirm to yourself intellectually your true status with certain basic reassurances: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

I am not in physical danger. No person or animal is threatening to hurt me. I do not need physical protection from an outside threat. Physical exertion is not going to help solve my problem. I am not anticipating a physical confrontation.

6. Increasing my blood pressure is not helpful. 7. Increasing my blood coagulability, my muscle tension, or my heart or respiratory rate is not helpful.

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8. There is no reason for my skin to contract. There is no utility for me to empty my bladder or bowels. 9. My eyes can remain focused; I don’t need extravagant peripheral vision; nothing is stalking me in the tall grass.

Basic Reassurances Basic reassurances are simple statements or declarations that help distinguish between a concept crisis and physical endangerment. If you are not in physical danger, the basic reassurances will help you to recognize your inappropriate responses. If you are in physical danger, the basic reassurances will expose a fallacy in your perception. The basic reassurances have to be based on accuracy. In this way, they serve to expose both denial mechanisms and inappropriate physical stress responses, whichever serves the truth. You may add many other basic reassurances from your experience.

Sentinel Stress Is Sufficient Sentinel stress is all you really need, if you allow the neural message to achieve cerebral engagement. If the physical hyperactivity to stress serves no purpose in your current situation, then mobilizing those physical forces can be wasteful of your energy resources and needlessly harmful. Figuratively speaking, 99% of our modern day crises require the opposite of an increased heart rate, muscle tension, and any runaway physical/physiological reactions. What we need today is the ability to use our evolutionary memory as a tool of recognition or awareness, but not beyond its important sentinel value. This may require reeducation processes (reworking your wall of neurograms). Until now, your response may have been guided by an outmoded and indiscriminate pattern. When you are hyperreacting unnecessarily, inform yourself that it is inappropriate. Making adaptive responses will require an ongoing effort in self-study, awareness, and reeducation. Adaptive behavior also requires the ability to “let go” of the unnecessary, outmoded, and inappropriate behavior, and to use reeducated behavior each time you realize you are hyperreacting physically. Letting go of the dysfunctional is a necessary process when opening the way for a new response.

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More Premises of The Percept Method 1. Energy requires oxygen. Energy and oxygen have great value. Energy and oxygen are essential for bodily needs and mental problem solving. Mental problem solving (brainwork) requires greater amounts of energy and oxygen than needed for ordinary bodily needs. “The brain uses energy as much as ten times faster than average body tissue...” (Nilsson, 1999–2000). If your body is wasting energy or oxygen through dysfunctional physical responses, there will be that much less for brainwork. In addition, you will feel physically worn out from stress hyperreactivity, as though you had performed a day of hard labor. One of the great benefits of deep breathing, which is a hallmark of meditation techniques as well as yoga, is that it provides the brain with fresh, oxygenated blood, which it needs to function optimally and reach peak creativity. 2. If you have accurately identified the real stressor and have eliminated external physical endangerment as the probable stressor, your job is to reassure yourself that you are not in external physical danger. 3. When you are aware that external physical danger is not a problem, then you realize that certain dysfunctional physical acts are wasteful, nonproductive, or harmful. You begin to relinquish them. In other words, you are in the process of reeducating your neural system. Repeat the reassurances to remind yourself of your needless expenditure of energy. Imagine that you have a personal or business problem. Does it benefit you or your business to damage your body with the consequences of high blood pressure or blood hypercoagulability? Where you once had one problem, you could end up with multiple problems. 4. Sports psychology has also reinforced Virgil’s adage “Mind ... sways the whole mass” by demonstrating to us the powerful effect that mind has over matter. Mind resolution and visualization help you to achieve peak performance. Stress reactions can attract danger. It is a premise of The Percept Method that there are certain additional liabilities that can arise from free-floating stress. A high level of stress seems to stimulate and trigger aggressive individuals to attack the overly anxious person—the so-called hot reactor. Aggressive individuals are known to become stimulated by someone "whose cage is easily rattled." You can probably remember the bully in your old neighborhood. Who did he usually pick on? Ordinarily his favorite victim was an excitable and highly reactive individual. He rarely approached

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anyone who stayed cool and unafraid and could look him squarely in the eye. Something physiological seems to be stimulated in the Aggression–Fear Stress Response that provokes aggression. How equanimity can deflect aggression. A story is told that when the Nazis came to arrest Sigmund Freud in Vienna, he instinctively knew not to show fear. His gaze was so direct and steady that he disarmed the primitive aggression of his potential captors. He, as very few did, understood primitive behavior, and to have shown fear and anxiety would have stimulated excitation and aggression. The importance of maintaining equanimity. It is a premise of The Percept Method that keeping stress in balance enhances effectiveness. Your effectiveness is enhanced, when stress and anxiety are reduced. You may remember reading about the calmness and steadiness of Lord Wellesly, The Duke of Wellington, during the Battle of Waterloo. The fate of Europe hung in the balance, and it was his equanimity that gave confidence, assurance, and steadiness to his whole army: “...when Napoleon’s veteran army was massing on the Belgian frontier, Wellington remained to outward appearance the very life and soul of the gay cosmopolitan society of Brussels ... looking as though he hadn’t a care in the world. The moral effect of this was tremendous and gave confidence to everyone” (Bryant, 1972, p. 404). Fulfilling your abilities and achieving your goals can be one of the highest purposes of life. Both are facilitated by successfully interacting with people and effectively conveying your point of view. Interpersonal effectiveness and your ability to inspire confidence in others is drastically reduced or shut down when you are anxious, uneasy, or showing visible signs of being under stress. The practical English philosopher Herbert Spencer realized this human trait many years ago (1851) when he stated: “Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect” (p. 469). People are not inclined to either take the lead from or follow the recommendations of an anxious, stressful person. From certain primitive subcortical areas of the brain (the brain below the cerebral cortex), we communicate in a dialogue of feelings. We subliminally size up a person’s proposals, recommendations, and goals in terms of how that person makes us feel. Our response and resultant decision will be influenced, not only by the merits of the person’s proposal, but also by the emotional capacity and apparent reserve that the person radiates. This holds true whether we are deciding to date somebody, work for someone, or cast our ballot in an election. If your reserves appear to be depleted or minimal, as when you are under stress, then confidence in your ability to achieve your goal will be correspondingly reduced. Imperceptibly and without much conscious thought, we can gain or lose confidence in a person’s leadership ability, depending on the stress which that person generates. In choosing whether to follow a recommendation, we often decide as much by seeking counsel from the subcortical area of our brain (the primitive brain that perceives emotional feelings) as we do by seeking counsel from other persons. That is, if somebody proposes a plan for your consideration, your decision—especially if it involves a certain amount

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of risk—is often based on information derived from the subcortical brain areas during the dialogue of feelings. An executive presents an innovative business project to his Board. His ability to have his plan adopted is reduced because he is anxious and under stress. Correspondingly, his stress is going to raise the Board’s caution, resistance, suspicion, and doubt—not just about him personally, but about his proposals or product. The irony is that the executive may be anxious and under stress about matters entirely unrelated to this presentation or his fine project. That doesn’t matter. The subcortical, perceptive mind of those judging him is usually not going to take the time to distinguish whether this executive is feeling stress about his son’s marks in algebra, the fact that his car is still in the shop, or that he has just received his new mortgage increase. The merit of the executive’s proposal may not ever reach cortical consideration by the Board. The decision may be closed off at the subcortical level. When the executive’s anxiety and stress carry over into his interaction with the Board, then he is working against himself. His business plan may be the best, but it will rarely receive the fair hearing it deserves, if dysfunctional emotions enter the picture. The important decision makers whom the executive wants most to convince can be subliminally turned off early in the presentation during the crucial dialogue of feelings.

Preparation for Reeducation It is a premise of The Percept Method that once you recognize that physical action is not required, the body and mind working together have the ability to correct dysfunctional responses. It has been well documented through numerous studies that persons with elevated blood pressure (not associated with an organic cause) can be reeducated through various techniques such as biofeedback to recognize when their blood pressure is becoming elevated to monitor and self-correct their own pressures and physiological responses, such as heart rate and respiration. However, if those persons were to block or misinterpret the vital perception of their stress, then the ability to self-correct or normalize their physiological responses would be reduced. Remember, your body’s alarm system will not distinguish between types of crises without your cerebral participation. It’s up to you to serve as the guide for your body, to help it distinguish between physical and concept dangers. The following assumptions can serve as reminders of the importance of the intellect when addressing a concept danger. 1. Since I have accurately determined that I am not in physical danger, I can reasonably assume that I will not have to run away suddenly

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from an aggressor. Therefore, I do not need my heart to race or my blood pressure to rise. I can reasonably assume that I will not be rushed by an aggressor who wants to throw me to the ground. Therefore, I do not need the muscles in my back and neck to tense in anticipation. I can reasonably assume that my body will not be pierced by sharp weapons nor will I be gored by a wild animal. Therefore, I do not need my blood to be in a hypercoagulable state. I can reasonably assume that I will not have to move my body rapidly or handle a physical attack. Therefore, I do not need blood and oxygen to be shunted away from my brain to my skeletal muscles. I can reasonably assume that sudden physical exertion will not be necessary. Therefore, I do not need to hyperventilate.

Diet and Exercise It is meaningful to note that many of the world’s major religions incorporate dietary laws into the basic tenets of their belief systems. Dietary laws are not only important for health during everyday routines and regimes, but certain diets are crucially important during times of frequent or prolonged stress. The critical factor in stress is that the immune system is attenuated during those periods of suffering. The person under stress needs to focus on foods that will especially boost, enhance, and support the immune system. Antioxidants and glutathione maintenance can be vital enhancements to the immune system. Glutathione, a crucial tripeptide which is manufactured within body cells, is considered the master antioxidant and the body’s most important immune marker. You need to consume foods that allow the body to keep manufacturing this major immune marker. In addition, weight control, moderate exercise, plenty of water, well-balanced meals, adequate rest, and the necessary vitamins, minerals, and immune-enhancing supplements are all part of a balanced life style that is felt to be useful and important by The Percept Method.

Summary of Physical Reeducation When you have correctly identified your stressor, you are in a better position to guide your stress response with more confidence. The act of conscious recognition of the fact that you are not in physical danger, that you are facing only a concept danger or crisis, allows your intellect, aided by emotional literacy, to send modulating signals to your body to quiet your stress response. Learn to “talk yourself down” with your coaching skills and with the basic reassurances. Continue to use the relaxation and meditation techniques that worked for you in earlier steps.

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Continue to assess the accuracy of your perceptions while preserving your physical and mental calm. That neural wall you want to take down or rebuild could be complicated by years of habitual reinforcement. However, you can find those bricks that are out of alignment and replace or reshape them.

Techniques for Reeducation As your confidence grows, you realize you are no longer helpless to alter your responses. You can serve as your own coach or guide. Numerous techniques can work, but you may favor one more than others. Consider the following reeducation modalities to see which feel the most comfortable and which offer the path of least resistance to change. The following nine selections constitute No. 7 (Reeducation Modalities) in the list of Seven Essentials for Change. You may come up with additional modalities. 1. Autosuggestion: influencing your own attitudes, behavior, or physical conditions using cues or suggestions from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind (In the words of Charles Dickens in David Copperfield: “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life” [p. 1].). 2. Behavioral modification: substituting desirable patterns of behavior for undesirable patterns of behavior to reinforce new learning. 3. Behavioral preparation: anticipating an event, usually a crisis that might occur, to prepare your mind and body so you are not caught off guard or surprised. 4. Biofeedback: making unconscious or involuntary processes (such as heart rate or brain waves) perceptible to the senses (initially learning via an oscilloscope) in order to modify a physical response by conscious mental control. 5. Desensitization: process of extinguishing an emotional response (such as fear, anxiety, or stress in general) to stimuli that formerly induced it, redefining your neural wall. 6. Intellectual challenge: reassuring and reasoning with yourself when you have established a sound intellectual rationale that justifies change. 7. Meditation: engaging in deep contemplation or reflection to modify dysfunctional physical reactions—aids include breathing exercises, repeating words or sounds (mantras, prayers) that nurture meditative depth. 8. Visualization: seeing or forming a mental image of the mental calm and physical equanimity you want to achieve before the event

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occurs and in preparation for its reality; with visualization, experiencing an event on a virtual level and resolving conflicts before confronting them in reality. 9. Yoga: a system of philosophic meditation for attaining bodily or mental control to effect reunion with the universal spirit.

Coaching Efforts Coaching exercises described below are facilitated by (1) a visualization process and (2) an intellectual challenge or questioning process. These dual components can be used to augment the effects of your coaching efforts. Visualize yourself as an economical, thrifty, and prudent person, able to work within a budget. You see yourself as not wanting to be wasteful. You envision your money as a valuable commercial resource. Similarly, you visualize your energy as a valuable life resource. Create a hypothetical situation to confirm your wise prudence and thrift. Imagine yourself shopping for new office furniture. First, you want to buy a desk. The one you favor costs $450. Visualize yourself carefully calculating whether this is a good buy. Among other factors, you will compare prices, quality, delivery schedules, and warranties. You are satisfied the price of $450 is reasonable, and your due diligence has been appropriate. Would it make any sense to pay $4,500 or $45,000 for a desk that you have determined is worth $450? That would be excessive, wasteful, and economically wrong. Obviously, it wouldn’t be too long before your business was in financial difficulty. Now apply this to your stress responses: Do you overpay with your stress responses? Your stress overpayment can actually be a bigger loss than financial currency. Now visualize the different ways that your stress response can be like wasteful spending: the over-expenditure of your physical resources—blood pressure, heart rate, blood coagulability, adrenocortical hyperactivity—when the situation does not warrant it. How long will it be before you face physical ruin and mental collapse— physical and emotional bankruptcy? Visualize yourself reaching for a pencil or ruler or tissues on your desk. Ordinarily this task would burn only a few calories. But in the act of reaching, can you imagine how wasteful it would be if you allowed your heart to accelerate to 180 beats per minute? Or if you allowed your blood coagulability to increase, or your blood pressure to rise to 190/120? You would find that hard to justify, because it would be wasteful, harmful, and excessive. You would think, Who needs to waste and burn up that kind of energy to pick up a simple object? Similarly, when you are faced with an intellectual task that triggers your body to react in a physiologically runaway manner, you are literally but

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief needlessly burning up valuable resources. You can learn to coach your body down using a mental reminder. Reassure yourself. I don’t need my heart beating this fast when I am only facing an intellectual problem. I am not facing a physical danger. My physical overreaction can curtail the very mental skills I need to solve my stress problem. I have solved intellectual problems before, and there is no sound, productive, or healthy reason to let my body react in an excessively physiological way. I am facing only an intellectual problem; this is not a matter of physical endangerment.

Interpreting Stressor Significance Correct interpretation of the stressor’s meaning and significance is just as important as the stressor’s correct identification. If, through incorrect assumptions or old habit patterns you hyperreact while reaching for the pencil or facing an intellectual problem, coach your body to “pull itself back.” Reassure your body to take appropriate action. Just as a coach helps a young athlete learn the proper way to pace him/herself, you can coach your body to pace itself. You can “talk yourself up or down” as needed, just as if you were your own coach. The main purpose of the coaching process is to rally yourself toward optimal response and optimal performance. Remember, during a concept crisis, you are not in physical danger, except for the danger you create for yourself through inappropriate and harmful responses to stress. Now visualize yourself responding in a calm, deliberate, and confident manner, employing no more energy than is necessary. Imagine yourself being natural, relaxed, poised. Even though you might not be in that state, visualize the state you desire to achieve. If you relate well to images of calm and poise in another person who impressed you in the past or from films, choose that person for your model, or choose a teacher, a scout leader, or a character from a novel. Many people model their behavior on an admired character, and they learn to change undesirable behavior through the modeling process. Critical Questions The questioning method is another technique for coaching yourself through the required reeducation. Use the initial question listed below to stimulate exploration in the most appropriate direction. Turning the basic reassurances into questions is nothing less than a variation of the retrieval system. 1. Why am I accelerating my body when my perceptions have informed me that no dangerous physical event is imminent or even anticipated? 2. Since I am not in physical danger, why am I reacting as if I were? 3. Since there is no person or animal threatening to hurt me, why is my body anticipating harm?

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4. Since there is no need for physical protection from an outside threat, why is my internal physiology being hyperstimulated? 5. Since physical exertion is not going to help solve my concept crisis, why am I exerting myself physically? 6. Since I am not anticipating a physical confrontation, why is my heart racing, and why am I hyper-respirating, and why has my blood coagulability increased?

Reeducation Reminders If you doubt the accuracy of any perception (the stressor, the feelings evoked by the stressor, the meaning and significance of the stressor, the meaning and significance of the feelings evoked by the stressor), then reaccess the appropriate Percept Method Step that addresses the perception, in order to review or reconfirm the accuracy of your perception. When your stressor is an intellectual problem or crisis (social, economic, psychological), keep reminding yourself that physical dysfunction and overreaction are not going to solve it. Offer yourself more basic reassurances. 1. Physical overreaction serves no meaningful function in this situation. 2. I do not need to feel this way. 3. If mental problem solving is my goal, energy must be conserved and redirected from the physical to the intellectual domain. 4. I am familiar with these symptoms and they no longer fool me into thinking I am in a physical crisis, when that is not the case. 5. I can become more effective intellectually by letting go of physically depleting symptoms. 6. I will be more mentally alert when I am not physically exhausted. 7. I have the power to maintain mental calm and physical relaxation to creatively problem-solve my concept crisis.

Self-Evaluation 1. Why does it continue to be important that I accurately identified my stressor, my feelings evoked by the stressor, the meaning and significance of the stressor and the meaning and significance of the feelings evoked by the stressor? 2. What are the basic reassurances I can confidently give myself? 3. What role do these reassurances play in stress remediation?

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4. When I am telling my body to quiet down, why is it important that the basic reassurances be wholeheartedly embraced? 5. What are the Seven Essentials of Change? 6. What are nine reeducation modalities? 7. Why do sports psychologists place such importance on mental preparation? 8. What role can mental preparation play in a physical feat? 9. If my muscles are wastefully burning up energy and oxygen for a nonexistent emergency, how might that affect the energy and oxygen needed for my brain’s problem solving? 10. Have I become familiar with the terms and concepts in this Step?

Goals to Go 1. To keep my body from harm by protecting it from reacting to a fire alarm when there is no fire. 2. To protect my health and increase my longevity by gauging my stress responses to utilize no more force and exertion than necessary. 3. To remind myself of the basic reassurances whenever I begin a runaway stress reaction. 4. To use and reuse the seven essentials of change. 5. To use one or more of the reeducation modalities to facilitate change.

Affirmation New learning must be continually reinforced to achieve the “organic rewiring” that will become a part of my new natural response system. As I work to reeducate myself in the skills of stress remediation and problem solving, I want to continue my notes in my personal journal. I will congratulate myself each time I recognize a weakening of old dysfunctional patterns of response and each time I make progress toward change that feels comfortable and appropriate. I am actually charting a new evolutionary path toward a new me, one that is more comfortable and successful, and one which faces challenges and stresses without the handicap of heightened physical discomfort and runaway stress responses. Knowing I have been successful in solving just one inappropriate stress response will help me to correct other difficult stress responses.

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Exit Strategy Step X in The Percept Method will take you into the final realm of stress remediation—having faith in a higher power than yourself. Now that you know you can be more effective than you might have thought, it is time to remember that you are only human in the face of a catastrophe. The “letting go” that you have learned will sometimes need to be redirected into an acknowledgement of forces in life beyond your control. In such times, you will find a belief system helpful, because it redirects your sense of helplessness and maintains your sense of worth and meaning during the worst times that life can present to you.

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STEP X: A Transcendental Path to Triumph Man does not live by bread alone, but by faith, by admiration, by sympathy. —R. W. Emerson, Lectures and Biographical Sketches, p. 211

What have bright eyes, red blood, quick breath and taut muscles to do with philosophy?... Why then should I trouble you? Because I have a message that may be helpful ... with the body and mind in training, what remains? (pp. 1–2) .... “Ye must be born of the spirit.” You wish to be with the leaders ... know the souls that make up the moral radium of the world ... you must be born of their spirit, initiated into their fraternity, whether of the spirituallyminded followers of the Nazarene or of that larger company, elect from every nation ... —William Osler, A Way of Life, pp. 36–37

Status Check 1. I am suffering a catastrophic, near-death crisis. I feel my world is shattered. or 2. I have lost faith in everything since I suffered a recent loss (spouse, business, health or home, financial or social status, friend). or 3. I have been betrayed. I feel I have nowhere to turn. or 4. I have a Belief System, but I have never put it to such an extreme test. I need to verify its value to me and substantiate its guiding principles. or

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The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief 5. I do not have a workable belief system that could sustain me if I faced a catastrophic crisis, but I want to develop one before a crisis of such magnitude could enter my life.

Initial Step X Goals 1. To revisit my belief system to learn in detail how it supports me in moments of sudden change and catastrophic stress. If my belief system does not offer me this support, I may want to: • Develop a belief system that can sustain me during a catastrophic crisis. • Develop a belief system that is my own. It must be authentic to me, although I may draw upon specific tenets of the major religions and/or 12-step programs. 2. To continue a record in my personal journal of all essential developments—negative and positive—in my pursuit of the meaning and significance of this stressor.

Principles of Step X and Premises of The Percept Method The power of Mind is beyond that of the brain’s neurons and synapses. The potential power you are capable of accessing from your own mind is even greater than that vast number of neurons and synapses in your brain which we have learned is awesome in the magnitude of their number and versatility. It is a premise of The Percept Method that when you bring about cerebral engagement, you are not only enhancing yourself by neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, and neurosynapses, but you are accessing Mind in its broadest sense. Mind is an entity that possesses rationality, free will, spontaneity, and creativity. So by definition, it is outside the laws of Nature as we know them, plus Mind is not regulated, and it is not predictable, as laws of Nature are. Laws of Nature—law of gravity, law of thermodynamics, law of magnetism, Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law—work absolutely and predictably. In this sense, the renowned Cambridge University scholar and theologian, C. S. Lewis, (1947) drew a distinction between that which is Natural (working within the laws of Nature) and that which is superNature (working outside the laws of Nature with free will and rationality). Lewis went further to describe what he felt was the meaning and significance of the power of Mind.

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He was not describing emotions, sensations, or nerve synapses, which he felt fell within the category of natural phenomena. Lewis described this power of rationality as a Divine element, which each human has, the opening or interface with our higher power. Lewis called this interface with the Divine “our common frontier.” This higher power can be accessed at times of creativity, perplexity, problem solving, and catastrophe.

The Divine Element The Mind conceptualized by C. S. Lewis and others is the highest development or achievement in the known universe and can be our “common frontier” or interface with the Divine. Mind is also unique in that it transcends Nature. Nature works by laws, and Mind is endowed with Free Will. In that sense, Mind is above Nature or superNature—Supernatural. Lewis expressed Mind in the following ways: … a supernatural element is present in every rational man (p. 43). … rational thought is not a part of the system of Nature. … In relation to Nature, rational thought goes on “of its own acord” or exists “on its own” (p. 27). In this sense, something beyond nature operates whenever we reason (p. 25). At this stage the supernatural element in man concerns us solely as evidence that something beyond Nature exists ... his rationality is the tell-tale rift in Nature, which shows there is something beyond or behind her [Nature] (p. 29). —C. S. Lewis, Miracles

In relation to Nature, Mind or thought maintains free will and is thus not controled by the laws of Nature. It is unpredictable; it is able to change in midstream; it is thus maximally creative. A law of Nature has certain verifiable characteristics: it is fixed, regulated, and predictable. The power of Mind and its reasoning is optimally suited by its very essence to be creative. For these reasons Lewis characterized Mind as the "common frontier" or opening between the Divine and the human. The fact that they were thinking. The moment one attends to this it is obvious that one’s own thinking cannot be merely a natural event, and that therefore something other than Nature exists. The Supernatural is not remote or abstruse: it is a matter of daily and hourly experience, as intimate as breathing. Denial of it depends on a certain absent-mindedness (p. 41). —C. S. Lewis, Miracles

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Perception as Rapture Perception can occasionally be likened to an epiphany or enlightenment, where “the lights go on” in one’s mind after a long-held bewilderment is relieved or when a creative insight is gained. The elation of moving from a room of shade and confusion to a room of clear light and mental illumination can be exhilarating. Haziness and confusion are left behind. A sense of knowing and liberation has been achieved. Great minds often describe creative breakthroughs as being similar to an ecstasy.

When “Survival” Is More Than a Metaphor There are times in everyone’s life—no matter how conservative or careful or prudent our plans and actions may be—when matters are outside our control. The stress that such a disruption may create can be catastrophic to a person’s physical and emotional equilibrium, and the awareness of a need for “a higher power” to form a bridge back to balance becomes urgent. How some people face the extreme vicissitudes of life with apparent serenity, while other crumble with extreme agitation to minor upsets is a question anyone might ask. How can one person absorb extreme fluctuations in life while another cannot? When under stress, why does one person suffer physical illness while another person facing the same circumstances is inspired to a higher level of self-awareness and mental calm? The answer can lie in a person’s belief system, that higher power we can incorporate when the magnitude of crisis exceeds our scope of problem solving. Our belief system can help us interpret, i.e., place meaning on an uncertainty or even a catastrophe. Without some meaning to a tragic experience, it is most difficult to endure. Dr. Tenzin Choedrak, chief physician to the Dalai Lama, survived 21 years of unbelievably cruel torture and imprisonment because he felt his life held a certain meaning.

Death and Loss Two examples are inherent in the human experience—death and loss. No matter how or when one of these silent stalkers enters a person’s life, we can expect the impact to be devastating. Losing a loved one or knowing that you have an incurable or chronic disease are circumstances that cannot be solved intellectually. They cannot be considered stressors to be overcome with previously learned techniques. But their impact on your sense of physical and mental calm can be stabilized, not entirely by yourself, however, but in unison with a faith in a higher power. These are the principles of this Step in The Percept Method. Combining a belief system with transcendence can lead to triumph at the most critical times in our lives. A belief system may help to

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establish tranquility in a storm of life and enable you to be a triumphant person in spirit despite adversity. The triumphant person is usually an adult who has suffered overwhelming adversity, catastrophic experiences, or devastating losses, and who goes on to become stronger, more creative, and more resourceful than before. They might be expected to be at the highest risk for post traumatic stress disorder, or to suffer stress-related illness, or to simply die or become creatively impaired for life. But the crisis seems instead to have become an enhancement to them. Somehow the injuries they suffer, the crises they experience, become an opportunity for the betterment of their personal growth and development, usually in the service of others [emphasis added]. —A. Crum, (1989) Harvard Medical Alumni Journal, p.24

Transcendental principles of love, hope, trust, faith, gratitude, and a sense of purpose serve to separate these triumphant individuals from those who are diminished by the same experience. It means that the individual who triumphs does so by a faith and a spiritual foundation for life, imbedded in a belief system, which includes acknowledgment of a higher power or belief in God.

A Belief System Enhances Survival Despite All Odds A belief system is an authentic set of life-guiding principles that are founded in love, sympathy, hope, faith, purpose, courage, gratitude, and caring. These assets and your reserve powers can be activated during a crisis to bring inner tranquility and a resounding energy to the task of survival. You can spiritually triumph over a catastrophic experience. Something unique occurs to the human capability for survival in someone with a resolved mind and a belief system. Dr. Tenzin Choedrak vividly illustrates this. Dr. Choedrak of Tibet, faced the greatest physical and mental tortures—beyond human comprehension. He was imprisoned for 21 years by the Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong, but he demonstrated a rare courage epitomized by St. Stephen in the Bible. Metaphorically, you strike a person with an arrow and another and another. By all intents and purposes the person should be dead or dying soon. But he lives. He continues to live and begins to thrive. Imagine a fawn is being hunted. One can realistically say that if the fawn is struck with an arrow, it will weaken, lose blood, etc. If the hunter continues to pursue it and strikes it with another arrow, the fawn becomes weaker. The hunter becomes invigorated, feeling that the kill is near. If he wounds the fawn a third or fourth time, he feels the fawn’s death is predictably imminent. (Crum, 1989, p. 29)

Dr. Choedrak’s belief system and sense of high purpose incorporated the crisis and somehow invigorated his being. That gave him the added energy not only to survive but to triumph. As William James summarized and Dr.

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Choedrak epitomized, “Every sort of energy and endurance of courage and capacity for handling life’s evils is set free in those who have religious faith” [A Belief System] (1950, pp. 6-7). Inner Tranquility Despite Outer Turmoil A state of serenity during a period of crisis has been attained by certain historical figures who may have differed from others in some life-enhancing characteristics. But they all possess the basic traits of a triumphant person. A pioneer of modern medicine, Dr. William Osler, suggested that in order to understand the characteristics of triumphant people and to maximize your assimilation of their life-enhancing traits and greatness, you need to “know the great souls that make up the moral radium of the world” (1937, p. 37). These great souls share certain characteristics, and their historical impact reinforces the importance of the qualities that sustained them through some of their most turbulent circumstances. Certain triumphant individuals illustrate capabilities that exceeded ordinary human limitations. In general, they transformed their stress crises into a transcendent life. By maintaining a belief system, they were able to maximize their creative lives and enhance their physical longevity. In addition, they demonstrated a special capability, whether learned or inherent, not to respond with runaway physiological and physical stress feelings when faced with solving a concept crisis. In other words, they would be described as equanimitous under pressure. They also possessed the ability to identify their feelings in different situations and not to be undermined or devastated by prolonged stress reactions. They had prompt access without blockage to their inner sentience. They were what might be described as rapid introspecters. The lives of certain individuals illustrate how triumph is maintained amid crises and how they emerge creatively despite overwhelming chaos. Albert Schweitzer, while a prisoner of war, suffered the news of the brutal death of his mother, who was trampled to death by military cavalry. He became an emissary of love and caring with his conceptualization of “Reverence for Life.” Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, who faced death on a daily basis during the height of apartheid, remained cheerful, loving, optimistic, hopeful, and brotherly. Mother Teresa, who lived continually with death and suffering and misery, was not depressed or downcast; instead she gave relief and encouragement wherever she could. She founded an Order to administer love, prayer, and physical care to the sick, suffering, aged, and forgotten. Oscar Arias Sanchez, as president of Costa Rica, put his life into jeopardy to negotiate the peace settlement in volatile Central America. He remained calm and harmonious and social during the worst crises.

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Pope John XXIII who, despite great personal suffering, saw that misfortune could have divine meaning. He gained a universal love of humanity and wanted happiness for others. The Dalai Lama of Tibet has been displaced from his historic homeland/kingdom, but he sees the hand of providence in the tragedy and sets an example as one who transcends tragedy for triumph and a fuller life. He enlarges life for others through his life and teaching.

Most of these great people are or were Nobel Peace Laureates. They are not alone. The peace of fulfilling the unique spiritual goal of your life can be your deepest and most gratifying satisfaction.

The Importance of Hope A functional belief system provides hope if it is based on transcendental principles. Some people cannot resist the temptation to bait hope, disparage it, and be sarcastic about it. When your hope is viewed by others as irrational because no alternatives are in view, they often declare hope to be a product of magical (unrealistic or unfounded) thinking. They pronounce hope to be like a false belief. But, unless your goals and hard work are the product of pure mental delusion or evil motive, then from a physiological perspective, it is preferred to have at least one hope, even without any visual alternatives, over having no hope at all. Hope enhances your physiology of survival. Hope Fortifies the Body and the Immune System Nobody would want to justify irrational, ill-founded hopes, except that, physiologically, even false hope can sometimes provide about the same endurance enhancement as real hope. This has been demonstrated by placebo experiments (Khan, Warner, and Brown, 2000). If hope is what one survives on when there are no alternatives in sight, and if one abandons all hope and really gives up, then what is left? The benefits of hope, even without available alternatives, seem to outweigh no hope, depression, pessimism, or unmitigatedly poor prognostications. Who can really say that tomorrow may not bring a change, a relief, or a resolution? Hope also strengthens your immune system by reversing certain stress hormones that depress the immune system. These stress hormones flourish when you feel hopeless. Hope is not a result of external expectation alone, but a reflection of your internal confidence, your resoluteness, your flexibility, your inner resources, your creativity and your belief in a higher power. As such, it makes the best out of an uncertain situation. Hope can also be an expectation of the best. If you commit your resources, you expect your efforts to succeed. This is where

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The Percept Method and triumph merge. You will have a better chance to see a positive outcome of your plans and to reach your goals if your body can get you to the “promised land” without breaking down from chronic stress and hopelessness. It is also a premise of The Percept Method that when a change is confronting you, it may indicate growth and betterment, and it may be mirroring the emergence of your inner authenticity. Your interpretations, when based on accurate perception and hope, can help remove the potential for destabilizing panic.

When the Situation Seems Hopeless, the Answer Is Hope There are times when you cannot be readily relieved of a stressful problem. Not because you were careless, not because you failed to be cautious or prudent, but because adverse existential reality cannot readily grant you relief. In these situations, a functional belief system is essential. During the arduous, long, difficult periods of stress, your “forty years in the wilderness,” you are not likely to survive to see your efforts bear fruit—to reach “the promised land”—unless you can maintain inner physiological peace. You should know by now that the body cannot withstand long periods of internal disorder without breaking down. There are literally thousands of ways for the body to malfunction. A functional belief system helps maintain mental and physiological tranquility, which provides the safety of inner homeostasis. When you are depressed and discouraged, your immunological system becomes depressed and vulnerable. Many opportunistic diseases that your body would ordinarily fend off then have a chance to take hold. Recall to mind the devastating toll that unrelieved stress can have on your body and mind, including the toxic effect that high levels of corticosteroids (stress hormones) can have on your neuron cells (brain cells), causing their death or diminution.

Surviving to See Triumph In order to make sure you are still around when good things finally begin to happen, you have to be a survivor at that turning point. To be a survivor you must outlast your current crisis or challenge. That can happen only if you do not compound the external crisis by creating internal stress. You may be able to fight on one front, but it is almost impossible to fight on both fronts—the external and the internal. Consider that you aspire toward a goal that requires significant dedication, attention, and alertness. If for any reason you were to become ill, your effort may not succeed. When there is no hope and you are depressed, your immune system becomes impaired and you will have difficulty fighting off an additional crisis imposed by disease organisms. A state of hopelessness does not advance the resolution of your problem or bring you closer to your goal.

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Do Not Worry about Variables out of Your Control A Bible verse succinctly reminds you that the more variables you introduce, the more stress you may be incorporating: “Take no thought for tomorrow.” The best security for the future is carefully handling and fulfilling each moment of the present, not flying off in all directions, not trying to imagine all uncertainties while having few answers. Taking one moment at a time is good stress-reduction advice. When you begin to compound variables and uncertainties that are actually or at least presently beyond your control, your anxiety and stress can rise exponentially. A belief system helps you handle adversity, while at the same time maintaining confidence in your inner powers as well as a higher power. Attempting firmly to build security for the future without transcendental principles leaves out a vital element that will be needed. Without belief in something, the doors of patience, optimism, and recuperation could close down. There are times when all of life’s doors are apparently shut, but extra effort or chance or circumstance or intuition or fate or providence can sooner or later present new alternatives that had previously been outside the range of your perceptual appreciation. Without a belief system, you would be unable to hold on or “bridge the gap” physically, psychologically, and physiologically until those other options became available. Hope and faith in a higher power, in your family, in humanity, and in your individuality all assist in this reinforcement of your ability not to be subdued by stress. Thus, it is your own capacity, however small, for hopefulness and a presumption of an improved future, that can motivationally keep you intact until benefit can arrive or circumstances change for the better.

Self-Evaluation 1. In case I am faced with a catastrophic crisis, do I have a belief system or set of principles that will help to sustain me? 2. In my private journal, am I able to list some of the guiding principles that comprise my belief system or philosophy of life? Am I able to list items for my clarification. 3. How do my principles work to help me handle everyday stress? How would they work to handle catastrophic stress?

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Goals to Go 1. To learn about my heroes, especially those who had goals in life beyond their own ego-striving. 2. To specifically learn how they developed their talents and handled stressful situations. “You wish to be with the leaders ... know the souls that make up the moral radium of the world” (Osler, 1937, p. 37). 3. To realize the power that is within me: • My brain, the resources that reside within me, the vast network of neurons and synapses—pure power! • Mind, the mystical power that is beyond Nature, not regulated by the laws of Nature, that which is thus called Supernatural. Mind is the borderline or interface to the higher power and to my own ultimate creativity. Carl Jung (1954) seemed to have agreed with C. S. Lewis when he said, “It is only through the psyche [mind] that we can establish that God acts upon us” (p. 468). 4. To establish a belief system. If I establish a belief system that is based in transcendental principles, it can sustain me not only during everyday stresses, upsets, and disappointments, but also during catastrophic crises. 5. To cherish my journal. It can not only allow me better to appreciate my uniquenesses, but it could turn into a biography for a wider public or, at the very least, for my family. Just imagine the legacy I could leave future generations, for them to know how I handled stressful and difficult situations. If my grandparents had left me such a journal, how much more informed I would be and what a valuable asset I would have in my possession.

Summary When you have established a belief system meaningful to you with transcendental principles, you can be considered a winner in The Percept Method. You will not only have obtained a major achievement physically and psychologically, but, when you have a belief system, you will have established a foundation that can help you when the stressor is beyond your human ability to remediate. You will also share certain traits with historic triumphant persons. You are more capable of mastering certain unexpected changes, and you have developed certain coping skills to deal with crises. With a belief sys-

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tem, you, like Dr. Tenzin Choedrak, have extended the limits of your capabilities and endurance beyond their physical dimension. You have another strong and abiding reason to survive.

Review Your Accomplishments or Anticipations 1. You have demonstrated the ability to maintain physical and physiological calm and presence of mind in the midst of problemsolving a concept crisis. 2. You have demonstrated your ability to use your retrieval system for identifying and exploring alternatives. 3. You have embraced perceptus expansus and learned to minimize interfering with incoming data. You are better equipped to distinguish vital data from the irrelevant. 4. You do not need to invoke perceptus interruptus to avoid the message of stress. You recognize the energy and resources you could waste when your stress responses continue runaway patterns. 5. You possess a high level of emotional literacy and will continue to learn more about the range of feelings that can be evoked in response to a stressor. 6. You have learned the benefits of physical relaxation and mental calm. You have identified those techniques that work best for you and learned how to use them to your advantage. 7. You now have a sense of purpose, optimism, and hope that can benefit you spiritually, psychologically, and physically. 8. You have demonstrated courage in facing your stressors and identifying the challenges they present to you. 9. You have learned to interpret life’s adversity in a meaningful way, even in the midst of a crisis. 10. You possess a belief system that includes a Divine dimension and an appreciation for Divine power. You will be able to take sustenance from your belief system in times of crisis or catastrophe.

Equilibrium — Homeostasis — Equanimity In closing, I would again like to return to one of America’s great physicians and scientists, Dr. William Osler, who was fascinated by the importance of

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recognizing and managing stress. He focused especially on the detrimental effect that stress, emanating from a physician, would have on a vulnerable, sensitive patient. In the twilight of his life, he left hope for understanding stress and having a sustaining philosophy to withstand stress.

L’Envoi (As We Depart) As we finish this sojourn together, I want to thank you for your interest and efforts during these ten, often difficult Steps. It is also fitting that I leave you with the final words of William Osler’s most memorable lecture, which still apply to us over one hundred years later. In 1899, on the occasion of his valedictory address to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he enunciated his philosophy and historical appreciation of managing stress, and he entitled it: “Aequanimitus.” At the conclusion of that lecture, Osler recommended that his listeners gain a perspective about stress from his cherished reading list and from the noble Roman leader, Antonius Pius, who upon his death bed summed up his philosophy of life in the one word: “Aequanimitus.” And as Osler bade his goodbye and visualized the future challenges to be faced by his audience, he affectionately said (p. 11): Farewell, and take with you into the struggle the watchword... Aequanimitus.

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Adair, G. (1996). Thomas Alva Edison, New York, Oxford University Press. Addiction Kills 500,000. (1993, October 22). New York Newsday. Aeschylus (1999). Agamemnon, Trans. H. W. Smyth, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. Anisman, H., Zalcman, S., Shanks, N., and Zacharko, R. (1991). Multisystem regulation of performance deficits induced by stressors, in Neuromethods: Animal Models in Psychiatry II, Vol. 19 (A. Boulton, G. Baker, and M. Martin-Iverson, eds.), New York, Humana Press, 1–59. Aristotle. (1994). Nicomachean Ethics. 6.2, Trans. H. Rackham, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. Aristotle. (1990). Politics. 5.1, Trans. H. Rackham, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. Ashton, D. (ed.) (1972). Picasso on Art: A Selection of Views, New York, Viking Press. Bell, A. G. Attributed. Benson, H. (1976). The Relaxation Response, New York, Avon Books. Bliss, M. (1999). William Osler, New York, Oxford University Press, 218. Brown, B. (1980). Super Mind, The Ultimate Energy, New York, Bantam Books. Brown, J. and Jacobs, A. (1949). The role of fear in the motivation and acquisition of responses, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 39, 747–759. Browning, E. B. (1906), A Vision of Poets, The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, London, Henry Frowde. Bryant, A. (1972). The Great Duke, New York, William Morrow. Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), sermon at Benares. Calhoun, C. and Solomon, R. C. (1984). What Is an Emotion? New York, Oxford University Press. Carpenter, M. B. (1991). Core Text of Neuroanatomy (4th ed.), Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins. Crum, A. (1989, Summer). Triumph over torture: Against all odds, Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, 23–30. Crum, A. (1989, September 29). Taped interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV of Tibet. Dean, D., Mihalasky, J., Ostrander, S., Schroeder, L. (1974). Executive ESP, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 169. Deutsch, K. (1977, April–May). The Churchman, St. Petersburg, FL, The Churchman Co. Dickens, C. (1981). David Copperfield, New York, Bantam Classics. Dickens, C. (1981). Oliver Twist, New York, Bantam Classics. Eiseley, L. (1979). Quoted in The Brain: The Last Frontier, R. M. Restak, New York, Warner Books. Emerson, R. W. (1841/1926). Spiritual laws, Essays First Series, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Emerson, R. W. (1876). Phi Beta Kappa Address, in Oxford Dictionary of Quotation (1954), London, Oxford University Press

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Emerson, R. W. (1886). Lectures and Biographical Sketches, Vol. X, Boston, Houghton Mifflin. Epictetus. (1937). The Golden Sayings of Epictetus. XXXII, The Encheiridion, Trans. H. Crossley, New York, Collier & Son. Hippocrates. Aphorism. Holt, R. (1943). George Washington Carver. Garden City, NY, Doubleday. Isaiah. 28:7. (AV). Irish Proverb. (1975). Great Men Search for God, Mount Vernon, NY, Peter Pauper Press. James, W. (1950). The Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, New York, Dover Publications. Jung, C. G. (1963). Memories, Dreams and Reflections, New York, Pantheon Press. Jung, C. G. (1954). Collected Works, Vol. 11, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press. Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H., and Jessell, T. M. (Eds). (2000). Principles of Neural Science, (4th ed.), New York, McGraw-Hill. Kant, I. (1781). Critique of Pure Reason. Keats, J. (1941). Hyperion, Reading Poems, New York, Oxford University Press. Keller, E. F. (1983). A Feeling for the Organism, New York, W. H. Freeman and Co. Khan, A., Warner, H., and Brown, W. A. (2000, April). Symptom reduction and suicide risk in Patients treated with placebo in antidepressant clinical trials, Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 57, 311–317. Kipling, R. The Children’s Song, Puck of Pook’s Hill, Middlesex, U.K., Penguin Books. With permission of S. P. Watt, Ltd. On behalf of The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. Lee, R. and Maier, S. (1988). Inescapable shock and attention to internal versus external cues in a water discrimination escape task, Journal of Experimental Psychology for Animal Behavior, 14, 302–310. Lewis, C. S. (1947/1973). Miracles, New York, Macmillan, 29, 41. Locke, S. and Colligan, D. (1999). The Healer Within, New York, Dutton. Loewenstein, W. R. (1999). The Touchstone of Life. New York, Oxford University Press, 306–310; 338. Maier, S. (1991). Stressor controllability, cognition and fear, in Neurobiology of Learning, Emotion and Affect (J. Madden IV, ed.), New York, Raven Press, 155–191. Maier, S., Jackson, R., and Tomie, A. (1987). Potentiation, overshadowing, and prior exposure to inescapable shock, Journal of Experimental Psychology for Animal Behavior, 13, 260–270. Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and Personality (2nd ed.), New York, Harper & Row. Matthew. 7:26. (AV). May, R. (1977). The Meaning of Anxiety, New York, Washington Square Press. Nilsson, G. E. (1999, December–2000, January). The cost of a brain, Natural History, 66–69. Nilsson, L. G. and Archer, T. (1992). Biological aspects of memory and emotion: Affect and cognition, in The Handbook of Emotion and Memory: Research and Theory, (S.A. Cristianson, ed.), Hillside, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 289–306. Nuland, S. B. (1997). The Wisdom of the Body, New York, Alfred A. Knopf. Osler, W. Aequanimitas (3rd ed.), New York, McGraw-Hill. Osler, W. (1937). A Way of Life, New York, Paul B. Hoeber. Overmier, J. and Seligman, M. (1967). Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance responding, Journal of Comprehensive Physiological Psychology, 63, 28–33. Pasteur, L. (1854, December 7). Address. Peanut Wizard, (1943, January 18). Newsweek Magazine, 21, 66–67.

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Prov. 29:18. (AV). Rako, S. and Mazer, H. (1980). The Heart of a Therapist: Elvin Semrad. New York, Jason Aronson. Reynolds, D. (1992) quoted in “Afterword”, Crichton, M., Rising Sun. New York, Alfred A. Knopf. Rolls, E. T. (1999). The Brain and Emotion, New York, Oxford University Press. St. Luke. 11:9. (AV). I Samuel, 17:39; 42–43. (AV). Sapolsky, R. M., Krey, L. C., and McEwen, B. S. (1985). Prolonged glucocorticoid exposure reduces hippocampal neuron number: implications for aging, Journal of Neuroscience, 5, 1222–1227. Sapolsky, R. and Pulsinelli, W. (1985). Glucocorticoids potentiate ischemic injury to neurons: therapeutic implications, Science, 229, 1397–1400. Schweitzer, A. (1949). Out of My Life and Thought, New York, Henry Holt. Shakespeare. Henry VI, Pt. II. Shakespeare. Julius Caesar. Shors, T., Weiss, C., and Thompson, R. (1992). Stress-induced facilitation of classical conditioning, Science, 257, 537–39. Singh, S. (1999) The Code Book, New York, Doubleday. Spencer, H. (1865) Social Statics, New York, Appleton & Co. Spoto, D. (1993). Marilyn Monroe, New York, HarperCollins Publishers. Szent-Györgyi, A. (1962, July 7). The persistence of the caveman, Saturday Review, p. 11. Szent-Györgyi, A. (). Science, Ethics, and Politics. The Book of Common Prayer, 1st Sunday after Epiphany. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. (1996). s.v. “alternative,” New York, Oxford University. Thoreau, H. D. (1983). Walden and Civil Disobedience, New York, Penguin Library. Virgil. Aeneid, VI. Trans. H. R. Fairclough, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. Viscott, D. (1977). The Language of Feelings. New York, Pocket Books. von Baeyer, H. C. (1999, January leave–February). Nota Bene. The Sciences, 12. White, R. W. (1956). The Abnormal Personality (2nd ed.), New York, The Ronald Press. Wolff, G. (1990, March). Why writers drink, Lear’s. Wolff, H. G. (1950). Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease, Proceedings, 1949, 29. Woolley, C., Gould, E., and McEwen, B. (1990). Exposure to excess glucocorticoids alters dendritic morphology of adult hippocampal pyramidal neurons, Brain Research, 531, 225–23. Wordsworth, W. (1992). Intimations of immortality. Selected Poetry, London, Penguin Books. Zeno. (1991). Diogenes Laertius, Vol. II. Ed. G. P. Gould, Trans. R. D. Hicks, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.

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Accuracy of Stress Data. The concept of accuracy in perception for stress management—the accurate identification of the stressor, accurate identification of specific feelings provoked by the stressor, the evaluation of alternatives, the evaluation of an action plan—is of vital importance in The Percept Method: All depends upon embracing the accuracy of the stress data without interfering with or distorting it. This also relates to the fine art of noninterference with stress data. An action plan is similar to a company’s business plan. For stress relief, an action plan lays out the details of what one is going to do in order to resolve a problem and/or to maximize one’s potential to resolve a stress problem. When stress is present, some action is usually indicated to resolve that stress. Having a plan implies that the stressor has been accurately identified and understood and that alternatives have already been considered and chosen, and are congruent with one’s feelings, understanding, and conscience. Aggression–Fear Stress Response is a phrase derived from the dialogue of feelings in which one individual reacts with aggression and the other responds with an emotional and/or physical reaction of fear. Such a response may produce the unexpected and unwanted intensification of the aggression, because the aggressor, by observing the subdued (fearful) stress behavior, may subliminally feel encouraged, rewarded, and justified in further aggressive behavior. Alternatives. These play a vital role in stress management after the accurate identification of the stressor and identification of stress feelings thus produced. Alternatives are the possible options for an action plan that deals with the stressor and by extension with the stress which the stressor is provoking. Alternatives are like the “doors to freedom or relief” from what may be an inescapable situation. Basic Reassurances are simple statements or declarations that help you distinguish between a concept crisis and physical endangerment. If you are not in physical danger, the basic reassurances will help you to recognize your inappropriate responses. If you are in physical danger, the basic reassurances will expose a fallacy in your

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perception. The basic reassurances have to be based on accuracy. In this way, they serve to expose both denial mechanisms and inappropriate physical stress responses, whichever serves the truth. You may add many other basic reassurances from your experience. Belief System. The Percept Method uses this phrase in referring to the higher power that can be incorporated or turned to when the magnitude of crisis exceeds the human scope of problem solving. Belief systems can help us interpret uncertainties, i.e., place meaning on a perplexity or even a catastrophe. Without finding some meaning in a difficult experience, that experience is hard to endure or overcome. Belief systems are all rooted in principles of love, hope, trust, faith, and gratitude and a sense of purpose. For example, there is already a body of scientific research based on the physiological benefits of maintaining hope. The Cerebral Cortex in The Percept Method is where Stage II of perception takes place. It is evolutionarily the higher or most recent brain development. It embraces the two lobes of the cerebrum, and it involves thinking, reasoning, consciousness, interpretations, language, analysis of data, mental review and assessment, and introspection. The cerebral cortex is connected by nerve synapses to the lower or earlier brain, also called the primitive brain. Change (Essential, but Slow and Perplexing). After intellectual awareness of a needless, dysfunctional, or inappropriate stress response, you may feel bewildered because that response is usually slow to change, even after you have concluded it is unnecessary, harmful, or dysfunctional. As a rule, organic change does not immediately follow intellectual awareness; there is usually a time lag. You need to understand the seven essential elements of change: Time to make change, Repetition to establish new patterns, Energy to undertake and carry on the work, Motivation to make change, Relaxation and Mental Calm to facilitate the change, Intellectual Understanding using reminders of the difference between concept danger and physical danger, and Coaching and Physical Reeducation with visualizations and reminders. Code of sentience is an encoded neural message that manifests in the form of subjective feelings, physical sensations, or emotions. Cognitive (Cerebral) Engagement. This refers to making the connection to the cerebral cortex from the sensory stress feeling. It represents successful completion of Stage II of stress perception. It also represents knowing what is bothering you, knowing the identity of the stressor, and employing your brain for self-empowerment. Cognitive Evaluation is the process of mental assessment and review of stress information which can take place after the cerebral cortex is engaged (Stage II of Perception).

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Cognitive participation is the benefit an individual derives by involving the cerebral cortex in problem-solving. Cognitive participation can reduce suffering, identify the stressor, analyze data, and help come up with workable alternatives and action plans. Cognitive participation occurs when Stage II of perception is achieved. Concept Danger or Concept Crisis. These are nonphysical stressors that can often trigger inappropriate or runaway stress responses. They do not constitute a physical threat, other than the harm of one’s own dysfunctional, runaway stress responses. A concept crisis or danger may be represented by having to give a lecture, take an examination, or participate in various personal and/or career engagements (demands) and the complexity of various social relationships. The Continuum is a subliminal line between your thoughts and your actions. When you have worked out your action plan on a mental level, you are laying the foundation of a continuum toward action. Danger Invited by Stress. There appears to be a physiological transmission of vulnerability given off by one who is under stress. This is especially true when stress is manifested as anxiety or fear or panic. When you are proximal to a dangerous or aggressive person or animal, these can escalate their harmful behavior as you are expressing anxiety–fear–panic reactions. Decoding in the Percept Method is the process of deciphering the information from neural impulses (your subjective feelings and bodily sensations) and making that information intelligible. Decoding involves an inverse process like translating Morse Code. You have data in hand (your feelings and sensations), and you need to translate the information they have transmitted and are transmitting. Emotional Literacy and your Retrieval System are big helpers in decoding. The identity of an unknown or elusive stressor can be deciphered by observing and interpreting the feelings it evokes. Decoding can be applied to determining (1) the identity of the stressor, (2) the identity of the stress feelings evoked by the stressor, (3) the meaning and significance of the stressor, and (4) the meaning and significance of the stress feelings evoked by the stressor. Dialogue of Feelings. Your feelings may mirror or represent a reciprocal feeling that you are picking up from another person. For example, if someone is angry or disappointed with you, your feelings may experience that situation in a dialogue of feelings with the other person involved, and in that case you may respond with reciprocal feelings of guilt. The dialogue of feelings is defined as the feeling exchange that takes place, often without verbal exchange (the smirk, the arched eyebrow, the shrug), between two or more persons. In the dialogue of feelings, the specific feeling

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that you experience may not be initiated by you, but it may mirror or represent a reciprocal condition or situation you are perceiving from the other person. An Emotion is a specific feeling sensation that is experience in the body, accompanied by physiological and biochemical responses. In The Percept Method an emotion represents Stage I of Perception, because it has not necessarily reached cerebral engagement in terms of being made cognitively decipherable or cognitively intelligible. Emotional Literacy. This is the ability to read your feelings eventually with “perfect pitch” accuracy. It can be compared to intellectual literacy with printed matter, the ability to read and write words. Emotional Literacy Categories are the twelve ranges of emotional feelings listed under Emotional Literacy and in the Stressor Compasses. For the purpose of simplification these are only limited groupings of common feelings or emotions that can be evoked by a Stressor. Readers are urged to add more to this vocabulary as the perceptive ranges of their emotional feelings expand. A Feeling is a subjective physical sensation that is the result of neural signals carrying information. Feelings and emotions have a perceptual, protective, and informational function. As with an emotion, a feeling also represents Stage I of Perception because the feeling has not necessarily reached cerebral engagement in terms of being made cognitively decipherable or cognitively intelligible. A feelings exchange takes place during the dialogue of feelings with two or more persons. See Dialogue of Feelings. Identification is the process of specifically and accurately decoding what, in fact, is causing your stress, i.e., the stressor. Imaging-in the Stressor. This represents committing the image of an elusive stressor to memory and imprinting it in your mind, the way you would imprint a new word. The new word can stay available in a quiescent way. However, you not only recognize it, but it is also more readily available, with its nuances, when you want to reference it. Imaging-in allows your mind to work subconsciously on the problem presented by the stressor, while you are doing other things. Introspection is defined as a time of looking inward. Optimally, a relaxed, restful time allows your brain to become engaged in the recognition, decoding, and interpretation of the stressor, along with its meaning and significance. Introspections provides an opportunity for mental assessment and review. Inversely Reciprocal Feeling takes place in the dialog of feelings with two or more people. Examples: A acts angry; B feels anxious.

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A acts aggressive; B feels afraid. A acts angry; B feels guilty. A acts disgusted; B feels ashamed. A acts disappointed; B feels embarrassed. Meditation. Most authorities define meditation as a highly active exercise, one used to consciously or purposefully focus attention on the inner self, while clearing the mind of distracting “outer” thoughts. Message. This is data or information about external or internal conditions in your environment. It is conveyed through your neural system and five senses in the form of coded signals similar to Morse Code signals. In the case of stress, these signals produce uncomfortable, unpleasant physical sensations or subjective feelings (often called your symptoms). Messenger. This is your five senses and your whole nervous system. The messenger conveys the message in the form of neural signals or subjective feelings. Remember, the messenger loves you and is vitally interested in your survival. Nevertheless, it may “sting” you with the noxious edge of its signals, but only to inform you of a high priority message. That noxious edge is trying to give you a priority notification, to make sure that certain signals (which represent an important message) secure an urgent place in your attention. Misdirection Stress. This is manifested when you have taken the wrong path, whether the choices are career or other. For example, having unique gifts as an orchestra conductor, but trying to make a career out of running a grocery business spells misdirection stress. Monologue of Feelings. Your feelings strive to mirror or approximate the cause of a situation—the stressor. An anxiety-causing situation, a suspicion-causing situation, a boredom-causing situation, and a depression-causing situation are reflected in your feelings which give indication of the type of stressor that provoked them. The anxiety-causing situation has an anxiety-provoking stressor; the suspicion-causing situation has a suspicion-provoking stressor; the boredom-causing situation has a boredom-provoking stressor, and the depression-causing situation has a depression-provoking stressor. In other words, Nature presents certain environmental conditions as a monologue of feelings, describing what is happening to you by depicting “sensation-wise” the situation that is causing stress. However, remember that your environment is both external and internal. Natural Relaxation refers to a variety of modalities for promoting relaxation without sedative agents, which can suppress perception. The modalities referred to can be simple breathing and stretching exercises or may reach toward deeper philosophical and

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spiritual understanding and awareness such as yoga. Natural relaxation is an ideal milieu to facilitate or enhance perceptual enlargement. Neural sensations in The Percept Method are specifically the transmissions by which the negative feedback of stress is manifested in physical and emotional feelings. The negative sensations are often called symptoms. Neurogram is theoretically the “software bytes” structurally associated in the brain with memory. The Percept Method uses it to describe those patterns and likens it to the “bricks” in a wall which need to be taken down and moved or rebuilt into a new wall in order to effect the change from runaway stress responses to considered problem-solving behavior. This concept underlies why there is a time lag necessary to produce change after the intellectual awareness of the need for change. Noninterference: This is the fine art of “learning to listen.” It involves psychological integrity with the courage not to interfere with incoming data and information. Just as a financier would not think of altering financial reports, or a doctor, his patient’s incoming laboratory reports, or a researcher, his laboratory findings, in The Percept Method, there is a foundation built up starting with accurate perceptions. Nonmyelinated fibers. Stress feelings are diversified and potentiated through sympathetic, nonmyelinated fibers. This process is like an electric cord without insulation that short circuits everything it touches. Nature does not want a smooth, orderly transmission—that might be missed. Nature's purpose, in the case of stress, is to create a form of chaos or upheaval so palpable that you could not miss it unless you were unconscious. Nonmyelinated fibers help accomplish this purpose. They can cause a wide variety of symptoms, depending on the organ they stimulate (short circuit). They can speed up your heart, cause you to lose bladder and bowel control, dilate your pupils, cause the hair to rise on your neck, tense the muscles in your back and neck, cause your blood pressure to rise, cause your head to ache, cause you to feel numbness in your body, cause sickness in your stomach, and on and on. Nonmyelinated fibers, when stimulated, can short circuit to every organ system. People have a tendency to have more pronounced responses in some organs than others. The Percept Method. This is an approach to achieve stress relief by focusing on accurate perception and accurate interpretation of the stressor. Briefly, this approach involves being alert to sentinel stress, keenly perceiving from sentience to cognitive engagement. Paradoxically, cognitive engagement can both activate certain central

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nervous system modulating centers that diminish the intensity of stress and bring the power of your mind into the problem-solving process. The Percept Method places major importance on the advantages of accurate perception to relieve stress. Perceptual Function of Stress. This addresses Nature’s purpose for the stress response. Stress, like pain, transmits information to your brain, and both play a role in protecting the organism. The perceptual system embraces all the modalities wherein incoming data (in the form of your five senses, your peripheral and central nervous systems, your subjective feelings, physical sensations, or emotions) is registered in its coded form as neural impulses. The incoming data attempts to arrive at the cerebral cortex for analysis, judgment, and translation into an intelligible form. Perceptus Expansus. A condition of allowing stress data (including the identity of the stressor with its meaning and significance) to reach the cerebral cortex, so the data can be intellectually assessed and accurately interpreted. In practical terms it is an enlargement of perception. Perceptus Interruptus. A condition of blocking Stage II of Perception by the use of various suppressive or avoidant modalities—psychological, substance, or chemical. The suppressive or avoidant modalities often employed to implement perceptus interruptus can lead to addictive disorders. Not only can they be habit-forming, but they need to be used repetitively to keep perceptus interruptus in force. In practical terms, perceptus interruptus is an effort to diminish or shut down perception. Performance Stress. When one’s fulfillment is primarily driven by motivation for self-glorification and praise, a test situation is selfimposed, which can become stressful. Personal Authenticity Test (P.A.T.) This is a mental review and assessment method to test the authenticity of your alternatives and action plan. You need to determine whether these two pursuits are valid, authentic, and in your best interests. If not, they can further aggravate your stress. You need to ask (1) Is this alternative subjectively acceptable to me? What do my feelings tell me about the alternative? Do I like it or dislike it? (2) Is it intellectually acceptable to me, consistent with my ability? (3) Is it morally acceptable to me? Is it a conscience-compatible alternative? Physical Reeducation. The process leading to a new stress response pattern requires a reordering, a theoretical “rewiring” of your neural circuitry so as to produce a more beneficial and functional response to sentinel stress. It is one of the seven essentials of change. (See Change, Neurogram)

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Pressured thinking is the overburden put on the conscious or intellectual mind to come up with data or solutions that are not available to it at the moment of demand. The data needed may be stored in the reservoir of the unconscious and may need time to surface after it has been called for by your retrieval system. Pressured thinking itself can produce stress. Rapid Introspecter is one who can rapidly look inward to perceive what is being felt and what information the feeling is trying to transmit, one who can also realistically evaluate one’s own motives, which helps avoid errors in dealing with others. Rapid introspecters are individuals who can quickly assess with some specificity how they feel. They do not block or interfere with their feelings, because they want answers and are usually neither afraid of nor embarrassed by what the answers may reveal. These are usually receptive, resolved, and open persons who do not back away from incoming data. Reality Test means applying your mental assessment and review to see if certain data or contemplated decisions are practical. This process can also be applied to your interpretations. Comparisons can be made by this process by open discussion with trusted friends and loved ones or experts. Reciprocal Feelings can be identical: Liking can be matched with liking; anxiety can be matched with anxiety; aggression can be matched with aggression; but this does not have to be. The level of response from B can intensify or mitigate the level of response from A or vice versa. Retrieval System. A process of activating certain parts of your brain by self-questioning and self-inquiry. Runaway Stress. This is a condition of untoward physical reactions and out-of-control physiological responses that are not appropriate to an actual stressor. The stressor has often gone ignored or unrecognized or been cognitively misinterpreted. The stressor is almost certainly a concept stressor which is a nonphysical stressor. Self-Evaluation is an introspective, self-questioning experience to determine how well you understand the most recent Step and/or some of the accumulated data of the preceding Steps. Sentience to Cognition. This is the evolutionary path of perception. The early forms of life (e.g., the amoeba) do not have a central nervous system. Their responses depend solely upon a sensory level (sentience) perception. The highest form of life, human beings, possess both sensory (sentience) and cerebral (cognitive) perception.

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Sentinel Cognition. This is the feeling of stress that occurs before you become aware of the cause for that feeling. This phenomenon may be subliminal. Sentinel Stress or Sentinel Alert. This is the earliest stage of stress perception. Appreciation of this early alert for what it is—a vital function of perception—gives one a head start toward cognitive engagement which helps reduce the need to endure needless physical stress symptoms and gives one a head start in decoding the stressor. Sentinel value is that initial alerting or awakening stage when your perceptual system is receiving data that is being rapidly decoded by the cerebral cortex. Its function as an initial alert helps minimize uncomfortable stress feelings or physical harm to the body. Stages I and II of Perception. Stage I: Stress perception first takes place on a bodily or sensory level. Perception can be completed on a cerebral level (Stage II) where intellectual or cognitive interpretation can take place. There may be synaptic connections in the primitive brain on the way to the cerebral cortex. Stress is a bodily disequilibrium or deformation (initially reversible) manifested by various physical sensations and emotional feelings, which we shall cumulatively call neural sensations. The disequilibrium or deformation is caused by a stressor which, manifesting via your neural sensations, can extend your body beyond its homeostatic range. When this happens, the disequilibrium or deformations experienced are often called “symptoms.” It is a basic premise of The Percept Method that the stress response has a perceptual/informational/ protective function. Stress Accuracy Test (S.A.T.). This test is a reliable way of testing yourself to judge whether you have correctly interpreted the accuracy and validity of a specific stressor. Ask yourself this question: If this stressor disappeared or were neutralized, would my feelings of stress be relieved and disappear? Stressor. This is the cause of stress. It may be a person, place, situation, or condition; it may be animate or inanimate. A stressor can provoke a wide variety of emotional feelings and physical sensations (cumulatively called “neural sensations”) which are often called “symptoms.” Stressor Compass diagrammatically outlines some of the numerous emotional feelings and physical sensations by which the stressor can be manifested in the human body. The compass shows twelve emotional categories that can become conduits for the stressor. 1) The directionals point to the ways the stress manifests in your body by evoking certain stress feelings (as in Numbers 1–12 on the Emotional Literacy List).

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2) The circle in the compass center represents the stressor’s identity. You can decode the identity of the unknown or elusive stressor, if you carefully observe yourself and identify which emotional literacy category of stress is evoked in you by the stressor. Time and Distance Principle. This principle underlies the dynamic interaction between the stressor and your alternatives. After the sentinel alert of stress, as time passes, alternatives to handle it usually begin to diminish. For example, when you notice a tumor on your skin, the tumor is the stressor. Your alternatives have the widest range the closer (distance) you are to the point (time) you first notice the tumor. Your alternatives can diminish if you ignore the stressor. Transcendental Principles are benefits in stress problems that are not often considered. They include principles of love, hope, trust, faith, gratitude, sympathy, courage, caring, and a sense of purpose. Unfulfillment Stress. The discomfort that one can experience when personal uniqueness or talents have not been fulfilled. By not experiencing the special satisfaction that comes with realizing individual talent, there is a degree of lack or loss of meaning in life. Uniqueness, in The Percept Method, is the quality or qualities that make you different. It embraces your strengths and weaknesses and also refers to your creativity in your favorite field of endeavor. Use of The Percept Method—A Caution: This program is designed for individuals who consider themselves emotionally healthy but have a problem with stress. It requires the capacity for mental assessment and review, which is an introspective process. An introspective process, imaging in, and mental assessment and review are some of the procedures which may be too upsetting or traumatic for some individuals who have experienced a crisis or catastrophe. Further, this Method is not intended for individuals who are required to take psychoactive prescription medications or who have Sensory Integrative Dysfunction, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or any psychiatric disorder. The Percept Method is one approach to stress. There are others. Please consult your licensed and accredited mental health professional, if you have any questions or doubts whether this program can work for you. Virtual reality in The Percept Method means that, whereas one may need to deal with issues that are actually being encountered, before dealing with them in the real world, one can first deal with them on the mental/imagination level. This can be undertaken any number of times on a thought, visualization, and feeling level to “experience” the way events might unfold, imagine the various

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GLOSSARY

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differentials, and try to foresee possibilities and/or conflicts. Exercising this form of virtual reality can save time, energy, and error. Vocabulary of feelings is the code of sentience made verbal. As feelings are decoded by the cerebral cortex, they can be made intelligible as words. The vocabulary of feelings is defined or described by words which help to stimulate the interpretation needed to solve problems.

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Index

171

Index A Accomplishments, review of, 153 ACTH, see Adreno-corticotropic hormone Action plan, 14, 111–119 Dalai Lama and heroic action, 116–118 exit strategy, 119 goals to go, 119 initial Step VII goals, 111–112 natural stress reduction with awareness, 113–114 need for change, 112 principles of Step VII and premises of Percept Method, 113 self-evaluation, 115–116, 118–119 status check, 111 toward successful action plan, 114–115 Active relaxation, 16 Addictions, 29, 32 Adreno-corticotropic hormone (ACTH), 3 Aequanimitus, 154 Affirmation, 140 Agee, James, 24 Aggression–Fear Stress Response, 133 Aiken, Conrad, 24 Alcohol, sedation by way of, 32 Alcoholics, American writers who are, 24 Alternatives, emergence of, 98 Amoeba factor, 31 Anger, 83 Anxiety, 83 Apprehension, 47, 84 Aristotle, 13, 36 Artificial unrepression, 71 Authenticity, criteria to test, 114 Autosuggestion, 136 Avoidance modalities, 32 Avoidant modality, relaxation used as, 55

B Battle array, 97 Behavioral modification, 136 Behavioral preparation, 136 Being active, 51 Belief system, 143, 144, 146, 152 Bell, Alexander Graham, 95 Benacerraf, Baruj, 22

Benchley, Robert, 24 Benson, Herbert, 33 Berryman, John, 24 Bible verse, 151 Bierce, Ambrose, 24 Biofeedback, 136 Blame, 84 Blessing in disguise, 85 Blood pressure increased, 3 spikes, 1 Bodily disequilibrium, 79 Bodily sensations, awareness of, 90 Book of Common Prayer, 111 Boredom, 84 Boyle’s law, 144 Brain power, 23, 66, 67 reeducating of, 123 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 36 Buddha, 113

C Calhoun, Cheshire, 1 Capote, Truman, 24 Carver, George Washington, 41 Carver, Raymond, 24 Central nervous system, 55 Cerebral cortex, 15 Cerebral engagement, calming effect of, 16 Change beneficial physical, 127 need for, 112 resistance to, 124 Change and slow progress, perplexity of, 121–128 exit strategy, 128 goals to go, 127 initial Step VIII goals, 121–122 principles of Step VIII and premises of Percept Method, 122–123 change not easy matter, 122–123 reeducating of brain, 123 resistance to change, 124 self-evaluation, 127 seven essentials for change, 124–127 coaching reminders, 125–126

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visualization reinforcements, 126–127 status check, 121 Charles’ Law, 144 Cheever, John, 24 Chess, 97 Choedrak, Tenzin, 147, 153 Coaching efforts, 137 methods, 130 Code of sentience, 6 Cognition, 7 Cognitive awareness, 29 Cognitive engagement, 11, 31 Cognitive evaluation, 11 Cognitive participation, 6 Commitment, 101 Computer virus, perceptus interruptus acting as, 51 Concept crisis, 3, 45, 56, 86 Concept danger, physical danger vs., 3 Confusion stressor, removing roadblocks in pursuit of, 27–45 exit strategy, 45 goals to go, 45 initial Step II goals, 28 principles of Step II and premises of Percept Method, 29–34 addiction spawning other public health problems, 32–33 amoeba factor, 31–32 dangers of perceptus interruptus, 29–30 from perceptus interruptus to perceptus expansus, 32 inescapable stress, 31 perceptus interruptus cramping cortex versatility, 30–31 sentinel alert, 33–34 relaxation for enlarged perception, 39–44 goals of relaxation, 42–44 relaxation affecting retrieval system, 41–42 relaxation vital for problem solving and creativity, 40–41 techniques for protective relaxation, 40 self-evaluation, 44–45 status check, 27–28 stress feelings, 34–38 difficulty of detecting sentinel stress, 37 neuron cell death hastened by chronic stress, 38 why stress feelings feel noxious, 34–36 welcoming of messenger, 38–39 Conscious awareness, 108 Conscious mind, 89 Consciousness, 54, 55 Conscious perception, lag between sentinel alert

The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief

and, 37 Continuum, foundation of, 115 Cortex versatility, perceptus interruptus cramping, 30 Corticosteroids, 38 Crane, Hart, 24 Crane, Stephen, 24 Creativity, 89 relaxation vital for, 40 response to triggering retrieval system, 41 Crichton, Michael, 27 Crum, A., 147 Curiosity Response, 86 Cynicism, 84

D Dalai Lama, 116, 117, 149 Dalton, John, 4 Danger, stress reactions attracting, 132 Data distortion, 30 processing of by conscious and unconscious minds, 23 David and Goliath, 99 Death, 146 Defense mechanisms, 49 Defensiveness, 84 Denial, 32 Depression, 83 Desensitization, 136 Deutsch, Kent M., 121 Dialogue of feelings, 87 Dickens, Charles, 47, 136 Diet, 135 Digestive system, 22 Disgrace, 83 Distraction, 32, 84 Distrust, 84 Divine element, 145 Doing something, 51 Drugs, mind-altering, 24, 37

E Edison, Thomas, 41, 42 Ego-striving, 152 Eiseley, Loren, 121 Elusive stressor, tracking of, 47–57 exit strategy, 57 goals to go, 57 initial Step III goals, 47–48 inner authenticity, 54 learning to let go, 52–54 ostrich syndrome, 52–53

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Index

techniques for letting go, 53–54 noninterference, 49–52 acting like objective researcher, 51–52 heroic noninterference, 50–51 stress not cruelty, 50 principles of Step III and premises of Percept Method, 48–49 self-evaluation, 55–57 sentience to consciousness, 54–55 status check, 47 Embarrassment, 83 Emergency button, 4 Emerson, R. W., 129, 143 Emotion(s), 13, 80, see also specific emotion fight, 83 flight, 83 Emotional literacy, 77, 88, 89 categories, 82, 94 chart, 88 step, 26 Emotional literacy, achieving, 75–94 broader stress definition, 78 characteristics of stress, 79–82 decoding of stress feelings, 81–82 encryption, 81 emotional literacy, 77–78 emotional literacy categories, 82–85 emotional literacy at work, 89 exit strategy, 94 goals to go, 94 initial Step V goals, 76 introspection, 89–93 exercises in introspection, 90–91 expanding perceptual range, 91–93 monologue and dialogue of feelings, 87–89 looking outside radar screen, 88 retrieval system at work, 89 other varieties of stress, 85–87 principles of Step V and premises of Percept Method, 76–77 self-evaluation, 94 status check, 75–76 Encryption, 81 Energy deterioration in, 107 oxygen and, 132 Epictetus, 102 Equanimity, 133, 153 Equilibrium, 153 Exercise, 135 Exposure, 84

F Fantasies, 102

173

Fatigue levels, natural, 71 Faulkner, William, 24 Fear, 78, 83 Feedback, negative, 79 Feeling(s), 6, 80, 102 awareness of, 90 decoding of stress, 81 dialogue of, 134 exchange, 87 happy, 36 monologue and dialogue of, 87 stress, 34 vocabulary of, 81 Fight emotions, 83 Financial investor, potential, 48 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 24 Flight emotions, 83 Food, sedation by way of, 32 Free-floating stress, 132 Frustration, 65, 84 Full perception, 13

G Gautama, Siddhartha, 113 Generalizations, 63 Geniuses, in history, 22 Goals, achieving of, 133 Goose flesh, 3, 114 Grief, 83 Guilt, 83, 87

H Hammet, Dashell, 24 Hannibal of Carthage, 116 Happy feelings, 36 Heart rate, 3 Hemingway, Ernest, 24 Heroes, 152 Homeostasis, 36, 153 Hope, 149, 150 Hopelessness, 84 Hot reactor, 132 Housman, A. E., 38 Humiliation, 83 Hyper-respirating, 139 Hypervigilance, 84

I Identification, 11 Imaging-in of stressor, 19, 20 Immune system, 97, 149 Indignation, 83 Inescapable stress, 31

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Information overload, 35 retrieval process, 62 Inner authenticity, 54 Insecurity, 84 Intellectual mind, 21 Intellectual understanding, 125 Internal struggle, 97 Introspection, 88, 89 capacity for, 76 exercises in, 90 Inverse problem, 7, 27 Irritation, 83

J Job change, alternative of, 100 Jung, Carl, 65

K Kant, Immanuel, 54 Keats, John, 59 Keller, Evelyn Fox, 23 Kerouac, Jack Kipling, Rudyard, 27

L Lardner, Ring, 24 Law of gravity, 144 Law of magnetism, 144 Letting go, 53, 141 Lewis, C. S., 144, 145 Lewis, Sinclair, 24 Locked-in syndrome, 31 London, Jack, 24 Loss, 146 Loss of face, 49 Lowell, Robert, 24

M Mantras, 136 Mao Zedong, 116 Marquand, J. P., 24 May, Rollo, 1 McClintock, Barbara, 23 Meditation, 33, 59, 136 benefits of, 61 techniques, 67, 72 Meditation, in pursuit of ultimate stressor, 59–73 conscious and unconscious minds as partners, 63–67 brain power, 66–67 conscious and unconscious minds in

The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief

action, 63–65 double-bind, 65–66 goals to go, 72 initial Step IV goals, 59–60 meditation in pursuit of ultimate stressor, 60–62 benefits of meditation, 61 productivity of meditation, 61–62 staying receptive to answers, 62 Nature’s protection, 71 principles of Step IV and premises of Percept Method, 60 review and exit strategy, 72–73 self-evaluation, 71–72 status check, 59 technique for meditation, 67–71 why brain power remains in latency, 67 Melancholy, 83 Mental agony, 77, 78 Mental calm, 28, 119, 125 Mental imagery, 70 Message, 6 Messenger, 10 Mid-life crisis, 75 Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 24 Mind(s) -altering substances, 37 combination of conscious and unconscious, 64 as common frontier between Divine and human, 145 conscious and unconscious, as partners, 63 -expanding drugs, 24 function, paradox in, 20, 26 intellectual, 21 subconscious, 17 unconscious, retrieval system activating, 25 Monologue of feelings, 87 Monroe, Marilyn, 33 Morgan, J. P., 38 Morse Code, 10, 27 Mother Teresa, 148 Motivation, 125

N Natural power, 96 Nature gift of, 97 hierarchical trade-off made by, 63 laws of, 144 Near-death crisis, 143 Negativity, 84 Nervous shrinking, 77 Neural network, 51

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Neural sensations, 78 Neurogram, 123, 128 Neuronal cell death, hastening of by chronic stress, 38 Neuroscience, 114 Noninterference, 49, 50 on mental level, 52 technique, 52 Nonmyelinated fibers, 35 Nonphysical threat, 56 Noxious sensations, 14, 35, 39

O O’Hara, John, 24 O’Neill, Eugene, 24 Organic rewiring, 140 Osler, William, 47, 129, 143, 153 Ostrich syndrome, 52, 108 Outer thoughts, distracting, 60 Overreaction, physical, 139 Overstimulation, Nature protecting brain from, 16

P Panic, 77, 83 Parker, Dorothy, 24 Passivity, 50 Pasteur, Louis, 96 P.A.T., see Personal Authenticity Test Perception enlarged, 39 full, 13 as rapture, 146 stages of, 5 Percept Method, 7 decoding by, 27 premise of, 19, 35, 76 Perceptual enlargement, 26 Perceptual function of stress, 5 Perceptual range, expanding of, 91 Perceptual system, 12 Perceptus expansus, 28, 32 Perceptus interruptus, 10, 70 acting as computer virus, 51 dangers of, 29 of stress sensations, 8–9 Personal Authenticity Test (P.A.T.), 96, 97, 99, 101, 112 Personal crisis, confronting of, 47 Personal journal, 104, 112 Pervasive doubt, 84 Pessimism, 84 Physical danger, concept danger vs., 3, 25 Physical reeducation and coaching techniques,

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129–141 affirmation, 140 basic reassurances, 131 exit strategy, 141 goals to go, 140 initial Step IX goals, 130 interpreting stressor significance, 138–139 critical questions, 138–139 reeducation reminders, 139 premises of Percept Method, 132–134 preparation for reeducation, 134–136 diet and exercise, 135 summary of physical reeducation, 135–136 principles of Step IX and premises of Percept Method, 130–131 self-evaluation, 139–140 sentinel stress, 131 status check, 129 techniques for reeducation, 136–138 Physical stress dysfunction, 127 Picasso, 54 Piloerection, 114 Pleasant feelings, 36 Poe, Edgar Allen, 24 Pope John XXIII, 149 Prayers, 136 Pressured thinking, 21 Problem inverse, 7, 27 solving endeavor, 26 enhancement, 38 exercise, mindful, 5 needs, 71 process, 95 relaxation vital for, 40 Psychological avoidant modalities, 30 Public health problems, spawned by addiction, 32

R Radar screen, looking outside, 88 Rage, 83 Rapture, perception as, 146 Rationalization, 32 Reassurance, 131, 139 Reciprocal feeling, 87 Reeducation coaching through required, 138 preparation for, 134 Relaxation active, 16 as avoidant modality, 55 for enlarged perception, 39

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exercise, 43 goals to, 42 natural, 15 optimal uses of, 56 physical, 42, 119 proper use of, 28 reaching of deeper state of, 76 techniques, 40, 114 use of, 19 Remediation process, 130 Repression, 32 Restfulness, alert, 61 Retrieval system, 7, 64, 93, 119 active, 18 Edison’s, 42 relaxation as affects, 41 rewards, 23 Reward, 95–109 exit strategy, 109 exploring and assessing alternatives, 101–102 feelings and fantasies acquainting you with yourself, 102–104 fragility of newly conceived alternatives, 104–108 collected data for best alternatives, 105 feelings perceive first, 107–108 optimal value of stress response, 106v107 ostrich syndrome, 108 time and distance principle, 105–106 goals to go, 109 initial Step VI goals, 95–96 principles of Step VI and premises of Percept Method, 96–100 self-evaluation, 108–109 status check, 95 talents flowing with authenticity, 100–101 Reynolds, David, 27 Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 24 Roethke, Theodore, 24 Runaway physical responses, 4, 126

S Sadness, 83 Sanchez, Oscar Arias, 148 S.A.T., see Stress Accuracy Test Schweitzer, Albert, 148 Sedating/suppressing modalities, 30 Self-doubt, 84 Self-evaluation, for action plan, 116 Semrad, Elvin, 75 Sentience to cognition, 10 Sentinel alert, 5, 6, 45 experience and ignoring of, 50

The 10-Step Method of Stress Relief

listening to, 33 cognition, 107 stress, 12, 37, 131 Shakespeare, William, 59, 111 Shame, 77, 83 Shock, 84 Shortness of breath, 1 Shut down, mental, 102 Solomon, Robert, 1 Sports psychology, 132 Stalking, 92 Steinbeck, John, 24 Steroids, 38 St. Luke, 95 Stress Accuracy Test (S.A.T.), 20, 44, 45, 57, 59, 69, 112 cause of, 43 characteristics of, 79 chronic, 38 early recognition of, 34 feelings, 34, 81 free-floating, 132 graphic illustration of, 80 historical appreciation of managing, 154 hormones, 38 impeding, 50 inescapable, 31 perceptual function of, 5, 12 reaction, confusing, 63 reduction advice, 151 natural, 113 relief, 119 remediation, 96, 103 response(s) dysfunctional, 121, 122 optimal time value of, 106 sensation, perceptus interruptus of, 8–9 sentinel, 37, 131 situation, application of visualization to, 126 source of, 49 symptoms, 44 varieties of, 85 Stress, meaning and significance of, 1–26 initial Step I goals, 1–2 principles of Step I and premises of Percept Method, 2–24 accurate stressor identity, 19–23 calming effect of cerebral engagement, 16 conscious and unconscious minds processing data, 23–24 dysfunctional physical reactions vs. problem solving, 4–5 following pathway of stress, 14–15

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Index

messenger, 11 nature of stressor changed, 2–4 Nature protecting brain from overstimulation, 16–17 perceptual function of stress, 12–13 perceptual system, 12 sentience to cognition, 7–11 sizes of stressors, 17–18 step toward solution, 13 two stages of perception, 5–7 what and why of stress, 2 wise use of relaxation, 19 retrieval, 24 status check, 1 Stressed out, feeling, 19 Stressor(s) advantages to perceiving, 47 Compass, 94 Compass I, 82 Compass II, 83 identification of real, 132 image-in of, 28, 57, 95 misperceiving, 69 organ responses to, 2 perceptions of, 69 significance, interpreting, 138 sizes of, 17 ultimate, 60 unknown, 59 Subconscious mind, 17 Surprise, 84 Survival, more than metaphor, 146 Suspiciousness, 84 Szent-Györgyi, Albert, 121

T Taking it lying down, 51 Talk yourself up or down, 138 Tension, comparison of state of relaxation with state of, 43 Terror, 77, 83 Thinking effective, 122 pressured, 21 Thoreau, Henry David, 53 Thurber, James, 24 Time and Distance Chart, 106 Time and distance principle, 105 Tobacco, sedation by way of, 32 Transcendental path to triumph, 143–154 Divine element, 145–146 equilibrium, 153–154 goals to go, 152 importance of hope, 149–150

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hope fortifying body and immune system, 149–150 when situation seems hopeless, 150 initial Step X goals, 144 l’envoi, 154 principles of Step X and premises of Percept Method, 144–145 review of accomplishments, 153 self-evaluation, 151 status check, 143–144 surviving to see triumph, 150 when survival is more than metaphor, 146–149 belief system enhancing survival despite all odds, 147–148 death and loss, 146–147 inner tranquility despite outer turmoil, 148–149 worry about variables out of control, 151 Traumatic experience, past, 65 Turmoil, inner tranquility despite outer, 148 Tutu, Desmond M., 148

U Uncertainty, 84 Unfulfillment stress, 85 Uniqueness, importance of, 100

V Virgil, 129 Virtual reality, 115 Viscott, David, 75 Visualization, 68, 104, 136 application of to stress situation, 126 reinforcements, 126 Vocabulary of feelings, 6, 81

W Watson, Thomas J., Sr., 98 Well-being, restoring sense of, 49 White, Robert, 4 Williams, Tennessee, 24 Wolfe, Thomas, 24 Worry, 84

Y Yoga, 137

Z Zeno, 77

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