Emotional Stress Overload: Helping Yourself
Haven't you ever seen a distraught person holding his head in his hands? Or when overcome by great surprise, how we often instinctively hit the forehead with our hand?
The body does not perform these instinctive acts by mistake On the skin of the forehead are located neurological "circus; breakers" which are associated with mental and emotional stress overload. Just as when there is a power overload in your house, and a circuit breaker blows, a similar pattern takes place m the body when it encounters an overload of mental or emotional factors. And just as we may easily reset the circuit breaker m our house, so may we reset the emotional stress overload circuit in the body.
Dr. George Goodheart, the founder of applied kinesiology made the first observations of these emotional stress overload circuits (at the time he called them "emotional neurovascular reflexes") in 1968. He found that lightly holding these areas with the fingers could act as a treatment to reset these circuits.
The contacts should be held until a slight pulsation (like taking your pulse on your wrist or your neck) is felt in both fingers simultaneously. This usually takes from 30 seconds to a couple minutes. Once the pulsation is felt, the contacts may be held for a few more seconds and then released. The procedure is then complete.
In the doctor's office, the procedure can be as simple as this, or slightly more involved depending on the extent to which the stress has affected you. But the fundamental care of the mental and emotional stress overload circuit breakers can be performed by you on yourself, or even better, by a close friends or family member.
A few years ago, at a funeral, every member of the bereaved family showed a need for holding these points on the forehead. Doing so allowed the family to make it through the crisis without breaking down. This is not to say that it was easy, but the ability to carry on was maintained by the family when, at one point, it appeared that several of them might not be able to go through the process.
Some people never "get over" a loved one's death or a marital breakup. These people live their lives in the constant presence of the past emotional stress. Even extensive counseling doesn't help some people. Counseling at such times can be most important for a person, but the person's general health should be considered as well.
How many stressful life events can you think about which cause your "stomach to tie into a knot" or a queasy feeling to occur or tears to fill your eyes? The presence of these symptoms when thinking about an emotionally stressing event may be a surefire indication that the emotional stress overload points need to be "reset" by you or someone close to you.
You may feel changes such as a relaxation of the abdomen, a sigh, or a relief of tension throughout the body. In addition, the emotionally stressing thought may no longer elicit the physical or mental symptoms that it did previously.
This treatment does not bury or hide the emotional stress and may be used in conjunction with counseling with one approach facilitating the other. The technique may keep the problem in the head where it belongs and stop it from spilling over and affecting the body. This is seen by the abatement of physical symptoms associated with the thought process. We must still deal with the psychological ramifications of the stress, but now we can do so without the extra burden of the stressful spill over into the body which depletes our reserves.
If you experience the need to perform these points repeatedly, see your doctor, as other factors, such as stress, may affect our emotional state. There are certain nutritional factors which might be necessary in order for the treatment to maintain itself in about thirty percent of people. But there is no harm in holding these treatment points anytime the stress level warrants. Some highly stressed people, including doctors, hold them for a minute every morning and a minute every night as a preventative measure.