Shrunken Heads and Stress

After I recently took part in the online promotion of Dr. Bruce Lipton's latest book Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here, that he co-wrote with my spiritual advisor Swami Beyondananda, I did a reread of his best seller The Biology of Belief (Hay House Publishers, 2008)

Dr. Lipton, for those of you who are not familiar with him or his work, is a former medical school professor and researcher who has explored how the state of a person's consciousness actually influences the behavior of each of the trillions of cells that compose the human body.

In one section of the book concerning the effects of unhealthy stress, he notes that over time tension can reduce the blood flow to the frontal lobes of the brain, diminishing intelligence and self-control. In severe cases these brain areas can actually atrophy and shrink!

We have all probably had the experience of being on edge and then saying or doing something we later regretted. When the body is in the heightened response to stress mode, it temporarily shuts down functions that are not considered essential to survival at that exact moment. This includes digestion, the immune system and higher reasoning abilities.

Is this why, for example, people "forget" their previous intention to follow a healthier eating plan on a "bad" day?

To be at our best and to avoid the risk of developing what might be called the "shrunken head syndrome" make sure that you are taking care of those stress levels on an ongoing basis.

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