Health Realization/Innate Health

© Med Sci Monit, 2005; 11(12): HY47-52 WWW.MEDSCIMONIT.COM PMID: 16319796 Hypothesis HY Received: 2005.09.28 Accepted: 2005.11.02 Health Realization/Innate Health: Can a quiet mind Published: 2005.12.01 and a positive feeling state be accessible over the lifespan without stress-relief techniques? Judith A. Sedgeman Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia Initiative for Innate Health, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, U.S.A. Source of support: Departmental sources Summary Health Realization/Innate Health (HR/IH) questions long-held assumptions about chronic stress, and challenges current defi nitions of both stress and resiliency. HR/IH sets forth principles that explain why the experience of psychological stress is not an effect of causal factors beyond people’s control, but is an artifact of the energetic potential of the mind. HR/IH describes the “cog- nitive factor” in stress not as the content of people’s thinking in response to stressors, but rather as a quality of the way people hold and use their thinking, referred to as state of mind. HR/IH hypothesizes that understanding principles that explain the nature and origin of thinking and experience offers a means to access innate protective processes that are healing and antibi- osenescent reliably and consistently, without techniques. HR/IH suggests that the primary effort of mental health care could be to initiate life-long prevention of the state of chronic stress. In ad- dition, HR/IH suggests that addressing mental well-being would have a broad impact on the inci- dence and course of the many physical illnesses that are known to be stress-related. The brief therapeutic interactions of HR/IH draw upon people’s innate wisdom and recognition of the healthy perspective available to everyone. Anecdotal results suggest that people who gain insight into the principles that explain the nature of thought and experience and who realize how to re-access a natural, positive state of mind can and do experience sustained day-to-day peace of mind, wisdom and well-being, regardless of circumstances. HR/IH deserves rigorous scientifi c eval- uation. key words: resiliency theory • resiliency application • stress • coping • health • innate • Health Realization • Innate Health Full-text PDF: http://www.medscimonit.com/fulltxt.php?IDMAN=8224 Word count: 3436 Tables: — Figures: — References: 66 Author’s address: Judith A. Sedgeman, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University Health Sciences Center, P.O. Box 9147, Morgantown, WV 26506, U.S.A., e-mail: [email protected] Current Contents/Clinical Medicine • SCI Expanded • ISI Alerting System • Index Medicus/MEDLINE • EMBASE/Excerpta Medica • Chemical Abstracts • Index Copernicus HY47 Hypothesis Med Sci Monit, 2005; 11(12): HY47-52 BACKGROUND studied as an inevitable result of pressures beyond the control of those experiencing the stress. Cannon and Selye, both The state of chronic stress underlies many disease states that using animal studies, established the scientifi c basis for the diminish quality of life and reduce life expectancy [1–5]. study of stress. Their work focused on physiologic responses And the state of chronic stress is a major contributor to the of animals to stressful external pressures, such as heat and infl ation of national health care costs [6]. cold, prolonged restraint, surgical procedures. Ideas about psychological stress in human beings were extrapolated from Evidence has coalesced around the idea that the ultimate the study of physiological stress responses in animals. Then, answer to stress may not lie in addressing external stressors early studies of human stress by Richard Rahe and others but in exploring and enhancing internal human capacities. [23–26] established the prevailing view that there are distinct, The intent to develop means to comprehend, build and but- measurable life stressors that cause stress, and even that those tress human resiliency is predominant in both behavioral life stressors can be ranked according to their level of infl u- [7–10] and biological [1,11–20] investigations. ence on the degree of stress people experience. The stressors were ranked by median responses to various situations. This dual shift towards recognizing the experience of chron- Thus the question was never raised why one person might ic stress itself as an underlying contributor to many disease call “going to the dentist” a 20 on the stress scale, while an- states and towards seeing intrinsic human capacity as a heal- other called it an 85. The broad variations in responses to ing mechanism has led to investigation of the biochemis- the same stressors have never been addressed. try of a psychological immune system that addresses chronic stress systemically. Psychologists now refer to “toxic” circumstances, relation- ships, emotions and events when describing stress-related syn- Research has established the positive physiological and psy- dromes. Stress-coping presentations address “noxious” events chological effects of resilience, as well as the extensive nega- or “insults” to the psyche. Psychiatrists document “allostatic tive physiological and psychological effects of chronic stress load,” the weight of stressful and negative circumstances in [1,8]. The persistent assumption that stress is a consequence a person’s life history [27]. It is assumed that some degree of factors outside of the control of the individual, howev- of stress is inevitable for all people, given the life demands er, has kept research attention on the relationship between and challenges everyone must face. It is assumed that “re- stressors and the individuals who are subject to them. As a lief” from stress is a desirable, if temporary, departure from result, studies focus on how best to protect people from that normal expectation. Techniques and methods that pro- stressors or equip them to respond to stressors as success- vide a respite from stress are seen as the appropriate focus fully as possible. A question for further study is how peo- of stress remediation. The premise is that people who prac- ple access their internal resiliency. What allows some peo- tice such techniques or methods still must cope with a re- ple to draw upon their internal strengths when they most lentlessly stress-inducing milieu but are better equipped to need them, while others are easily overwhelmed? What ex- withstand and recover from stress [28–36]. plains the power of the psychological immune system, and why is it not consistently engaged or functioning? THE HEALTH REALIZATION/INNATE HEALTH CONCEPTUAL MODEL The mechanisms of acute stress are readily apparent, and Since the late 1970’s, a completely different way of under- have been for a century, since they were fi rst described by standing and addressing stress has been quietly spreading Walter Cannon [21]. But the mechanisms of chronic stress through the helping professions. Known primarily as Health are less clear. Hans Selye described the fi nal, chronic stage Realization, or Innate Health, this work emerged from the in his general adaptation response to stress as “exhaustion” insights of Sydney Banks, a man who had spent much of his [22]. That remains a potent metaphor, although an inaccu- life until the early 1970’s in a state of extreme stress and in- rate scientifi c description, of the effect of the state of stress security. The insights that set him free to transcend a life- unrelieved over time, which has been shown to redirect the time of limitations came out of the blue, unsought, in a pro- body’s resources and thus leave the person vulnerable to dis- found experience. When he realized how much these simple, ease [2]. But as Sapolsky points out [3], chronic stress does but extraordinary, insights had changed him, he began to not actually deplete hormonal resources, but keeps the body share his knowledge with others, offering free public talks. in a constant, unrelieved state of hormonal imbalance, which After a few psychologists and psychiatrists were exposed to creates a “hormonal milieu” that fosters disease states [5]. his insights and began to see and experience life differently for themselves [37–40], they changed their minds about But why are people vulnerable to chronic stress? Why doesn’t what is possible in mental health and well-being, and de- the body return to homeostasis after every encounter with veloped a new approach to clients. The work ultimately be- “stressors”? Why are some people in good circumstances un- came a psychoeducational approach that is based on the able to keep their bearings, while others in the worst of cir- assumptions that (1) people have an innate wellspring of cumstances are able to remain stable? What is the common psychological well-being from which to draw, and (2) any- underlying explanation for the varied responses to the same one can realize that and live from a healthy, wise, balanced stressors among different individuals? Why does each person state of mind, regardless of the “stressors” and external cir- respond differently to the same stressors at different times? cumstances encountered over time [38,40–42]. Assumptions of current research Principles underlying HR/IH Current investigations of chronic stress are governed by un- Health Realization/Innate Health (HR/IH) suggests that challenged assumptions. From the outset, stress has been the prevailing fundamental assumptions about chronic HY48 Med Sci Monit, 2005; 11(12): HY47-52 Sedgeman JA – Innate health theory stress are inherently fl awed [43–46]. It proposes to replace their own thought-consciousness manifesting negative, wor- the theories of how and why stressors induce and sustain risome, distressing thoughts in the form of negative, worri- stress from the outside-in with principles that explain how some, distressing experience, and that those thoughts have and why the experience of stress is created from the inside- no life beyond the moment they are created and held in HY out, regardless of circumstances.

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