This is a great essay. I have found it useful when studying to retain the mental image of an exam as a predatory animal. Animals can be chased and hunted, by rendering stress a lifeless entity, like a chemical, it suggests that the solution lies in a bottle rather than in an action.
“Stress should be more afraid of you than you are of it”.
This framing only works in the predatory animal frame, and is left nonsensical in the biochemical frame. But ironically this framing has often times lowered my “measurable cortisol level” far more than anxiolytics have.
It could be the case that some metaphorical frames dominate others, meaning they perform better even according to the metaphysical axioms of the dominated frame.
Great piece. I was reminded of this when hearing today’s gospel reading at Mass. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were looking “too low” at the story of Christ. Only reciting historical facts and events. They received the eyes of faith only when the scriptures were parabolically connected for them (symbolically), and they experienced meaning at a human/phenomenological level. (breaking bread).
“The reaction to “stress” should never be the aspiration to forfeit our ability to see meaning landscapes.”
James, your essay is a clearly adjudicated explanation of our stress responses. Within the complexities of the human mind, however, is another force which I believe is a more dominant one.
That is our use of and the power of denial, a most insidious behemoth.
Denial is a rejection of self that challenges and clouds the truth of our being. It is unknowingly silencing the whispers of our soul and tuning in to the voice of fear. “This can’t be happening!”
The voice that tells us to ignore the suffering even though it aches. The voice that tells us to run from love, even though it hurts. The voice that tells us lies, even though we feel the truth. The voice that numbs us when all we want is to feel. The voice that tells us to hold on to a thing that is killing us. The voice that sounds like us, even though it’s not. The voice that tell us to stay even though we’ve already left…
Denial is the refusal to confront the glaring truth of ourselves, of our heart and of our soul; it instead, causes us to mute or lash out at reminders of truth in order to preserve the lies we’ve been told or the lies we’ve told ourselves. Lies that seduce us to hang onto the pieces of a self or a life held captive by fear, of a self or a life lived from the outside-in, not from the inside-out, of a self that was never fully there or a life that never felt real.
Denial is the shield we put up within ourselves, separating our heart and soul from our mind and body. A separation that slowly and painfully breaks us, shattering the shield to pieces when our heart and soul has eventually, had enough.
And eventually, we become the deer in the headlights.
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
This is a great essay. I have found it useful when studying to retain the mental image of an exam as a predatory animal. Animals can be chased and hunted, by rendering stress a lifeless entity, like a chemical, it suggests that the solution lies in a bottle rather than in an action.
“Stress should be more afraid of you than you are of it”.
This framing only works in the predatory animal frame, and is left nonsensical in the biochemical frame. But ironically this framing has often times lowered my “measurable cortisol level” far more than anxiolytics have.
It could be the case that some metaphorical frames dominate others, meaning they perform better even according to the metaphysical axioms of the dominated frame.
Anyways, enjoyed the essay!
"You can’t fix bad ideas at the level of ink, and you can’t fix a bad life at the level of cortisol." exactly!
Cortisol is interesting because it is actually about alertness, it's how we wake up in the morning, part of the HPA.
The experience of stress I think refers to a sort of turbulence in the allostatic regulation.
Cytokines are probably better analogy to what we experience, a psychology of inflammation.
These issues of metaphor can be improved with better science also.
Great piece. I was reminded of this when hearing today’s gospel reading at Mass. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were looking “too low” at the story of Christ. Only reciting historical facts and events. They received the eyes of faith only when the scriptures were parabolically connected for them (symbolically), and they experienced meaning at a human/phenomenological level. (breaking bread).
“The reaction to “stress” should never be the aspiration to forfeit our ability to see meaning landscapes.”
James, your essay is a clearly adjudicated explanation of our stress responses. Within the complexities of the human mind, however, is another force which I believe is a more dominant one.
That is our use of and the power of denial, a most insidious behemoth.
Denial is a rejection of self that challenges and clouds the truth of our being. It is unknowingly silencing the whispers of our soul and tuning in to the voice of fear. “This can’t be happening!”
The voice that tells us to ignore the suffering even though it aches. The voice that tells us to run from love, even though it hurts. The voice that tells us lies, even though we feel the truth. The voice that numbs us when all we want is to feel. The voice that tells us to hold on to a thing that is killing us. The voice that sounds like us, even though it’s not. The voice that tell us to stay even though we’ve already left…
Denial is the refusal to confront the glaring truth of ourselves, of our heart and of our soul; it instead, causes us to mute or lash out at reminders of truth in order to preserve the lies we’ve been told or the lies we’ve told ourselves. Lies that seduce us to hang onto the pieces of a self or a life held captive by fear, of a self or a life lived from the outside-in, not from the inside-out, of a self that was never fully there or a life that never felt real.
Denial is the shield we put up within ourselves, separating our heart and soul from our mind and body. A separation that slowly and painfully breaks us, shattering the shield to pieces when our heart and soul has eventually, had enough.
And eventually, we become the deer in the headlights.
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
–Carl Jung
Point well made! I enjoyed this essay. Language always contains layers of meaning and is worth contesting.
Long live Peterson