have a mismatch – for example, your family relationships are your number-one priority, but you can rank these only fourth in terms of time devoted because you are always away with work – then you may be experiencing elements of stress. Now think of a time when everything was going really


well in your life. If you can’t think of one, try to remember a time when all was going well in one particular aspect of your life. How would your priorities have matched up then? There are certain things that we all have to do, such as


eat and drink, but there are also things that we do not have to do – it’s just that we or other people tell us that we have to do them. Despite these things being matters of choice, once we have told ourselves that we have to do them they become self-fulfilling prophecies. They become habitual – and, once habitual, we often do not question them but just do them. As our lives become increasingly full, we have more habits to feed and less time to fit them all in. By prioritising what is important to us, and by


rediscovering a sense of purpose and direction, we can prune away the paraphernalia and dead wood and create time for what truly nourishes us.


‘TWO ROADS DIVERGED IN A WOOD, I TOOK THE ONE LESS TRAVELLED, AND THAT HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE’ – ROBERT FROST Stress, health, immune function and ultimately wellbeing are linked intimately to how we think, feel and behave. As humans we receive information through our senses, which, together with past experiences (memories), leads us to take certain actions or behaviours. Similarly, each cell in our body experiences the internal environment through its receptors, which are akin to our senses. Information is gathered, and then the cell takes a certain course of action or behaviour. The cell either opens itself up to certain aspects of its environment or it closes down. The cell accepts certain incoming information and blocks other information. It forms certain relationships with other cells that nourish its existence and avoids other groups of cells that damage, or threaten to damage, its existence. The nervous system has overall responsibility for


monitoring environmental signals and their interpretation, and for organising the appropriate response to external threat or danger. This system is called the hypothalamus–pituitary– adrenal (HPA) axis. The hypothalamus, which sits deep in the brain, receives and recognises environmental information; this can be likened to the body’s internal sense. The pituitary gland is responsible for setting into action the necessary behaviour – the “fight or flight” response. The immune system is the second mechanism employed to gear up for


impending threat. The HPA axis, with the release of “stress hormones”,


represses and inhibits the action of the immune system. The HPA axis was not designed with continuous activation in mind. In primitive terms its purpose was to alert us to the lion creeping up behind us in the bush. In today’s stressful world, however, we can be overwhelmed by constant worry, anxiety and fear, which has our HPA axis operating continuously in order to fall in line with our 24/7 lifestyle. The impact of this is not only to potentially compromise the effectiveness of the immune system, but also to reduce our ability to think straight. We are flooded with adrenaline, ready to react at any moment in time. We become so used to being stressed that it feels normal.


‘HABITS ARE LIKE A CABLE. WE WEAVE A STRAND OF IT EVERY DAY AND SOON IT CANNOT BE BROKEN’ – HORACE MANN Stress is a part of most people’s lives. Equally, many people are becoming more aware that how we think, feel and behave can have implications for our health. Bruce Lipton reports that ‘almost every major illness that people acquire has been linked to chronic stress’. Simply exposing people to this information, however, does not necessarily lead to change. Most smokers know that their habit is undermining their health – but still they don’t give up smoking. To give up smoking requires a desire to fundamentally change, and this requires considerable energy at times. On many occasions our good intentions fade and we return to our habitual ways of being. Many people see the need for change but remain stuck in a rut. As a simple exercise to demonstrate that we habitually do things the same way, fold your arms across your chest. How does that feel? Now unfold your arms and fold them the other way. What does that feel like? I suspect that the last way of folding your arms didn’t feel “right”. There is no right or wrong way to fold your arms, and you probably weren’t even aware that you always folded your arms in the same way. But you are now aware that there is a different way of doing it. Without thinking, however, the next time you fold your arms, you will probably use the old habitual pattern. Without conscious awareness, how we think, move and behave just “happens”, in the same way that our heart beats and our stomach digests.


A PROACTIVE HEALTH ROLE FOR MASSAGE AND MANUAL THERAPISTS Many therapists within the sporting community are already actively involved in “prehab”, preventing injuries and using sports psychology to optimise athletes’ performance. Why


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sportEX dynamics 2008;18(Oct):7-9


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