Back in March 2011 I posted the last previous note to this blog. I apologize for the long period of silence. At the time of that last posting I had no idea how my life was about to change.
For the last 2-1/2 years I have Vice President of a non-profit corporation which is the support arm of the Senior Center in the University town where I live in Davis, California. It honestly never occurred to me that I might suddenly have to take over the presidency.
But that is exactly what happened in the first few days of April 2011 when the president resigned due to health reasons. I found myself suddenly running a corporation. Even though I have a rather extensive background in management, I had no experience with non-profits. My 2-1/2 years of sitting the board of directors did nothing to prepare me for assuming the reigns.
I suddenly found myself in a position of being challenged for the presidency (in violation of our bylaws) and the situation was extremely stressful. During that period I came down with a very serious bronchitis and was very sick for about a month. My doctor confirmed that it was obviously related to my acute stress level.
Gradually I bounced back, but it was a very distressing time. That is the reason you did not hear from me for over three months. It was a great learning period for me, because I had not been ill in many years. I always said that “I don’t get sick.” And that had been true. But the lesson was that acute stress interferes with the body’s ultimate self-healing tool, the immune system.
Prior to that I couldn’t even remember the last time I had been ill.
STRESS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST DIS-EASE
My personal physician indicated to me that acute stress places the entire body in a state of assault, making it easy if not inevitable for the body’s protective mechanisms to break down.
In my own healing journey from multiple sclerosis, I have learned that a few simple “tools” like meditation, breath work, exercise, a few simple supplements, etc., help to maintain the immune at a high level of performance. But these building blocks of the immune system were more or less useless in the face of the onslaught of acute stress.
I had come to think that I would never be really sick again. The lesson I learned . . .
CHANGE IS INEVITABLE ― EVEN RELATED TO HEALTH ISSUES
WHEN WE DO SELF-DEFEATING THINGS
Please go to my primary website, http://www.bettyshouselifeafterms.com/ where I share my healing journey. Once there you may register to receive my monthly e-mailed newsletter, Journey to Wellness.
