This is your place to publicly comment on the topics and issues addressed in Speaking of Faith programs. React in a personal way, and put into words what this program meant to you.

Submit Your Reflection about "Stress and the Balance Within."

Stellar (September 21, 2008)
This interview was stellar in all respects. I learned from every minute of the talk. I was especially moved by her description of her father teaching her to stop and listen to the "sounds of peace" — the birds, the breeze, the voices of kids at a playground. There is so much we in North America can take for granted, even after 9/11 — we should offer thanks every day, and often during every day, for the tranquility that is available. If we can can take those minutes to stop and rest, we will be a step closer to reducing not just our stress, and thereby we'll be better able to offer help and encouragement and love to other people in our lives.

Fran Franklin
Columbus, OH (WOSU, 820 AM)

Dr. Sternberg (September 7, 2008)
Here in SE michigan, they broadcast Speaking of Faith at 7 am on Sunday, so my clock radio wakes me to the sounds of you and your guests. I must confess I am not usually as thrilled with many of the guests or the topics as I was today.

Oddly, it was the taped interview you did in 2005 at Chatauqua with Esther Sternberg. She is fantastic! I was quite surprised to her hear mention the common element which occurs in people with arthritis (which I have), Crohn's disease (I had a former spouse with that), and Lupus (which killed a dear friend of mine).

Joe Herten
Dearborn, MI (WUOM, 91.7 FM)

Mistrusting Inner Truth: the Role of Science and Religion (September 7, 2008)
Knowing that emotions and stress effect the body is not new to me but this program illustrated not only how (physiologically speaking) this occurs but also a deep problem that, I hope, we are beginning to transcend: that we, as individuals and as a culture, do not know how to trust our own inner truth. Science may now give us permission to do so in the subject matter of this program but it has also been an obstacle.

As Sternberg said: science used to dismiss the notion that emotions could create illness. Now scientists are taking it seriously and learning about the physiological pathways involved in that effect. She said that one of the benefits of this is that people are reassured that these effects are real and are perhaps not feeling so guilty about taking time off to re-balance and heal themselves (e.g. caregivers of chronically ill people).

My observation:
Part of the imbalance in our society on this question has come from the arrogance of scientists and doctors who have dismissed people's intuitive sense that negative emotions and stress have made them sick. To some degree we have learned to doubt ourselves because of this scientific blindness which has claimed the authority to pass such judgments, and the belief that has infected our culture that only what science affirms is true. Along with this we have adopted the mistaken belief that only phenomena arising from physical, material causes is real.

Another side of the problem (of people not trusting their inner truth) comes because religion has not done its job; it has not helped people connect to and trust their inner truth because of the church's insistence that external authority (church hierarchy and doctrine and/or literal interpretation of the Bible) are the guides and sources of right belief and action.

Conversely, if you read the Bible, while paying attention to your own responses, (what resonates) and what your experience tells you about the story's and teachings' meaning, as metaphor and symbol — with this approach comes connection to your inner truth. The better mainline churches allow for this, but they usually lack the fervor that is necessary to really profit from this freedom. The evangelical churches often have the passion but not the open-mindedness.

Sternberg also said that, as a scientist, knowing about the science of emotions effecting the body, allows you to, even when sick yourself, step back and apply what you know to help yourself heal. Probably true, but in the spiritual traditions that are based on meditation one also learns to see oneself objectively and can come to those insights more quickly (than waiting for science to discover and confirm one's experience). Further benefits: one's consciousness develops, growth happens, one learns to trust one's inner experience. In the exoteric religions based on external authority this does not happen with most people.

This is not to say there is not a place for exoteric religion. There is, because not everyone is ready to undergo the self-examination that is involved in a path to realization of the Self, the Divine within our own being. However, a big improvement would come if the churches and our culture had greater awareness of, and pointed towards, this ultimate process of self-development; if people knew of its existence and desirability. For example the Hindu tradition recognizes that there are four progressive goals of human life through which one passes in the course of many lifetimes. Those goals are described as pleasure, worldly success, duty and sacrifice ("giving back"), and spiritual liberation — realization of the Self, our identity with the Divine.

In this country many churches are preoccupied with keeping people within the fold, rather than guiding them to go on to higher ground. I would speculate that many have exited the churches and joined the ranks of agnostics and atheists because they could no longer believe church doctrines and they did not know there existed levels of psycho-spiritual exploration that honored their doubts and encouraged looking to direct experience as the means to connect to inner truth and who they are, beyond cultural conditioning.

Science has played an important role in the development of planetary consciousness but it needs to be placed in proper perspective: as a tool to both learn about the material world and as a means for individuals and our culture to develop the capacity for objectivity (it played that role in my life).

To allow science to become a world view and the ultimate arbiter of truth is a dead-end because it is incomplete in its focus on the material level to the exclusion of higher, non-material planes of reality.

Bevalyn Crawford
Charlottesville, VA (WVTU, 91.5 FM)

Stress and Its Solutions (September 7, 2008)
I loved this program. Walking helps me cope with stress. So does writing poetry and novels. I have also found that listening to the music helps me to relax. I found the program to be helpful. We must always learn how to cope with stress as modern life is filled with it. It is how modern living is. These solutions have helped me deal with my every day problems and my difficulties of my past. We must found the time to face our problems and our every day issues so our lives can be more peaceful.

Rebecca Blitz
Laurel, MD (WAMU, 88.5 FM)

A Special Find (September 7, 2008)
I am teaching a freshman seminar on "Healing in Early Christianity" at Emory University. Last week I was introducing "embodied knowledge, thought, emotion, and belief," as cognitive scientists now understand it, as a frame for approaching healing in antiquity, the Hebrew Bible, early Christianity, and life today.

Krista Tippett's interview with Dr. Esther Sternberg was a special find for me for this class. I immediately turned on my laptop, downloaded the podcast and the link to the essay on "The Mind-Body Interaction in Disease," and sent the links to my students.

Many thanks to Dr. Sternberg for explaining so clearly how her visit to the island of Crete, which has a nearby sanctuary to Asclepius, as well as her time with her mother, and her dealing with arthritis, helped her interrelate her vast medical knowledge with intelligent religious belief and understanding.

Vernon K. Robbins
Atlanta, GA (WABE, 90.1 FM)

Dealing with Stress (September 4, 2008)
Most people would agree that life is a balancing act and that what we strive to do, in most aspects of our lives is move toward the middle. To be at the poles, meaning at the extremes of anything we choose to focus on, is an unbalancing, and so it is, we are all on that tight rope, striving to stay on board, on foot slightly in front of the other. I like to think of the childhood see-saw as the metaphoric connect here that is profound. If we are too much in the middle, meaning right there, then the see-saw ceases its motion. We need, all of us, to be slightly off balance, but not too off balance.

I do love the connect also to see, what is seen, and saw, what is the result of our actions.

Our bodies do have an inbuilt homeostatic mechanism. Often however, we are jolted, as life itself is filled with such shocks as we go about our own story, encountering obstacles in our paths. Stress is not only a fact of our micro lives, meaning family, the nuclear aspects, but also it exists in the outer dimensions, because we do know we are all of us part of a conflicted arena that involves wars, destruction of the environment, the stresses inherent in keeping life afloat also in environmental disasters that leave us helpless, and floundering.

There is so much literature these days that has accumulated about caring for ourselves. We do need to attend to that inner voice when it says, Slow Down, Smell the Roses, take time away, imbibe the beauty of another sunset, a day at the lake, a meditation in the quiet of a favorite place.

Susan Sontag wrote a book. The title is so evocative, being Illness As Metaphor. There is so much that can be drawn from the title itself.

We must move towards a holistic way of treating not only ourselves, but our greater environment, because we are more connected to each other than we ever thought possible, and this also means, the animals, the fish, the earth itself. Renewal, personal renewal, involves this connect. To disconnect from this, by retreating too much to offices, to the indoors, away from Nature, is itself toxic and not conducive to emotional or physical health. We also do know that we must attend to our environment. If not now, then when? The pollutants that are in the air, in the soil, in the water, are mostly man-made. Spirituality means attention to all aspects of creation and individual responsibility that puts a positive thrust into all that we do.

Positivity, we do know, in a real way, is generative and contagious. Stress is a big aspect of all of our lives. Meditation and alternative healing are now not "out there" but part of mainstream medicine. There is a profound merger going on in all disciplines. Science is catching up. Medicine must catch up. It's all truly ONE and when we realize this we have WON a large part of the battle.

Ruth Housman
Newton, MA (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Crete and Healing (December 3, 2007)
I found SOF when Dick Gordon of The Story mentioned it. This particular episode is very meaningful to me. I live on Crete and am working to ease stress because when I overdo my body shouts at me to slow down with a painful rash on my face! It isn't as easy to stay relaxed here as I had hoped! My husband is a high-powered environmental engineer teaching and researching around the world. I have two teenage daughters (I don't even want to talk about cell phones, and our house has a wireless environment so we can use our computers to access the Internet 24/7).

Crete has many wonderful niches to experience private, quiet, healing time in nature. We went to a wonderful celebration at a small church tucked away on a mountain top. The host had promised God that he would build a church on the spot if God would heal the cancer that had entered his body. And it happened! The man was shining with good health as he invited us all to join in a meal prepared in the courtyard of the church he had built in honor of God and Saint Osios Onoufrios the Egyptian, who aids in healing.

Also it is easy to find well-educated caring medical doctors with all the most recent technology. I have found it so easy to find the medication and medical support I need here. In the U.S. the situation was just the opposite. So I'm happy to hear Dr. Steinberg's wonderful information. I agree with the two step solution; I find it easy to find scientific help and believe spiritual help is within my own power to embrace, especially here on Crete. I hope she will visit here again!

Vicki Nikolaidis
Chania, Greece (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Personal Experience of the Impact of Stress and Health (August 22, 2007)
As a child living in India, I contracted a non-specific liver disease that, at the time, damaged my liver. After moving the USA at the age of 4, my parents and I found that a regulated diet and relatively quiet life kept the liver deterioration under control—so much so that by the teenage years, I was considered perfectly normal. With the exception of minor common illness, my health remained more or less normal. This was until about 5 years ago, when a series of hurtful and traumatic incidents led to severe depression and the gradual deterioration of my liver. I am now being considered for a liver transplant, and neither doctors nor I have no other explanation for degenerating health other than stress.

Mohan Sagar
Denver, CO (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Stress Response Off-Switch (August 6, 2007)
I'm a clinical psychologist long teaching patients to use what Dr. Herbert Benson, a Boston cardiologist,researched and described in the 1970's as the 'relaxation response'. I'm surprised Sternberg did not discuss this in the excellent program on stress and the body mind connection. Benson further refined his research by studying what happened when subjects used a faith based word in their practice of the relaxation response—the effects were even larger and this is described in Benson's book, Beyond the Relaxation Response.

This information has been available and standard practice in the field of Behavioral Medicine since the 1970's and 80's. It was beautifully presented on video by Bill Moyers video series in the early 1990's, Healing and the Mind. I have long taught patients suffering from anxiety, depression, PTSD, and medical conditions to breathe, relax, and train their physiology to switch off the fight or fight response (sympathetic nervous system) and switch on what Benson named the relaxation response (parasympathic nervous system). Jon Kabat Zinn has also done copious research at University of Massachusetts on using the meditation practice of Mindfulness to obtain the same, measurable physiological effects. I'm just curious why Sternberg did not highlight this in her talk. She so articulately described the problem and new research, but left the solution fairly vague, when we really do have as much information about that as well.

Helen Daly
Brattleboro, VT (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

A New Healing (July 20, 2007)
I am 27 years old, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was 22, and was devastated to have this lifelong disease as an active young woman. With many pills of medication, I have come to a virtually pain-free existence, but have phases of time where my arthritis reminds me that I have a disease working in my body.

I was listening to Esther Sternberg's thoughts and research as I was driving to Iowa (to visit my mom who also has RA). Her thoughts inspired me to look into a more holistic approach to my health. While pill after pill helps, I do believe that I need to pay attention to my soul and mind as well. My rheumatologists do not prescribe meditation, just medication. I also related to her words about finding peace and how that can lead to healing.

I become discouraged at times when I think of how this disease weighs me down, but her words gave me hope. That is healing in itself.

Katie Hahn
Minneapolis, MN (Listens to SOF on Demand)

Illness, Germs, Work, and Accomplishment (July 18, 2007)
This was a very interesting program. It reminded me of a few notions I picked up along the way. It seems that modern science-based medicine is finally learning what others have known for millennia. You mentioned this in the program, but it's so "remarkable" that it bears repeating.

In most instances when I, as an adult, have gotten an infectious illness, I can attribute it to a shortage of sleep or to stress. This leads to my own "germ theory" of disease: germs are always around; they are available whenever you need them. You get sick when you let them take over. Of course, exposure is an important factor, and when medicine discovered germs, it made great strides by trying to reduce the transmission of germs. But that is, as you know, just a part of the story.

One of the strongest factors in making one feel good is accomplishments — that is, doing some work and successfully completing what one has set out to do. Conversely, a great source of work-related stress is not being able to finish my tasks. That might be a matter of the work load, or it may be about my abilities, but I often find that what I most need is the time and space to finish my work. Thus, to "get away" from my work — presumably to relax — is the exact opposite of what I need. (Now, I'd better quit this and get back to work.)

David Kantor
Baltimore, MD (WYPR, 88.1 FM)

Trauma Therapy (July 17, 2007)
I was so excited when I listened to Dr. Sternberg. I am an incest survivor and as I was going through trauma therapy to reprocess the traumatic memories into one's regular memory system — with the intense stuff I would often get a cold that would last for weeks and weeks. I finally made the connection that with all the negative energy, one must consciously choose to rebalance. Go to Gentle Touch's Web page, to Stories by Survivors and read what I wrote entitled "What is a Survivor." That is the piece that came to me first, but then I realized there was much more to write. So go to the folder "Incest...a Journey to Love" for it is a roadmap of my healing process. These are a series of writings that end with "The Impossible Dream."

Mary Ali
Beaver Falls, PA (WYSU, 88.5 FM)

A Couple of Thoughts (July 16, 2007)
You mentioned that since September 11, 2001 we have become a nation which is in fear, which is something we are not used to, whereas the rest of the world has been accustomed to this for centuries. It has not been that long since we were also elsewhere in the world. I believe we are in fear very much because of the commercial and political opportunities which arise out of creating this particular form of stress.

But what I really want to say is that I am glad to hear that "science" is finally progressing to the point of accepting the truth about the role of emotional well-being in our image of "good health." This is something which has been known for many centuries. I hope that there will be a lot more positive work done on the subject of achieving and maintaining balance in our lives. I only hope that the drug companies do not get a patent on it before it becomes "common knowledge."

Tom Cook
Asheville, NC (WCQS, 88.1 FM)

Unplugged (July 16, 2007)
I was very (very!) surprised at a moment in your discussion with Dr. Esther Sternberg about stress. Dr. Sternberg in an off-hand way mentioned that she couldn't use her computer when she went away with her friends because she didn't have the right adaptor. The conversation sped along about her miraculous recovery, etc. In an off-the-cuff way, in fact, she mentioned that her hosts were disappointed that she couldn't use her computer to record all of her insights that occurred on this break.

It seems to me that a nice long scientific look (or at least a sentence or two in your conversation) might be addressed to the topic of not able using a computer for days on end. And how this might have contributed to the quality of her insights, to having more physical activity which is beneficial, to being able to focus and sustain a thought, to being away from electromagnetism (debatable and yet), and so on.

Jane Nisselson
New York, NY (WNYC, 93.9 FM)

Healing Balance in Prison (July 16, 2007)
Today's SOF sparkled for me, so many truths lighting up and highlighting fundamentals I so often use in the work I do. I work to help others heal, but not physically. I work with prison inmates, striving toward personal healing of a more social nature. I teach with the Thresholds program, teaching incarcerated individuals decision-making skills. Thresholds emphasizes gaining self-control through conscious decision making, resisting reacting on just emotions.

We teach a specific six-step decision-making process, but we also teach many ideas and concepts that underlie the idea of decision making and self control. So many things Esther Sternberg says correspond with and reinforce the things we teach in Thresholds. We talk much about how our perceptions influence our feelings and behaviors. We teach "objective self-awareness," stepping back and looking at oneself and one's situations. We talk about "gifts and limits" in situations and "internal elements and external elements" or "facts and feelings" in a situation. These things are about balance, how the external influences the internal and vice versa, and when an individual recognizes all this and how it works he or she can use it in the decisions he/she makes in life.

The neurological aspect of things is interesting. At the state prison where I volunteer, teach, and coordinate the Thresholds program, many of our clients are drug offenders. Of course drug and alcohol use is very much about neural connections, synapses, and neurotransmitters. Being in prison and learning to handle life so as not to return is very much about healing and disease.

And as for finding beauty and awe inspiring experiences in life, that is all well and good, but poor folks in the inner city cannot see ocean vistas or even sunsets. Prison is even more limiting. Finding beauty for them can be hard — maybe not impossible, but with so much that is frightful and ugly around them, finding places and moments for peaceful wonder is a real challenge. Yet wondrous beauty is indeed there: in their children, music, art, true friendships. They do need to learn the importance of finding it and using well what it gives them.

I have long asked my clients what their sources of strength are. Maybe I should also ask them where they can find beauty and peace. It all does take practice and true belief, another truth that struck me on this morning's show. Those clients I work with who believe in what they learn in Thresholds and practice it, who practice finding strength to make and implement decisions in their lives, who practice finding beauty and peace so they can really make good decisions, those are the ones who will make it and not come back to prison and will not be in a prison of their own making on the outside.

Tina Stanton
Rutledge, PA (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

Breastfeeding and Stress (July 15, 2007)
I loved the interview with Esther Sternberg, which I heard this morning while puttering in my garden — a big-time stress-reducer for me. I have been fascinated with breastfeeding since the birth of my first child in 1968. Most of my working and volunteer career has been as a lactation consultant and breastfeeding advocate. Recent scientific evidence is showing more and more that the mind-body link is very strong in lactating women.

Breastfeeding can be a huge stress if it is not going well, but when it is functioning normally, it's a great stress-reliever for both mother and child. Of course this stress-reducing effect has multiple benefits on the survival, growth, and development of both partners in the breastfeeding couple, including the immune system. One example: recent studies show a lower incidence of diabetes later in life for both the breastfeeding mothers and the children they breastfed. A key researcher in this area is Kerstin Uvnäs-Moberg, a Swedish gastroenterologist. I first ran across her work (where else) in a Scientific American article.

The hormones that are central to breastfeeding include GI hormones like cholecystokinin and reproductive hormones like oxytocin. These hormones turn out to have big effects on the brain and behavior as well as on the breasts.

Chris Mulford
Swarthmore, PA (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

I Could Have Listened for Hours (July 15, 2007)
I wanted to say how much I enjoyed today's show with Esther Sternberg. As I listened I sat still and reclined and went into a state of total relaxation. I could have listened for hours more. It is so important to "allow" ourselves to float in life occasionally and to let go of the need for constant productivity and the guilt that comes with not being constantly productive. I thought the topic was great and her insights that married the science with the emotion were fascinating. It is a topic that could be expanded on endlessly it seems. Thanks for the great programming.

Jean Laughton
Interior, SD (KZSD, 102.5 FM)

Self Study and a Personal Story (July 15, 2007)
When my late husband was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer in 1997, the prognosis without treatment was six months to live. Since stage IV kidney cancer does not respond to chemo, radiation, or surgery, we opted for medical immunology (Interferon), augmented by adjunctive therapy. The Interferon improves survival from something like 2 percent or 10 percent to 36 percent or something like that, as I recall we were told at the time.

To devise something useful, I conducted a self-directed study of psycho-neuro-immunology, the branch of medicine that studies the mind-body connection. In a far less scientific way than the Scientific American article, this is what I learned: when we're under stress, we tend to tense our muscles. Our blood pressure goes up and respiration is suppressed. As a result, oxygen and nutrients have a harder time reaching cells, and cellular destruction begins to take place. Thinking relaxing thoughts can help to reverse this process. Thus, many cancer patients are told to "visualize" events that yield happy, relaxed, positive feelings.

In Jim's case, we used a combination of individual therapy, group therapy, music therapy, art therapy, relaxation response, and play therapy to distract his mind from the functional losses he was experiencing and hopefully reverse, or at least slow, the progress of the disease. Whether it was a result of the Interferon or the adjunctive therapy, Jim lived 18 months with a fairly high quality of life and very little pain.

With all due respect to Ms. Sternberg, I think it's well established that the split between medical healing and religion took place with Galileo, when science agreed to study the natural world in scientific ways while the Catholic Church (the only Christian church at the time, I believe) pursued care of the soul. I really enjoy your program every week. Keep up the good work!

Norma Bauer
Lansing, MI (WUOM, 91.7 FM)

The Balance Within (July 15, 2007)
Your program this morning has been so very enlightening and well presented. This is my one day off from running my business out of my home. Not being a particularly religious person, other programs have been interesting but this one was much more interesting to me. This topic has been running through my mind for years! I am on my way to the book store to purchase Esther Sternberg's book. I have several friends I want to share this with, as well as the audio on your Web site. Thank you so much.

Pat France
Towson, MD (WYPR, 88.1 FM)

Faith as a Cause of Stress (July 15, 2007)
I didn't hear all of the show on stress, but I heard no mention of faith in a deity and afterlife as a source of stress. One could easily argue that such faith is, indeed, the major source of stress in the modern world. Look at Baghdad, Africa, Northern Ireland, etc. Long ago, the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius realized that faith in deities or an after-life actually added stress to one's real life. Giving up such fantasies, he said, would remove a great deal of this stress or anxiety. You might want to try it!

Jeffrey Myers
Reisterstown, MD (WYPR, 88.1 FM)

It was Dynamite (July 16, 2007)
I just heard your 2006 rebroadcast of the Stress interview with Doctor Esther Stern and her book "The Balance Within" and thought it was dynamite (in the best sense of the word). Its application in today's environment is especially important in light of 9/11 and all that portends, both consciously and subconsciously to our society. I have been a fan and longtime listener to the show and cannot recall another time when I felt more compelled to express my appreciation. Thank you.

Bob Abate
Yonkers, NY (WNYC, 93.9 FM)

A Culture of Fear (January 20, 2006)
I have been a regular listener and encourage your program to continue challenging the faith communities to look at the world through larger eyes. I do want to comment on the conclusion of the interview with Esther Sternberg. When she spoke of fear in our lives, she made reference to 9/11 as a watershed for Americans who now live in fear as a result of the attacks. This may be true for the wealthy and the white communities. However, the poor and communities of color have long lived in fear and borne the stress and anxiety brought on by institutional racism, systems of brutality represented by police and prisons, as well as the insecurity of poverty. By referencing 9/11 she played into the hands of the people who have created a "culture of fear" and view most of the rest of the world as the enemy. Her comments represent the community of privilege in the U.S. and reveal a truncated view of history.

Alexander Jacobs
Milwaukee, WI (WUWM, 89.3 FM)

Another Resource Positive "Being" (January 19, 2006)
There is a clinical program that has emerged over the years at University of Pennsylvania. Note that this is the same medical school in which Dr. Aaron Beck developed cognitive behavioral therapy. This newly developed approach is called "authentic happiness" (yes, really!) by Dr. Martin Seligman. The authentic happiness program has been very much Web-enabled for research and outreach. It has now grown into a Masters degree program at Penn. Thanks!

William Marston
Philadelphia, PA (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

Science and Health (January 18, 2006)
Since September, 2005, I have had several health crises, one right after the other: a major hernia repair, with 20 staples (my belly now looks like I am sporting a new zipper); a diagnosis of "Barrett's Esophagus" which can (but not always) lead to cancer; and last month an allergic reaction during which time I received some bad advice from a triage phone nurse and, when I sought medical care from an urgent care center for the resulting hives and welts, I was not even asked about my medical allergies or the meds I currently take. The staff, without checking records, or my medical ID bracelet, or my wallet info, or asking my husband who was with me, gave me some meds which caused terrible interactions and adverse reactions. I understand I could have died from this. Combine these stressors with unemployment for my husband and me and that we have exhausted our savings to pay for health insurance.

I feel I am experiencing post-traumatic stress from the allergic and adverse reactions and feel very fatigued. I have begun to see a wonderful pastoral counselor. I should be looking for a source of income, but I am still healing from the health issues. I have given myself permission to take some time off and truly heal emotionally and physically, so that, when I resume my employment search, I will be truly ready. I have been affirmed by some close friends and my husband, as well as my counselor. I have been walking my dog, stroking my kitties, who know how to find quiet, praying, doing some spiritual and restorative reading, including dipping into a wonderful book which your listeners might find insightful and covers some of the same themes of this program: Sabbath, Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives" by Wayne Muller. The book is wonderful for people of all faith traditions or no faith tradition. There is some wonderful poetry and some suggested ideas for finding quiet. Thank you for this program — it affirms just what I needed. I am going to take a look at her book and have reserved the library copy.

Sandy Schmidt
Milwaukee, WI (WUWM, 89.7 FM)

Science and Health (January 18, 2006)
I disagree that science is bringing us back. It is more like science is opening its eyes. The number one cause of distress in peoples lives is denial. We try so hard to ignore the connections between stress in our lives and our well-being. Check out John Bradshaw's definition of codependence — born out of hypervigilance experienced in childhood. Can't wait till science can measure what happens when children experience stress before they are given tools to deal with it. Perhaps the scariest thought is that more children are experiencing this today then ever before thanks to the media and entertainment industries.

Dave White
Columbia, MD (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Recovering Codependent Caregiver (January 16, 2006)
Your program reminded me of the importance of balance. Caring for my husband since his stroke 16 months ago has been the cause of chronic stress for me. I feel like we've been joined at the hip due to the degree of his dependence on me. Gradually, as he recovers, I've insisted on more "disconnect" or "down" time. The feeling of overwhelming guilt sometimes spoils this time of refreshment. Gradually I'm becoming able to enjoy my time away from him. Thank you for another weapon in my arsenal for protective self-care.

Cathy Garrett
Brandon, MS (WMPN, 91.3 FM)

Complementary Text (January 15, 2006)
It seems to me that the ideas of Caroline Myss (your biography is your biology) are an interesting sideline or extension of some of the ideas presented in Ms. Sternberg's book.

Kathryn Dilley
Grand Rapids, MI (WVGR, 104.1 FM)

Recovery from Stress (January 15, 2006)
I recently underwent triple-bypass heart surgery, and my recovery was particularly rapid and dramatic. I went back to work part time after four weeks at home, and after another two months am up and at it full time, with my cardiopulmonary rehabilitation program in full cry. I am 65 years old. There is little doubt that this wonderfully rapid recovery was facilitated by my spiritual surrender prior to the surgery. I welcomed the intervention. I had reached the point where surgery was necessary without having suffered a heart attack, and perceived myself as therefore very fortunate. As a consequence, this process has been much, much less stressful than it ordinarily is.

There are reasons this is true. I am a musical hobbyist — I play the recorder — and that activity helped speed the normal resumption of my pulmonary function. I am also an amateur photographer, and I spend long periods of time at my computer editing and retouching my images, something that concerns beauty but which is known to me alone (at least at the point when editing occurs, this is a solitary pursuit, unless I call one of my daughters over to see the beauty of what I've created/recorded). The sharing comes when the images are exhibited (or when I participate in chamber music concerts with my recorder!). I have taught all six of my children to love the beauty of the earth, and this is a source of the kind of peace that your guest's father engendered with his encouragement that she hear the sounds of peace. What a wonderful father, and what a tremendous enjoinder! It is something I will remember and pass on to my offspring. Thank you, and thank you guest for her work.

Your show is a beacon of wonder and stimulation every week. I have benefited greatly from your work. For instance, I bought the books of Avivah Zornberg on Genesis and Exodus, and continue to read them with friends. Again, thanks!

Richard Adams
Chicago, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Help! Freedom from My Cycle of Stress (January 15, 2006)
Thank you so much for having this as a topic on your show. It helped explain a dark cloud of stress that I have over me. I am about to turn 25 and I am coming through my quarter life crises. My father had two strokes last year so 2005 was a difficult year. Apart from trying to cope with the stress of being his caregiver. In my growing up with him (my father was a diplomat) we constantly moved. Now I see that I have been carrying around a lot of stress over the years and I am now convinced that I must take time daily to de-stress before I spend the next 25 years in psychological and physical pain. I learned from the program that stress hormones are real and important. I feel OK to cut my self some slack! Thanks sincerely.

Josephine Onah
Woodbridge, VA (WETA, 90.9 FM)

Healing Memories and RA (January 15, 2006)
On the maternal side of my family, autoimmune diseases have been rampant. My brother, my sister, and I were all stricken with RA [rheumatoid arthritis] in our late 20's or early 30's. A maternal aunt died not from the disease but from the cortisone she took in an effort to control it. My brother died at the age of 58 — again not from the disease but from drug side effects. In the early 1970's, I became dramatically ill with RA. I could do almost nothing for myself and began ingesting various anti-inflammatories prescribed by the rheumatologist who also treated my brother and sister. I got worse rather than better.

I intuited a connection between emotions and the disease and began to read what I could on the subject — especially the writings of Paul Tournier, a Swiss psychiatrist. One day, convinced that there was another way to healing, I flushed my predisone down the potty — a very foolish act — however, I suffered no bad side effects of doing so. I began going inside to examine memories and emotions. I slowly began to get better. There were no guides. No one took me seriously. Members of my family became very defensive and tuned me out. My doctor suggested that I was mentally unbalanced. Although sed rates remained high, my RA symptoms went into remission and I lived a full life.

In 1987, during a time a great stress, symptoms returned and I was diagnosed with lupus. I repeated by own "RX" of years before — coupled with drinking large amounts of water and getting extra sleep. I got better. The rheumatologist could not explain what had happened. Blood work still pointed to autoimmune disease. I am not entirely symptom free but enough so to allow me to live a full, active, productive life. Years before the medical community recognized it, I had stumbled on the relationship between emotions and autoimmune illness.

Mariposa Stroup
St. Louis, MO (KWMU, 90.7 FM)

Recognizing the Source of Discovery (January 15, 2006)
I am very grateful to have heard the interview with Esther Sternberg. Her work and her observations have been and continue to be valuable. I would hasten to add that another title of this interview could be and perhaps, should be, "Doctors come late to these understandings." The critical factor has been that until just recently the evidence base was not accepted by physicians and researchers. The privileged position of physicians and researchers then determines to whom will be listened. Long before they began to lay claim to these areas the contemplative traditions and, much more recently, the general area of behavioral science knew these things. Furthermore, there is little if any evidence that physicians and the current reimbursement structure for healthcare really pays any attention to these matters. Still the physician gets the recognition and the dollars. The privileged position of third-person narratives must be balanced with first-person narratives. And, recognition of both perspectives must equally be given in terms of where the knowledge originated and payment for such knowledge and service given.

Linnea Larson
Oak Park, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Personal Connection (January 15, 2006)
You have done it again! A stellar program — not unlike everything you do. You have the best program on NPR. "Stress and the Balance Within" validated me in a way nothing else has. What was discussed I have known for a very long time, but no one in the medical profession addresses this issue or even acts like they understand it. Unfortunately we have been taught that doctors have all the answers, a fallacy I uncovered in my own life many years and many medical mistakes ago. I have dealt with life-long stress and am now, at 57, arthritic, have celiac sprue (the mother of all autoimmune diseases), Hasimoto's thyroid, CFS/FM, and who knows what else. My mother, who is now 95+, did not develop arthritis or get gray hair until her late 70s or 80s. Unlike me, she led an almost stress-free life. Thank you for providing not only validation, but also the concept of going "off line." I now have permission to take time off for me. I feel better already!

Jane Asher
Kentwooe, MI (WVGR, 104.1 FM)

Spirituality, Healing, and East/West Interpenetration (January 15, 2006)
Congratulations on a wonderful program. One point that I think could have been brought out more fully is that the growing research on stress-reducing techniques such as meditation and yoga has helped to expose more Americans to Eastern spiritualities and has made study of these techniques more palatable. I've been using these techniques as well as Westerns ones like hypnosis for decades, and I am seeing growing acceptance and openness to Eastern traditions in people who still retail a basically Western spiritual tradition. It's leaven in the cross-cultural mix of modern America.

Paul Larson
Chicago, IL (WBEZ, 91.5)

Stress and Disease (January 14, 2006)
I was surprised that, as a Jew, the doctor did not address the consequences of stress' relationship to disease on a spiritual level. If stress affects our ability to fight disease, what happens when someone dies and we then bare responsibility for the stress in their lives? It is problematic for people, and their families, who are attacked by cancer to accept this relationship. You see, the guilt and blame can then be passed round for generations to come. In Judaism, there is a sensibility toward death that would not support such a strong sense of blame. If stress enables disease, this equation leaves open years of misery on the families that are already emotionally maimed by tragic deaths. If you are a victim of disease that is one thing; if you are a part of the problem that is quite different.

Annie Larson
Brooklyn, NY (WNYC, )

What Responsibility the Current Bush Government for Living in a Time of Fear (January 14, 2006)
Thank you for this program. I was connecting to all that was said throughout. I used to call it "the lulls" (your going "off line") when I was in a full-time stressful job that sometimes reached a point where the demands had cooled for a bit. I felt guilty when the stress was gone for that little while. That was until I spoke with my boss and she explained that these down times didn't come too often, so enjoy them when they did. I never felt guilty again.

But what I really wanted to comment on was the final part of the program where the issue of the current condition in the U.S. was raised — living in a constant state of stress and fear. As an American who lives overseas and is observing from afar, it breaks my heart to realize that this situation is generated by the most powerful in the land and pretty much self-inflicted. It is disgraceful to shape the situation as the Bush government has done to frighten the population on a continuous basis. Scientists (at least I hope I'm right in saying this) such as your guest have an understanding of statistical probability that should show that the likelihood of any one individual in the U.S. being attacked by terrorists is so remote as to be wholly impossible. And yet, the stress and fear that has been caused by boldly stating "the world has forever changed" is so harmful to the mental and physical well-being of the citizens that it is beyond description. If the world has changed, it is as a result of the government causing that change in how they have couched the argument, not the event itself. And that is just plain insanity.

I hate to think of what this must be doing to the children of the country. As an example, I have family in the U.S. who are also concerned about this. It's almost like the Civil War era, brother against brother etc., in the division of opinion on this situation among my relatives. To keep a level of peace, things aren't talked about, opinions are kept back when another nephew or brother or son is sent to Iraq on this insane "quest" based on lies and very bad representations of reality.

I do hope that Dr. Sternberg and her colleagues can put an argument to reverse this sick view of being always fearful, on the basis of this work on the effects of stress and this level of change on the health of the nation. I hope that she can find a way to grab the attention of those in power about the damage that they have already done and must now stop doing to the American public, and in many ways, those of us living in countries allied with the U.S. in its current destructive ways. (The Australian approach was almost laughable if it weren't so Orwellian: Fridge magnets with the slogan "Be alert, not alarmed.") War is not safe for living beings and false wars against invisible enemies and "isms" are exponentially bad because they leave hidden scars that won't heal for generations.

Jan Whitaker
Melbourne, Australia (Listens to SOF OnDemand)