Why???
Why do we add stress to all training we do?
Well there are the obvious and canned answers, but Kyusho Internationals approach is not canned nor is it always obvious what we do.
Yes many purchase the videos or read the websight or even trained for a few years with us, but without the time to unfold all the meanings, layers and neural programming they just do not have the complete picture.
Let's first go to the pre-conceptions of stress and their negative impact on our personal health, as even that is not what it seems. For decades modern medical practices have stated that stress is responsible for every ll from a common cold to cardio vascular health... even cancer. But this is not completely true... it is how you percieve and handle stress that determines the good or bad outcome or ramifications.
There was an 8 year study performed in the US testing 30,000 people with extreme stress. Of those measured that believed stress was bad for them had an astounding 43% increased risk of dying...but only true for those that believed stress was harmful for your health.
It is the belief that stress is harmful is what really makes it harmful... but for those that have learned to embrace it and think differently about it, it becomes a valuable health and martial tool... this is the Vital Point,this is Kyusho.
Some read the natural signs of the body under stress as negative, like your heart beating or pounding faster, breathing faster, getting sweaty, etc. Normally we read these as negative to our condition as developing anxiety or not able to cope with the pressures at hand. In a study conducted at Havard, they instead asked "What if instead you trained yourself to realize that your body was instead getting energized and ready to meet the challenge at hand "? That pounding heart is preparing you for that action (blood demand of muscles), the increase in breathing is oxygenating the brain for action, blood vessels constrict (pathways become smaller as outer arterial walls thicken... and why many doctors believe it was akin to cardio vascular disease as it is not good to be in this state all the time).
But what was discovered was when the individual went through stress events with the outlook of benefit to system over risk to system, the body assimilated these stress responses and maintained unrestricted blood vessels as the heart increased... becoming body strengthening events, not weakeners as most are lead to believe. In fact they resembled the state they take in Joy and Courage... a much healthier physical profile. And going further, over a lifetime of experiences, this this type of training and physiological change (Body Change) could be the key to warding off stress induced heart attacks in your 50's and living well into your 90's.
This is what the new science of stress has reveal, it is what you think about stress that matters...so our goal (as it has been since the beginning), is not to rid you of stress, but to make to you better at handling it. So hopefully even this little written piece will bring value to your life or those in your family. And even if you can not make it to our curses to train this any many other physiological benefits, possibly this small bit of information can help you or a loved one. Because the next time your heart is pounding from stress, you will remember this article (or Viatl Point) and think, this is my body rising to help me with this challenge... when you learn to believe this, your body will actually become healthier.
And if that were not enough... please also realize that stress makes you more social. This is due to a hormone called "oxytocin" also known as the cuddle hormone as it is released when you hug someone. This is a small aspect of this important hormone, more important factors of this neural hormone as it actually fine tunes your brains social instincts. It primes you do things that strengthen close relationships, makes you crave physical contact (Oh Yeah), enhances empathy (I always stated you need this to become good), it even makes you more willing to help and support (protect) those you care about. Oxytocin is a stress hormone that your pituitary gland pumps out as part of the stress response... in fact it is as much a part of your stress response as adrenaline (making your heart rate increase). When released in the stress response it motivates you to seek support others as they in turn support you (sharing that experience with others... are you seeing the similarities in our training yet) .
This stress hormone not only works on your brain it has great affect on your body as well... one of it's main functions... get ready for this; it is to help your cardio vascular system to handle the affects of stress (talk about full circle yin and yang). It is a natural inflammatory, helping the blood vessels stay relaxed (why great masters always seem relaxed in combative actions), during stress. an even more impressive affect is on your heart as your heart has many receptors for this hormone that help heart cells regenerate and heal from stress induced damage. Simply stated, this stress hormone strengthens your heart.
All of these benefits of Oxytocin are enhanced by social contact (again... oh yeah) and support, so when you train in this social contact manner you actually increase the output of the hormone and it's benefits (and we only thought we were hurting each other). Your stress response becomes stronger, healthier and recovers at a faster rate... your stress response actually has a built in mechanism for stress resilience and the mechanism is the human connection we employ in our training.
In yet another study scientists found that heavy stress like financial issues, death of a family member, etc. increased the individuals risk of stress induced death 30%... but those who spent more time in support and helping others (Jeeze sounds like our mission statement), had 0% increase in risk. SO getting past your personal goals, skill attainment, ego and focusing on that of others more... is a major health benefit. So how you think, feel and train your stress determines how you handle life and actually develop the biological aspects of courage. When you choose this path (happily embedded in our training), you develop resilience... when you seek challenge and maybe even something out of your comfort zone, you reap far greater benefits.
So there is the deeper level of why we train at Kyusho International so much differently than other Kyusho groups... we have embedded many deeper physiological and functional aspects in our training.other do not even know exists... be a part of this (professionals you actually owe it your your clients - click here).
-ep
