Do You Want to Avoid Getting Whacked?

I recently read something interesting in a book titled The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D. It was about how human bodies generate and use energy (see chapter six "Growth and Protection" if you want more details). Dr. Lipton is a cell biologist and his comments made me think that allocating energy to the various body systems designed to promote growth and protection is a bit like playing the game Wac-A-Mole. Wac-A-Mole is a simple game. Moles constantly pop up through holes and you whack them with a hammer. Unfortunately, there are several holes...many moles...and only one hammer. So what does this have to do with human energy use? Let's imagine for a moment that whacking a mole with a hammer symbolizes allocating energy to the various body systems. After all, it takes energy to swing a hammer and whack a mole. According to Dr. Lipton, there are four major body systems or "energy using moles" that may pop up and need to be whacked at times. The body needs energy for:

• The sympathetic "fight or flight" system (to deal with real or perceived external threats)
• The immune system (to deal with internal threats, viruses, bacteria, etc.)
• The cell replacement system (cells constantly wear out and need to be replaced)
• The energy replacement system (it takes energy to generate energy)

Just as you only have one hammer in Wac-A-Mole, you only have so much energy to allocate to the various systems. You just can't whack them all at the same time! Therefore, if one system is hogging too much energy (needs too much whacking), the other systems cannot do their jobs. This, in my mind, is a good illustration of how stress can kill you...or as they say in the Sopranos...whack you. Think about it. If you constantly operate in a stressful environment and your "fight or flight mole" needs constant whacking...there is not enough energy left over to fight off internal threats, generate new energy and replace worn out cells. It's the human body's version of a deadly zero-sum game. Keep up the rushing around, multitasking, overloading, under-relaxing, and all the other stress generating activities, and you will eventually whack yourself. Yes, we all need some stress to function properly. But we don't need to play Wac-A-Mole with our lives. I don't know about you, but I want my immune, cell replacement and energy replacement systems to have all the energy they need to do their jobs.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.