Mastering Stress for Optimal Health: Ancient Hawaiian Wisdom Offers the Way
Taking a vacation in Hawaii will certainly take you away from your daily stress. But, for me, I had to learn Hawaiian healing practices for the relaxation response to last.
To cope with the demands of a busy job like mine as Manager of the Alta Bates Summit Diabetes Center in Berkeley, California, I have embraced traditional Hawaiian mind-body healing techniques that are beneficial in coping with stress and as a complement to any medical regimen.
According to the ancient Hawaiian Huna philosophy, stress plays a role in all illness. Increasingly, modern medical research continues to demonstrate this relationship between stress and disease, linking stress to everything from high blood pressure and heart disease to chronic pain and obesity.
Of course, we are always going to have spikes in stress in our jobs and our lives, but we don’t want it to be chronic. There are many ways, such as yoga and meditation, that I use daily to relax my body and mind. But when a crisis hits, I use the “instant healing” techniques taught by Serge Kahili King, PhD, a Hawaii-trained kupua healer, to stop the stress reaction in its tracks.
The body’s innate self-healing abilities can be restored if you relieve tension caused by physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual stress, King teaches.
On a physical level, my favorite stress relief tip from Dr. King is deep abdominal breathing, which can calm the release of stress chemicals in the body and oxygenate the cells. “Piko-piko is a special Hawaiian breathing technique that simultaneously relaxes and energizes the body,” says King. Imagine breathing in the energy of the sun and exhaling it through your navel. (In addition to being a nurse, you will be a shaman harnessing the healing power of nature.)
To relieve mental stress, pay more attention to what you like than what you don’t. Criticism, whether it’s of yourself, someone else, or even the weather, creates mental stress and then tension in your body, King explains. He recommends a quick mental stress reliever, “Praise of Saturation,” spending a minute focusing on everything you love about yourself or the world.
On an emotional level, anger is often linked to inflammatory processes, so practice forgiveness. Even if you don’t know why you’re angry, you can place one hand on a sore area of your body and point the other hand toward the earth and say, “Whatever this has to do with, I’m letting go.” and let it go forever” until the tension and pain are gone.
On the spiritual level, tension can come from feeling isolated or separated, and the antidote can be as easy as meditating for a minute on something beautiful, until you feel a sense of relaxation wash over you and a greater connection to spirit, your to be better. , or God (work with your own beliefs on this). Once you are in that relaxed state, it is a good time to ask for answers to any problems or to express gratitude for the good in your life.
Dr. King offers more self-healing tools and techniques, such as healing touch and massage, which are also taught at Hawaii Health Getaway retreats, offering 24 CE for nurses and other healing professionals and a healing experience for all.
