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NOT STRESSING THE SMALL STUFF

Baseball pitcher Tug McGraw first came up with the concept of the “frozen iceball theory.” It’s Game Seven of the World Series, bottom of the ninth, two outs, you’re ahead by one run, but the bases are loaded with Yankees, and the best slugger in the world is standing at the plate. Back in Tug’s era, a hitter like Reggie Jackson would have come to mind. And you have a full count on him, but you know full well that Mr. October is up there, just COILED, ready to put 225 pounds of pure muscle into this next and final pitch. It’s either going to be a strikeout or a monster grand slam. There’s no third alternative.

And by McGraw’s own admission, he says, “I do not want to throw that pitch. I don’t want to.” It reminds me of the cute story, told by George Will, where a nervous pitcher out there shook off the catcher’s first sign. Then the second one. And the third one. I mean, this guy did not want to throw up there a fastball, a slider, a curve, a nothing. He didn’t want to face the ka-boom! he was sure was about to follow. And finally the catcher walked out to the mound and said, “Look, we gotta throw something at this guy. What do YOU suggest?” And the pitcher responds: “Let’s just wait for a while. Maybe he’ll get a phone call.”

Anyway, Tug McGraw, standing there on the mound, facing the menacing pinstripes of Reggie Jackson, #44, doesn’t want to pitch to him either. But then he remembers the frozen iceball theory. “Ten million years from now,” he tells reporters later, “the sun is going to burn itself out, the universe will self-destruct, all the lights will be extinguished, and Planet Earth will be nothing but a frozen iceball drifting aimlessly through space. And when that happens,” he says, “ain’t nobody going to remember what Reggie Jackson did with the pitch that I threw up to him in Game Seven of some World Series.”

Well, that’s a theory. Some of us Dodger fans still remember what Mr. Jackson did with three pitches in the last game of the 1976 World Series, but that’s only a quarter century ago, not ten million years. But here’s why I bring up the frozen iceball theory today. As we explore issues of health — and get into today’s topic: stress — we learn that it’s so important to keep a healthy perspective on things. They say in baseball: “It’s only a game. One team wins, one team loses.” People hit home runs; they strike out. But it’s only a game. Keep your perspective.

These two marvelous authors, Jan Kuzma and Cecil Murphey, have so many incredible insights to share here in Chapter Fourteen of their book, Live 10 Healthy Years Longer. There’s a story about a lady named Barbara, who had a job taking reservations for Delta Airlines. And you can imagine some of the stress levels she faced: customers screaming at her, flights being canceled — with her taking the flak. She actually liked the work, and the people. Most of the time. “But why am I feeling so stressed?” she wondered.

She had a few sessions with her church pastor, and finally came to understand two things. First of all, when people got angry and threw airline timetables at her, she was able to say to herself: “They’re not really mad at me. I just happen to represent the airline. I’m the person standing in front of them.” Confused, not-thinking-straight people, wanting to scream at Delta CEO Leo F. Mullin, were using her as a convenient scapegoat.

Even with that realization, Barbara got to the point where the stress levels were actually giving her headaches on the job. But she learned to say, when it got really bad: “This is only a job. It’s not my life.”

Jan and Cecil suggest to us that we all face four types of stress: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. Any or all of the four can get “out of round,” spin out of control.

“One way to look at stress,” they write, “is to think of it as the result of a misfit. Stress builds when you feel uncomfortable, unwanted, overwhelmed, or fearful. . . . To be free of stress, you need to live in an environment that fits you. This may mean you need to change jobs. Why be imprisoned in a vocation of drudgery?”

One aspect of stress that they describe was quite an interesting metaphor, and I’d like to pass it along to all of you. In a sense, they write, we all have two bank accounts. We have a certain amount of physical energy and strength which, as the years go by, tends to slowly wear down. Obviously, the more we embrace this Live-Longer Lifestyle, and the more we follow some of the ideas in this book, Live 10 Healthy Years Longer, the more we’re going to have in that physical bank account.

But the second account is a psychological one; they describe it as our psychological energy level, so it’s a fluctuating bank account. And some things actually work out to be DEPOSITS in that account: a raise at work, a good vacation, happy moments in your marriage. It can grow stronger as the years go by; you can consciously work to get compound interest, so to speak.

Now, our reactions to the stressors of life largely depend on the overall balance in those two accounts: physical and psychological. True, we’re going to get old; we’re going to use up some of that so-called physical “vital force.” But we can get stronger physically by following these plain laws of health, and we can also choose attitudes and a lifestyle that will keep our psychological account full as well.

Here’s the flip side to that metaphor of the bank accounts. True, being physically “bankrupt” can lead to stress, and cause you to react badly to it. It’s equally true that stress turns around and can make us physically ill. The train runs both ways on the tracks. They quote the late Dr. Hans Selye, known as the “father of stress research,” who did so much study on the “fight or flight” syndrome, and all the physical changes that happen in your body when you face stressors. If you let unresolved stress just keep building up, it can actually go like this:

“Over a period of time, your system self-exhausts. You use up your reserves” — remember those twin bank accounts — “and you feel fatigued, disoriented, detached, or depressed. You may develop psychosomatic symptoms, such as headaches, backaches, muscle twitching, rashes, or wheezing.” Then Selye adds: “Sometimes you name this energy-deficient syndrome burnout.”

Meyer Friedman, a psychologist who coined the term “Type A personality,” tells us that high stress levels do more than high fat, hypertension, lack of exercise, or even smoking to bring on coronary artery disease in Type A people.

Well, once again let’s take a deep, relaxing breath, and go sit in an easy chair by the seashore as we think about the “Getting Practical” things we can do — besides all quit our jobs — to cope with stress. Jan and Cecil suggest, first of all, exercise . . . which we’ve already studied. Moderate exercise — you remember they recommend walking more than anything — can flood your body with endorphins, which can boost your moods. Be sure to make it a form of exercise that you enjoy, though.

Number two is to eat right. One reason — besides the fact that you’ll feel better — is that a good nutrition program strengthens you for those unavoidable “fight or flight” moments that happen to all of us.

Number three: relax. Easier to say than to do, but these two writers share some excellent techniques you can try. And that really connects with Number Four, which is hugely important: Think Right. Remember that lady at Delta Airlines, Barbara, who couldn’t change the nasty attitudes of the people standing in line after a canceled flight. But she could change how SHE felt, how SHE reacted. And it made all the difference.

You know, even Jesus apparently knew something about stress and attitudes. Remember that story where He told poor Jewish peasants, “If a Roman soldier makes you carry his load for one mile, carry it for two instead”? And at first glance, that sounds like the dumbest thing in the world. Talk about double your road rage . . . and this is at three miles an hour on the hot Jericho road. But don’t forget: the Roman soldier could only force you to carry it for one. That was the law. And for that first mile, he owned you. All you could do was bite your lip. But if you carried his backpack for that second mile, you owned HIM! Now you were in charge — and you could say to the soldier, “No, no, I got it” . . . knowing in your heart, “Man, I’m killing him. He’s so embarrassed that I’m doing this and not acting like I mind.” Cecil and Jan tell that story with relish, and conclude:

“How you react in bad situations is your choice. By making the choice yourself, you build your energy level.”

Last suggestion: Think Spiritually. Someone once said about stress: “First of all, don’t stress the small stuff. Secondly, it’s all small stuff.” And really, that’s true. You and I are going to live forever. You and I have Calvary. You and I have Jesus. Does it really matter SO MUCH if someone hits a home run off us, or complains because we made their plane late?