Cultivate More Stress! Really!

By Shlomo Maital

Tiger Woods is one of the world’s greatest golfers ever, in a league with Palmer, Niklaus, Snead, and Bobby Jones.  He has had personal problems, a messy divorce, back injuries, surgery, and lately hasn’t made the first cut in tournaments.

     Woods was stopped by police, in his car, near his home in Florida, and failed a breathalyzer test. But he had no alcohol in his blood. He had simply taken tranquilizers and fallen asleep; he took enough of them, so that he could not walk a straight line.

     Let’s get this straight. No game has more stress than golf. That final putt? Make it and you win a major. Miss it and you finish second or third – not good. Stress? You bet. Yet doctors have doped up Tiger with Xanax (a blockbuster tranquilizer, making billions for Pfizer), Vicoden, Vioxx and who knows what else. Was he taking Xanax while playing? If so – no wonder he missed the cut.

       Be clear – Xanax is a wonder drug for those who suffer extreme anxiety attacks. Yet it is according to US Food and Drug the most abused tranquilizer, prescribed for millions who do not need it. Why? Because we’ve been taught by Big Pharma and others, that stress is harmful, terrible, to be avoided at all costs, by popping a pill. So pop away…. and help that bottom line of Pfizer.

         I argue here that we need more stress, not less. What is stress? Stress is “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.”   Simply put — We have an unsolved problem, and it bothers us.   Let’s redefine stress.   “…a challenge, that when we solve it (not if), boosts our self-esteem, self-efficacy and our sense of wellbeing”.   Need a pill for that? No. You need to take on the challenge and crack it. Creativity is widening the range of choices. To meet unsolved problems, we can come up a large range of possible solutions. Zoom in, pick one – and go for it. Sometimes you will fail.   That’s part of life. Sometimes you’ll succeed. But if you Xanax the stress, you’ll never get even the chance to succeed.   When you tackle a stressful state, you change your mental outlook from anxiety to action….it’s that simple.

         And – keep in practice. Purposely seek out hard things to do every day, and do them, and feel good about it.   This is super-important for us seniors. It is so easy to pamper yourself, when you’re over 65, just because you have grey hair. Why? Take on challenges. Your body may not be as strong, but your mind sure is.

         Do not be manipulated by Big Pharma.   Welcome stress. Cultivate it. Tackle those big challenges – and crack them.   You can do it.  Popping a Xanax smothers the stress, temporarily, but doesn’t deal with it. It’s not a solution.