Hi, this is Shawn Maguire with the new version counseling, that live Christian marriage counseling Oklahoma City podcast, episode number 20 woo. And I’m so glad it’s our 20th episode 20 such a great number. I don’t know why I just liked it. Number 20 well today guys, I’m going to be talking about why zebras don’t get anxiety texts or ulcers. And really this is a big, this is a big topic. I mean I could go a lot of different ways, but there’s a book that a Guy Name Suppose Ski, I think Robert Sapolsky and he was at Robert Sapolsky. He was a guy that was from Russia or his parents were from Russia and the Ukraine and he was a neuroendocrinologist and he wrote this book why zebras don’t get ulcers. And he added something to the field in that him as a researcher said, stress is a really big deal, but it’s not the only deal that causes problems.
And I just want to start out by saying it’s encouraging to see that he didn’t shame. Like a lot of the authors today or people that speak on this topic kind of shame, they don’t intend to shame. But it can be shaming if you believe that the stress that you allow in your life causes all physical diseases and disorders. Now I do believe it’s a really high percentage of different anxiety disorders, OCD, um, GI problems, even cancer man. You’ll have doctors all over the field and specialists that will validate that the way that you think about your life, the way that you experience your life, where they’re stressful peacefully, the way that you resolve or do not resolve conflict and stored in your body will absolutely impact the way you live your life. And now, one of the things I think is interesting and the animal kingdom, if you ever watch those shows, which I used to watch a lot when I was younger, even before my kids were young, even before I was in Christian marriage counseling Oklahoma City is when there’s a chase, a say a lion and a zebra or line in Excel.
Well it’s a gazelle or the law or the Zebra get away, which Ah, it’s pretty common, but it’s not common on the shows. But let’s say they get away, well, their body goes into this convulsion and starts to shake even our dog when something happens. And the end. He gets overwhelmed. He starts to shake. Whether it’s excitement or it’s just adrenaline pumping through his body, he starts to shake because his digestive system shuts down and is reproductive system shuts down because neither one of those two are needed. If you’re responding to a fight or flight syndrome that you need to survive, your body just focuses on survival. Now, why is that so relevant? Well, animals had this ability to be really in tune with the moment. They don’t forecast stress and advanced. They don’t see the future. They don’t have the ability to get anxious because their brain and the way that God made them does not allow them go into the future and worry about events that have not yet and luckily will not occur.
Thinking about all the areas of your life that you’re worried about last week or even better last month, the stresses of relationship, things that people said or didn’t say and the eventualities that you were so afraid would happen. How many of them actually that you worried about happening? Some may have, but what you’ll discover if you were to keep a running list of all the fears that you have, things rarely are as bad as they seem to be or seem like they could be in the future. But the anxiety overwhelms us today and overwhelms our systems. And you know, think about it. If we live in a situation, which in America, ah, we have, it’s a land of opportunity more now I think than ever before. But that opportunity can become a chronic source of stress and anxiety. Because guess what? You know this, we don’t turn off.
Since the advent of social media, the world of America and in industrial countries does not shut off. People are always posting, going live, putting things on Instagram, Facebook, and you know for sure all of those have a relevant place if you use them appropriately. But if you allow them to use you and abuse, you buy the demands and, and even if there are good opportunities. I know last year I got caught up in really wanting to bless people through social media, but it takes such a toll on me because I still working fulltime, building a practice, mentoring other, serving an, I mean, I just had too many ventricles going away from my heart. Did. I just got depleted and I realized that it was opportunities that were draining me and causing stress because I was not saying no. So you guys, even the good opportunities that God brings you can create stress, can create anxiety.
You know, I know an Edmund in Oklahoma City, one of the ways that people deal with stress is eating. We have surprisingly even, you know, maybe you’re not from Ed home admin or Oklahoma City or maybe your Tulsa, but I will tell you that we have per capita, I think more restaurants than most places in either the world or for sure the United States and food is what we do. And so we are, maybe it’s not per capita the food. Maybe it’s the obesity. We’re like number one or two in obesity because that’s what Oklahoma is. Do. I know around here in Edmond and Oklahoma City, there’s a lot of folks eating every day. Now I know that’s part of getting to survive, but we have so many restaurants going up. Here’s the parallel thing to consider is we have people that are overworked, often underpaid there the relief time, but when they’re off work is typically on social media and it’s sedentary or watching their kids play or performing a sport or activity at school and they’re not their not being healthy in the way that they processed the stress through physical activity, through thoughts, and they’re just escaping and so what happens is they eat, their body’s not in a position to healthfully digest because they’re under stress, especially on a lunch hour when you’ve got to go back to a job that for many people it was very stressful or you don’t like, and then there’s all this infertility that’s rampant.
Now you can make a case. It’s because of food. It’s because of the environment. Sure. All of that is for absolutely relevant, but you can’t negate the reality of when you’re under a high stress. Your reproductive capacity is either stopped or it’s inhibited. So taking that into consideration and we’re different than animals drastically because they cannot respond to the future of the island, respond to the now and then their body has a way to excavate it and then they just live in the moment again, they’re back there eating grass or doing what they do. So how do we deal with this? Well, there’s so many different ways. I’m going to give you six practical steps and this Guy Robert Sapolsky in his book gave practical steps to probably gave a lot of them and I was going to go over some of these are really common sense, practical steps that you can apply some or all of them.
And really the first one I think is really big is exercise. Now I, I don’t want you to get caught up and needing to go to crossfit every day unless that’s your thing. Then more power to you just be smart or having to even go workout in a gym. You might be the kind of person that buys a Peloton bike and rides with people around the world and you’re a comfort of your home. That’s kind of their commercial. You know, a lot of my Christian marriage counseling Oklahoma City clients, they, because they’re home with kids or because they just don’t have a lot of tight margin bill do things like this. They’ll watch streaming videos, bill bring dumbbells, we’ll have a workout place. A lot of the marriages do in their home or the garage or you know, for us we have workout items and so I’ll set up a circuit to kind of do a dumbbells and then kettlebell and then these bands put around your ankle and your walk.
Like my daughter and I, we, we pair relationship building time with exercise and, and, and you know, a lot of times that’s a good pair and so that will tend to fight off the stress. It will tend to help you process the stress because not dealing with it is very toxic. That’s a, that’s a really big one. Another one is, or you can play, you know, if your body’s still healthy enough exercise, you could play sports. That’s a great way, a socialization. The more time you sprayed with people that are friendly, that are loving, that are kind, not just anybody but the right kind of people, the less time your body’s going to think that it needs to fight or be in some position to flee or runaway. Now, a lot of you may be in a marriage where your marriage is, the culprit in the marriage is unsafe.
Well, if it’s unsafe because of abuse, they today stop this podcast right now. Go get help. You know, if you’re in severe abuse, go get help. Now, maybe you your, your move is to call us or call it a local person. Where are the Edmond, Oklahoma City area nuvision Christian marriage counseling Oklahoma City that live. We’d love to serve you. Contact us to help but find people that are right and loving and bring them in your life and you’ll find that you can relax and be yourself and that’s a healthy way to decompress. Stress also have predictability and the schedule that you have. We’re the only ones that can forecast and really create a future of predictability. And of all the, uh, creatures living on earth, we are unique in the way that God made us, that we have a mind and we can see really spiritually and experience elements in the future through faith, through imagination.
It just all the ways God made us this marvelous. If we use it according to the way he created us in release stress and we put predictability and we only focus on the areas that we can change and leave the action, the items we can’t take actions on, trust them to God. And then that’s the best we can do. The other one, the fourth one is 80. 20 rule is if 20% of your efforts to reduce 80% of the stress in your life, that’s a pretty obvious, right? So then finding out that, find some way that you get back to normal that you can rejuvenate. For me, I’ve lots of ways hiking, reading, sports activities, exercise, uh, high level, walking with my wife and talking and connecting. That’s one. Going with a friend sitting by a fire. Wow. Sitting by a fire. W o w especially with a buddy or people I love and it connecting way, uh, is amazing.
Her, a couple of friends. Ah, beautiful, beautiful. So find that could be soccer, it could be watching a sport. Uh, I tend to do more of the rejuvenating with books also as a way that I like to read outside. And that just helps me connect with God and grow and learn. That’s a healthy form for me is learning. The sixth is a find peace. Now, serenity. Now that may not work for some people because maybe they don’t do it well, but find the areas of your life where you can connect with God and go deeper where you can connect with friends, where you can really experience the goodness, the peace, the love of God in a personal way. I do this every single morning, well, 99.9% of mornings in some way with God, whether it’s writing, whether it’s prayer, Bible reading and Bible study book.
I’m reading, uh, fellowshipping with somebody. Really all of that is part of the rhythm of my life that I live in. So guys, remember stress is bad, but don’t stress out over. Don’t allow that to overcome your life and feel shameful, awful. We all have stress. There’s no one on earth that does not deal with a measure of stressed, so don’t let that stress you out. That’s just another bad thing to let happen and just take steps today. You just say, I can’t do six steps. Hey, hey, then don’t do six steps. Take step one, whatever that is. Maybe call a friend maybe years ago on a canvas ship. Maybe yours is. Think about how you can hang out with a buddy and sit by a fire or a real play soccer or something. Do something today. Hey, hope this was really helpful. Some of you say, this is great, thank you, and you’ll go on and you’ll succeed and win without any further help, but there’s a certain amount of you listening or you have friends that you know of that would benefit from Christian marriage counseling Oklahoma City and that New Vision counseling that live.
We have a team of counselors where we merge biblical principles with cutting edge counseling techniques to serve you and your story today. And our mission is to help you discover what better looks like for you and then equip you with the tools and resources to create it. So what would help communicate that to others to share that with them like us on Facebook, New Vision counseling, Okc, follow us and just be part of our culture so that we can sell into your life consistently. Because we want to create a revival and we want to partner with God in reviving this United States of America. And really as far as it mushrooms out that you can change your life, your destination, your generations. You don’t have to be like the people in your past. He can be like the God and your present and future wants you to be and fulfill your destiny that way. So Hudl reviews, help, news and Christian marriage counseling Oklahoma City that live. We’ve served you, helped you in any way and this capacity. Love to hear from you, that be great. Um, also don’t wait for a great day to happen. Take action to make it happen today. I believe in you. I know God created you to win in love and live in love and live in his piece. So until we speak again, creature amazing day and I’ll talk to you really soon.