New Research Concerning Stress
Story from PR Web

Stressed-out people are told to exercise, meditate or eat right, but stress causes the brain to resist all of those things. A novel, proven approach to stress developed by a University of California, San Francisco researcher provides simple tools that switch the brain from stress to joy. In that brain state people feel like exercising, meditating and eating right. National meeting of researchers and clinicians on the method will be held on April 23, 2009 and sponsored by the Institute for Health Solutions; complimentary public access to web-based learning of the tools begins April 14, 2009.

San Rafael, CA (PRWEB) April 14, 2009 -- Who isn't stressed out? Neuroscience weighs in and finds that the best antidote to stress is a brain state of high-level well-being, or what most of us would call….well, joy. Brain scans show that when the part of the brain associated with joy lights up, the part of the brain associated with stress goes out. In other words, joy swamps stress.

How do you get from stress to joy? Developmental Skills Training, or DST, also known as the Solution Method, has taken what we know from three fields of scientific study - stress, attachment, and neuroplasticity - and created simple tools that enable you to identify your brain state on a 1 to 5 scale. For each state there is a tool that offers the quickest, easiest way to get from stress to joy, given that initial level of stress.

You know how when you're stuck in stress and know that you should: 1) exercise, 2) meditate, or 3) eat right -- but you just can't? Those times when all you can do is: 1) watch television, 2) numb out, or 3) crave sweets? Because of these exciting new scientific insights, now we know why: It's not you! It's your brain state, and in that state our brain is genetically programmed to warn us that hungry lions are chasing us. Something as sensible as taking a walk, relaxing in a meditative state, or getting a sound sleep, would be dangerous to someone who needs that adrenaline rush to stay vigilant and deal with hungry lions in pursuit.

But in the 21st century, there aren't many hungry lions, or many other objective reasons to justify that kind of damaging life or death body response. Yet with repeated episodes of responding as if there were, our brains become sensitized and we overreact; or even worse, we stay stuck in stress.

A national conference of Solution Method researchers and clinical providers who use the method to help people learn the tools to rewire their brain to move through stress toward well-being, will be held in Tiburon, California on April 23, 2009 and sponsored by the Institute for Health Solutions. For a limited time, starting April 14, a complimentary orientation by telephone with a health professional to learn about the method, along with complimentary 10-day membership to the website to lbegin learning the tools, will be available at www.solutionmethod.org.

According to Solution Method developer Laurel Mellin, Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, "The best way to beat stress is to know your number -- the brain state on a 1 to 5 scale - then use the tool that corresponds to that state to naturally switch the brain out of an emotional ditch and toward a state of well-being."

Mellin adds, "Just knowing your number, the state of your brain, can be enormously relieving. For example, when the brain is at 5, a full-blown stress response, it is reasonable to expect to have cravings for sugar and other artificial rewards. Instead of blaming yourself, you can see that it is not you, but your brain state. Then you can use the tools to switch that state so that cravings fade."

Mellin developed this method over the last 30 years, initially targeting pediatric obesity. Results were so positive for both the children in the program and their parents, that she created the adult version, the Solution Method. Stress eating was one of many symptoms that just faded naturally through use of the tools.

Amazingly, the new discoveries in neuroscience have validated how her tools work. They create "positive emotional plasticity" to rewire the brain, so that we are not triggered to go into a full-blown stress response as easily. In addition, the tools enable us to learn to change our emotional setpoint from numbness, discouragement, or irritability to a pure sense of joy more of the time. This creates resilience and reduces the physical ravaging on the body created by chronic stress.

On a societal level, since eighty percent of health problems are stress-related, rewiring the stress response could very well have an enormously positive effect on reducing health care expenditures. Recognizing that stress is at the root of so many health conditions - such as overweight, depression, anxiety, and diabetes - and teaching patients tools to deal with the underlying stress, could herald a new paradigm in health care.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release (or for a sample, copy or demo), contact Laurel Mellin or visit www.solutionmethod.org. The method is copyrighted and patent pending. Groups, telegroups, individual coaching, and web-based support are available at www.solutionmethod.org. Programs for childhood obesity are available at www.shapedown.com or www.childobesity.com. New book on the method, Wired for Joy: A Scientific Solution to Stress, author, Laurel Mellin, publisher Hay House will be released in Spring, 2010. Classic book on the method, The Pathway:Follow the Road to Health and Happiness (HarperCollins, Publishers, 2004).

Contact:
Laurel Mellin, Executive Director
Institute for Health Solutions
415-457-3331
http://www.solutionmethod.org