-IBIS-1.5.0-
rx
guidelines (Mind/Body)
stress-hardy profile
psychospiritual approaches

definition

Kobasa and Maddi studied a group of 2000 employees and found that the stress survivors had three important attitudes, the three C's of "stress-hardiness:" challenge, commitment, and control.

Challenge refers to a frame of reference. Any event that disrupts the status quo can be seen either as a threat to things as they are or as a challenge to invent a new future. When we cling tightly to things as they are, any change looks like a threat. When we are open to new possibilities, change is seen as a challenge.

"Challenge is the correct way to view an inconvenience, and inconvenience is the incorrect way to view a challenge." - old Zen saying

Commitment has to do with meaning. If we believe in what we are doing, the challenges we meet along the way are worthwhile; if we don't, the price is too great. People committed to their jobs, who find meaning in their experience or suffering fare better than people who don't.

Control is the greatest paradox of all. Experiments in rats show lack of control leads to ulcers and the inability to reject cancer, and in humans to anxiety, depression, and defects in the immune system. Yet when we try to control everything in our lives, we lose sight of challenge because everything looks like a threat. Overcontrol leads to frustration, anger, and guilt. The Roman philosopher Epictetus noted that we would be forever miserable if we failed to distinguish what was controllable and what wasn't. The Serenity Prayer used in AA offers similar wisdom: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done."
(Borysenko, p. 191)

see:
attitudinal healing
bodymind psychobiology
cancer correlations: psychoneuroimmunology


footnotes