THE ORIGINS OF STRESS DEFENSE®
My "education" with stress and perhaps the origin of Stress Defense began at the age of seven, when I was diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. I was a very shy and sensitive child, prone to high anxiety and crippling stomachaches that would attack without warning and last up to thirty minutes at a time. As a result, I was a compulsive worrier. I worried about everything, my family, my health, war, pollution, nuclear destruction, abandonment and the next internal attack. I lived in a state of hyper-vigilance, high anxiety and dread.
I was also extremely empathic. I could not separate my feelings, from the feelings of those around me and frequently felt overwhelmed and my chaotic and often explosive family environment compounded these feelings. As I grew older, I felt I was under constant attack and began to see myself more and more as a victim, helpless and out of control. Needless to say, I had a very stressful childhood and found no relief from the doctors I saw, or the diets and medications they prescribed.
The only thing that had any positive effect on my suffering was when I began training in the martial arts at the age of ten. It was the most empowering decision I ever made. After several weeks of training, I began to notice a significant shift in my well-being. I was becoming less anxious and fearful. I began to think and act with more focus and feel more in command of my mind and body.
The turning point came one day at school. I was doubled over in pain in a bathroom stall. I was starting to sweat, as the pain in my stomach became increasingly intense. As I braced myself for the full impact of the attack, an image came into my mind. The image was of myself, sitting on a wooden floor, in a traditional Dojo (training hall) meditating. With this image in mind, I straightened my back, filled my posture, and focused on my breath the way I had been trained to do at the beginning of every class. After a few minutes, I realized that not only was I no longer in pain, but I had stopped the attack before it could get any worse. It was a profound moment in my life. It was the first time I had consciously taken control of my mind, body and energy in a situation that I considered to be totally helpless. I felt like I had been rescued and was overcome with an incredible sense of calm and clarity the likes of which I had never felt before. I knew right then, that I would dedicate my life to discovering the secrets of self-mastery and find the peace and freedom that I so longed for. I continued with training for many years and eventually became a teacher.
My training in the martial arts eventually led me to the esoteric healing arts of Shiatsu, Massage, Taoist Yoga, Chi Qong, Tai Chi, Chinese Herbology, Reiki and Light Body Ascension Therapy.
Stress Defense® began as a response to my Shiatsu clients as a way to educate and teach them how to manage their stress by themselves. I saw in my clients the same recurring stress patterns from week to week. After a session with me, my clients felt balanced, grounded, open and responsive. The effect of our sessions would last anywhere from several hours to several weeks depending on their ability to maintain the state of inner calm and clarity we co-created in our sessions.
My commitment as a teacher led me to develop a series of workshops and seminars to assist my clients in learning how to create a shift in their repetitive stress patterns and maintain their state of balance and clarity on their own.
My early seminars were based on self-defense workshops that addressed effective strategies for physically defending oneself on the streets of New York City. As popular as these seminars were, I realized that they did not go far enough in addressing the issue of maintaining an inner state of clarity and attentiveness that is so crucial in being able to defend oneself in any situation. This lead me to create a workshop based on cultivating effective tools for managing emotional and physical reactions under pressure.
Around this time, a friend asked me, to substitute some of her exercise classes at the Smithers Center for Alcoholism in New York City. I arrived at the center prepared to teach a basic exercise class. I quickly realized that the patients were at various levels of detoxification and some where suffering from extreme anxiety and physical symptoms of withdrawal. My initial attempts to rally the patients to exercise were met with great resistance and hostility. Not only did they not want to participate, they lacked the ability to focus and listen for more than a few seconds at a time.
I brought the group to attention with a booming Kiai (a paralyzing shout) which effectively shocked them into a state of stillness. Having gotten their attention, I informed them that they would be learning an internal martial art based on the ancient secrets of energy mastery. I ran the group through a series of breathing and focusing exercises. Within ten minutes I had transformed a hostile mob into a group of grounded, centered and attentive individuals. By the end of the fifty-minute session half of the group was asleep on the floor, the other half, meditating peacefully.
Every time I taught this class the results were the same, The patients came in anxious and aggressive and left the class with a greater sense of clarity and balance. The response was exciting! The patients learned a technique and a skill to help them transform their response to stress. I had successfully adapted the principles of my street-self-defense workshop to the task of healing stress and Stress Defense® was born. This eventually led me to develop a comprehensive series of programs and classes which I now teach on a daily basis.