A Vaccine for Stress?

Sitting on an airplane recently I passed the time reading Wired and its fascinating article on the nature of stress and the search for a cure. Because of my teaching I was very familiar with the specific process of the stress response and its potential long-term deleterious effects, but I was interested to read about the evidence that the stress response is more dangerous over time to people who feel they have no power or importance in professional and social hierarchies. The article closes with an almost despair-inducing observation: "We tell our kids that life isn’t fair, but we fail to mention that the unfairness can be crippling, that many of us will die because of where we were born."

To combat this inherent unfairness the scientist the article focuses on, Robert Sapolsky, is in the process of researching and developing a vaccine-like treatment for the stress response. This goal is noble, I think, and I am fully supportive of any breakthroughs that can improve the quality of life for people in need. However, and the article touches on this as well, stress is a societal problem. The existential despair of individuals who feel they lack power or significance comes in large part from a society that does not value individuals in and of themselves. It is compounded by the emphasis on material acquisition and financial success. The fact that each person, no matter their social, economic or professional status, is a fully conscious, whole and unique individual with a specific role to play in the universal drama of life as we know it, is rarely recognized.

The upside to all of this is that each of us actually does have more power than we realize and we don't necessarily need a vaccine to awaken it. For me, meditation provides a brief glimpse of the calm, quiet, vast nature of consciousness as a whole-- the ultimate antidote to existential despair. Creating something,breathing deeply, sitting quietly in a beautiful spot in nature or amidst a seething throng of fellow humans may be the answer for you. Try it all until you find what works and when the time comes to speak to a child, our own or any other we may interact with, perhaps we'll be able to offer a bit more wisdom than "life is unfair," and in so doing, help change the future of our society for the better for all.