Issue 106 - Nasho Front Page

STRESS TESTIn the days before gunpowder, the Romans made great use of torsion powered weapons.Strips of rawhide were twisted and placed undergreat tension to propel missiles such as rocks andiron ballista arrow heads. Like friction in brakelinings, that is about the only useful application forstress.Certainly, it is something all of us can do without inlife yet many of us suffer from stress withoutknowing it.It manifests itself as anxiety, being uptight, badtemper and difficulty in sleeping and coping with thedaily routine.The symptoms are high blood pressure, pounding orirregular heart beat, loss of appetite and sleepdisorders.Left untreated, it can lead to heart attacks and stroke.The simple answer is to do away with whatever iscausing the stress.However, carrying that out is usually far fromsimple.It makes sense to sit down and think through what iscausing you stress mentally, as distinct fromphysically.Defining the cause means being able to consider theanswer such as a change of routine, giving awaywhatever job or task is causing stress or changinghow you do the task.One good technique is to count down slowly a flightof 10 steps to a private room which contains thething you like best. It does work.This is better than going on pills which treat thesymptoms but not the causes. There’s also theRoman method – a barrage of ballista bolts totransfer the stress to the ones causing it.PAGE 8