Author

Author

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written books on the longterm effects of space travel and weightlessness on human physiology.

But her latest book takes a more down-to-earth approach, no pun intended - offering common-sense advice for coping with gravity — with stress if all kinds, actually — to those of us who’ve lived with it the longest.

“Stress Fitness for Seniors” e both the title of the book End of a lecture that the aithor will give at 2 p m. S inday, Aug. 23 at the Crlpeper County Public Library. Vernikos lives in Cdpeper but still keeps a part-time home in Rajpahannock and a morethaa-part-time garden in Slats Mills.

“Stress is not a question of good or bad, it’s a question of too little or too much,” Vemuos says. “We in fact seek stress for fun. but at the same time ii is within our grasp to contro. and manage stress, within units ’

Thebest way Vernikos suggests tostart down this road is “to delee -: find the Delete button ind punch it, and delete th> 80 to 90 percent of stress thit our brain generates, thinp we have no control over.

“Once ve reduce the pile of stress to a manageable 10 or 20 percent,either by preparing for stresful events, by not procrastinaing, by making lists, and >y not allowing stress-emittes to — ”

Stress emtters?

“People isually start to smile when Falk about this,” she says. “Tlere are people who put out, vfio emit stress - and feel bette by stressing others. We all know them - and. yes, somitimes we are them The frienl who calls you at 10 o’clock at tight, and then you don't sleep, ou can reduce a whole bunch a. stress by not allowing others t> stress you ’

What the l»ok and its author are talkng about is stress managemrt - not a new subject, bu one that Vernikos presents in a fetching. conversationa style that she backs with anicdotes and diverse* data, some >f it drawn from recent ps;chological research, and some from her years studying the effects of microgravity (what astronauts feel when they're n space •. and with pioneering groundbased simulations.

One ot her early discoveries was that gravity L a stimulus - without which the bones and muscle of a normal human lose mass and density.

"Having established stress as a stimulus,” she says, “then it’s not a question of whether it's good or bad but: Is it adequate9 If it’s less thaa adequate - if you’re bored, deprived of social or intellectual stimulation, that’s not good. If the stress is excessive, it's equally not good, because the excessive outpouring of stress hormones, like any drug, can be damaging."

So Vernikos’ book is full of practical suggestions and good-natured commiseration. She wants to help find a balance for those mature enough to know they are unbalanced. To get you going, she includes a whole chapter of “instant” tricks, including small exercises you can do anywhere.

“Different people do different things,” she says. “There’s the breathing, and the shoulder exercise, and the jaw drop - I used the jaw drop in the board room, taught my colleagues to do it. We had a very stress-emitting boss, and it works' There’s no way you can feel uptight with your jaw dropped open.”