Changing the We Look at Stress

I think we can all agree that we’ve lived through some crazy years. Since 2020 and the Covid Pandemic, the world has changed considerably.

And it doesn’t seem to be letting up.

Nobody would fault you for feeling stressed out. Anti-anxiety medication use is on the rise. I see it in my assisted living homes.

Seems like we want to avoid stress whenever possible. Many medical professionals relate stress to physiological changes ranging from immune system degradation to heart attacks.

We know stress causes physiological changes such as increased heart rate and quicker breathing.

Is your body trying to pile on when you already feel worried?

A Stanford researcher says no. Dr. Kelly McGonigal believes your body is trying to help you when you’re stressed. Your body is not trying to hurt you.

That quicker breathing and higher heart rate are helping you rise to the challenge. The reaction is similar to when you feel great joy or courage to do something.

She cites a study tracking 30,000 adults in the US for 8 years. They asked the participants two questions at the beginning of the study:

1. How much stress have you experienced the last year?

2. Do you believe stress is harmful for your health?

At the end of 8 years they tracked who passed away. People who answered the first question with something like ‘a lot’ had a 43% increased chance of dying.

However, that chance was only true for the people who answered in the affirmative for the second question. The people who believed stress is harmful for your health are the ones who passed away.

People who believed stress is beneficial for your health had no increased risk of dying. In fact, those who believed stress is good had the lowest chance of dying - even better than those who had little stress in their lives, but thought stress was bad.

The researchers estimated that during the period of the study, 182,000 Americans died prematurely from stress. They didn’t die from stress. They died from the belief that stress is bad for you.

That would make the belief stress is bad the 15th leading cause of death in the United States.

Physiologically, researchers found if you think stress is bad, your blood vessels constrict when you’re stressed. If you view stress positively, your blood vessels stay relaxed. Relaxed blood vessels are similar to what happens when you feel joy and courage.

That might be the difference between premature death and healthy aging for some people.

Yet all our responses to stress are to try to get rid of it. We combat stress with:

• Drugs

• Breathing

• Meditation

We try to run away from stress. We don’t try to harness it and use it to help our performance.

So next time you’re stressed, try to use it for good. Look on it positively. It might give you a lot of health benefits.

Here is a TED talk by Dr McGonigal: