Thrive Wave Coaching

Studies say no. In fact, if we learn to reframe what we believe about stress, it can become our superpower.

Stress. We’re all too familiar with it. Work, money, health, relationships, environment, economy, technology, wars.. And the list goes on and on. In fact the majority of adults are experiencing regular stress. It’s almost as if it’s the new normal.

Study after study has shown the devastating health effects of stress on your body and mind. Almost every article you read about stress, is reminding you of all the negative aspects and how you need to be meditating, doing yoga and journaling about it. And what all these articles have in common is, they tune up the pressure and the anxiety.

It’s no wonder, that we immediately associate stress with negative things. Stress is the big evil, the enemy that holds us in its grip. But what if we changed our perspective? What if stress is a positive thing?

A study was conducted at the University of Wisconsin, in which 30.000 adults were studied for over 8 years. The participants were asked two questions:

• How much stress have you experienced in the past year?
• Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?

The first question is quite straight forward. The second on the other hand, reflects the belief we have about the connection of stress and our health. We often see stress as a harmful thing, but is it?

The study showed, that participants who experienced a lot of stress in the past year had a 43 % higher risk of dying prematurely. But this was only true for those participants that believed that stress is harmful for their health.

The participants that had experienced a lot of stress, but did not believe that stress was harmful, were not at higher risk of dying.

Quite the opposite in fact, they had the lowest risk of dying prematurely out of all participants of the study. Including the ones that had not experienced much stress in the past year.

The researchers concluded that during the 8 year study, 182.000 Americans died because of the negative belief they had about stress, not because of the amount of stress they had experienced.

This finding is quite intriguing when you think about it. It shows that you can mitigate some of the health issues related to stress by simply changing what you believe to be true about stress.

To understand this better, let’s take a look at another study from Harvard. In this study, a social stress test was conducted. In it the participants were intentionally put into stressful situations to learn about their stress reactions.

The normal response to a stressful situation included a pounding heart, faster breathing and even breaking a sweat. These symptoms are often interpreted as anxiety and as signs that we are not coping well with the situation.

Now, what would happen if we changed the way we think about stress? What if we considered these symptoms as our bodies getting more energized and preparing us to take on the challenge?

Breathing faster enables us to take in more oxygen, the pounding heart rushes the oxygen in our blood through our veins to our brains, allowing us to think, act and be alert. The symptoms we take as anxiety, might not be all bad after all.

The Harvard study experimented with this. They trained a group of participants to think about stress as being helpful. This change in perspective and thinking resulted in them feeling less stressed and more confident. Furthermore, the participants physical reaction was different to the normal stress response.

Normally, the increased heart beat causes blood vessels to constrict. This, in some cases leads to cardiovascular disease. However, this did not happen with the study participants.

Their heartbeat went up, but their blood vessels did not contract. Reducing and eliminating the risk of stress related cardiovascular disease.

In fact, the physical reaction they experienced, is the same reaction we have with joy and confidence. — Let that sink in

The conclusion: How we perceive and think about stress matters!

Instead of trying to eliminate all stress, let’s flip the coin and what we believe to be true about stress.

The next time your heart starts to pounder, your breathing gets shallower and you break a slight sweat, remind yourself that this is your body preparing to thrive under pressure.

Excel in stressful situations, as your body provides you with the energy you need. Increase your resilience and reduce the harmful health issues related to stress by taking control and changing the narrative of the situation.

Let go of the anxiety and embrace the excitement, joy and confidence instead. Make stress your secret superpower to success.

And hey, you might even live longer! 😉

Sources:

• Keller, Litzelman, Wisk, et al. 2012, University of Wisconsin, School of Medicine and Public Health
• Jamieson, Nock, Mendes 2012, Harvard University, Department of Psychology

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