IT’S NOT THE STRESS YOU FEEL, IT’S THE STRESS YOU AVOID - Kelly McGonigal, PhD on rewiring your brain live with, learn from, and even appreciate stress
Changing your mindset about stress can alter your physiological stress response.
By embracing stress, you can tap into the potential for personal development and positive change.
Recognizing the different types of stress responses can help optimize stress for positive outcomes.
Deep dives
Understanding stress and stress mindset
Stress is a response that arises when something you care about is at stake. It includes physiological, psychological, and emotional changes. Stress mindset refers to the way you think about stress, whether you see it as harmful or helpful. Changing your mindset about stress can alter your physiological stress response. It is not about ignoring stress, but rather about embracing it as a signal to focus and respond to a moment that matters.
Embracing stress for growth and resilience
Stress can fuel growth and resilience when perceived as a challenge. Engaging with stress and having a courageous mindset can lead to flow states and optimal performance. Avoiding stress can hinder personal growth and rob you of meaningful experiences. It is important to recognize that stress is not always harmful, and by embracing it, you can tap into the potential for personal development and positive change.
Different types of stress responses
There are multiple types of stress responses, including threat responses, challenge responses, and social stress responses. Threat responses trigger fight, flight, or freeze reactions and can be dysregulated or growth-focused. Challenge responses involve rising to a challenge and experiencing flow, courage, or compassion. Social stress responses involve seeking social connection and tend to be supportive and caring. Each response has distinct physiological and psychological effects on the body.
Harnessing stress for positive outcomes
By shifting your mindset and engaging with stress, you can optimize your stress responses for positive outcomes. Changing self-talk and reframing stress can promote healthier stress responses. Practices like heart breathing can shift your physiological state and promote tend and befriend responses. By understanding the plasticity of the brain, you can actively cultivate resilience and personal growth, even if you missed the initial window of plasticity.
Stress can be beneficial for personal growth
Contrary to popular belief, stress, whether experienced during pregnancy or in childhood, can be beneficial for personal growth and resilience. Moderate exposure to stress hormones during pregnancy can teach the developing baby to be more resilient, leading to improved emotion regulation and better capacity for positive risk-taking. Similarly, experiencing stress in childhood can also promote learning and growth. While severe stress and trauma can have negative effects, they are adaptations that reflect the reality of the environment. It is important to recognize that individuals who have experienced trauma can still thrive and contribute positively to society through post-traumatic growth and finding meaning in their experiences.
The impact of mindset and sharing ideas
Developing a new mindset and sharing ideas with others can be transformative. Research on mindset interventions suggests that taking on a certain perspective leads to better outcomes. Reflecting on personal experiences that align with new ideas can deepen the internalization of mindset shifts. Sharing these ideas with others, especially those who may benefit from them, helps overcome intellectual barriers and fosters a sense of altruism and care for others. By embracing a bigger-than-self mindset and finding meaning in challenging experiences, individuals can navigate stress more effectively and transform their own suffering into a source of support and help for others.
We’ve been taught to avoid and reduce stress as much as we possibly can—but maybe we’ve been approaching it all wrong. What if we could reframe the stress life throws at us into an opportunity for change or growth or connection?
This week’s guest, Kelly McGonigal, PhD is a bestselling author, psychologist, and educator, who’s here to help us find the upside of stress. She’s teaching us how stress affects our body, how our mindset can help influence that effect, and how we can harness our stress responses for good. Let’s get juicy!
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