Update Your Stress Mindset to Thrive

Introduction: Factors that you can control could impact whether your stressful experiences result in good or bad outcomes. Shifting your mindset from "stress is bad" to "stress can help me to learn and perform better" can improve overall outcomes. Regular rest and recovery can also help.

Is your view of stress outdated?

A Researcher's View

Many people believe that stress is bad. This stress mindset may lead to everyday decisions that, over time, add up to a self-limiting lifestyle. Acting on the belief that stress is bad could result in anxiously avoiding difficult tasks, experiences, or feelings, a pattern that is likely to make the discomfort we feel and the actual negative impact of stress on our lives even worse.

The work of an influential researcher in health psychology at Stanford University, Kelly McGonigal, PhD, revises longstanding notions about stress. While scientific findings show that stress may negatively impact our health at times, newer research suggests that those findings must be interpreted with greater nuance. Even what we believe about stress (stress mindset) can impact how we experience it and what negative effects it may have.

Far from being something to be avoided, stress can be a tool that our bodies use to learn. In The Upside of Stress, McGonigal describes ways that the body's natural physiological reactions to stress help us to process our experiences, make meaning of them, and learn from them.

McGonigal notes that high-performance professionals use stress to train: "Stress leaves an imprint on your brain that prepares you to deal with similar stress the next time you encounter it... when you go through a seriously challenging experience, your body and brain learn from it. Psychologists call this stress inoculation. It's like a stress vaccine for your brain. That's why putting people through practice stress is a key training technique for NASA astronauts, emergency responders, elite athletes, and others who have to thrive in highly stressful environments."

When we encounter and learn from stress, we collect a mental library for future reference. The more experiences we collect and catalogue successfully, the more self-confidence and resources we can draw from in the future.

Moreover, when we are confident that we have the internal and external resources we need, McGonigal observes, we are more likely to have a "challenge response" rather than a "fight-or-flight response." During a challenge response, a person feels "focused" rather than "fearful." Also, the type of stress hormones released helps people to learn from stress and to recover.

Meaning-making is another beneficial consequence of experiencing stressful (challenging) circumstances.* McGonigal states: "Human beings have an innate instinct and capacity to make sense out of their suffering. This instinct is even part of the biological stress response, often experienced as rumination, spiritual inquiry, and soul-searching. Stressful circumstances awaken this process in us. This is one more reason why a stressful life is often a meaningful life; stress challenges us to find the meaning in our lives."

If stress prompts soul-searching, it also has the potential to facilitate discovery, meaning-making, growth, and healing.

A Practitioner's View

Many practitioners also emphasize a more nuanced view of stress. Nick Arnett, a Critical Incident Stress Management leader and instructor, fire chaplain, and wildland firefighter/EMT agrees with McGonigal's perspective in his book Stress into Strength. Arnett's views are informed by ample practical experience with stress in international and domestic contexts.

Arnett provides a wide-angle perspective on stress, notes the potential beneficial impact of stress, and emphasizes the importance of regular rest and recovery. He writes: "Feeling stress means you care; people do not react to things they don't care about. The idea that all stress is bad for you is dangerous; living in fear of stress will hurt you. We need stress--the right kinds of physical, social, and spiritual stress and renewal, in the right amounts, at the right intervals--to grow and to stay strong and flexible. Stress can transform us physically and mentally, often for the better. We naturally tend to focus on the negatives of traumatic stress, even though few people end up with lasting negative effects. Many respond by becoming more resilient--building their social support, increasing their self-confidence, and improving their coping skills. Without overcoming adversity, you cannot know, really know in your gut, your true capabilities."

Welcoming stressful experiences and learning from them while giving yourself adequate rest and recovery can help you to grow in awareness of your true self, uncover inner strength, cultivate your abilities, and unleash your potential.

An outdated view emphasizes only the negative impact of stress on your health and well-being. A revised view clarifies that while stress can have negative effects, it can also have positive effects that may depend on your stress mindset and whether you integrate sufficient rest and recovery into your life.

Control these factors to improve potential outcomes

Stress mindset

Your stress mindset plays a significant role in your internal experience of stressful circumstances and can impact potential outcomes. Adopt a positive mindset toward stress.

Rest and recovery

Your body can remain stressed even after you remove yourself from stressful circumstances. Arnett recommends intentional efforts to initiate renewal during regular periods of rest and recovery. Arnett writes: "Renewal--pausing, resting, nourishing, taking care of yourself and others--repairs, restores, builds, and maintains physical, mental, and spiritual strength and flexibility."

When you take time for rest and recovery, make an effort to connect with your body. Find ways to shift your body out of fight/flight mode, if necessary. View yourself as a whole person and find ways to address your needs holistically.

What mindset and actions can you adopt to better cope with stress?

As you reflect on what to do about stress in your own life, consider this:

• Stress is inevitable.
• Avoiding stress will keep you hidden away and you won't have a full life; a ship is safe in the harbor, but it won't fulfill its purpose (a quote to this effect is attributed to John A. Shedd, Albert Einstein, and popularized by Grace M. Hopper).
• We stress about what we care about. Ask yourself what you really care about in this situation. Find your "why." Why are you opting into this stress? Tap into your "why" to help you to stick it out. If you don't really care about something ask yourself:
  • Why am I anxious/stressed out about this?
  • Is this task/activity actually necessary and/or worth my investment of time, energy, and concern?
• Stress in our lives can be likened to participating in physical training; healthy coping strategies can include comparable, practical actions:
  • Put reasonable demands on yourself.
  • Sleep, eat nutrient-dense meals, hydrate.
  • Devote time to rest and recovery (including spending time with people you care about and who care about you).

Try this exercise when you're feeling stressed

McGonigal suggests this exercise for when you're feeling stressed:

Conclusion

Adopt a healthy stress mindset. Appreciate that the physiological experiences of stress from blurred vision, rapid heartbeat, butterflies in the stomach, to sweaty palms are ways that your body is preparing for a successful response to a challenge. Welcome the body's response and frame it positively. Recall your past successful encounters with stress. Remind yourself that you're stressed because the thing is important to you (if it's not important--let it go). Doing these things will increase your self-confidence and the likelihood that you will experience more positive outcomes. Be honest about your need for rest and recovery. Establish regular rhythms of rest. A sustainable lifestyle of stress, rest, and recovery, will help you to grow personally and accomplish goals throughout your lifetime.

Key Takeaways

Resources

The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You and How to Get Good At It (Kelly McGonigal, PhD)

Stress into Strength: Resilience Routines for Warriors, Wimps, and Everyone in Between (Nick Arnett)