Reality Check: A Stress Test

This is not a test. However, if you want a test, here are a few questions you might ask. On a scale from 1 to 10, how stressed are you? How do you know that you are stressed? Do you have any control over that whole mix of physical symptoms, feelings, thoughts and actions that can go along with being stressed?
Almost a decade ago, I had come across a popular TED talk by health psychologist Kelly McGonigal. It was called “How to Make Stress Your Friend,” so you can understand why it was popular. Here we are, buzzing with anxieties and frustrations that we associate with stress, and it turns out that stress could be our friend! Who knew?

Stress sends us signals. In “A Choice Theory Psychology Guide to Stress,” Brian Lennon writes, “Recognize stress as an internal alarm, not as a disease or weakness.” The stress signals serve a purpose by telling us that something is not OK. That’s helpful, right? Our bodies let us know that something is wrong. We are put on alert, presumably so we can correct whatever is going on. It’s an elegant system in a way, isn’t it?
However, there are also those pesky unhelpful aspects to the physical stress response. I’m sure you know some of them: the pounding heart, the fast breathing. We perceive them as caused by stress and they are presumably bad for us.
The key takeaway from McGonigal’s talk for me is her conclusion that how we think about our stress response makes a difference in how our bodies respond. She cites a Harvard study where participants were taught to rethink their stress response as being helpful rather than harmful. How?
Think of the pounding heart as the body preparing for action; we’re getting ready to rise to a challenge. And that fast breathing; it just means we’re getting lots of oxygen to our brains. So these responses actually help us to perform.
The study results indicated that thinking differently actually changed physical response. For example, when the participants thought of their stress as helpful, their hearts still pounded during the stressful situation. However, their blood vessels didn’t constrict; they stayed relaxed.
Is that always true? Is it significant? Obviously, you’ll get no medical information from me! Here’s the observation that caught my attention, “…It actually looks a lot like what happens in moments of joy and courage.”
We don’t always view those physical signals negatively, do we? Let’s say we’re outside, taking a fast walk through a beautiful snowy parkland. Our hearts are pounding, but it’s not worrisome. We are just taking action; we’re exercising. And we’re breathing faster than normal, getting lots of oxygen. Nothing unusual there. It’s just our bodies adapting to the activity. We are, in a sense, stressing our body, but it’s a positive activity.
We might not have control over our stress, the factors, or the people who contribute to it. But we do have some control over how we view that stress. That can certainly help our state of mind, and maybe, just maybe, also make a positive difference to our physical health.
So the next time you say to yourself, “I’m so stressed,” you could try a different thought, one like, “my body is building up my courage.” Or, “my body is getting me ready to take meaningful action.”
What do you think? Is it worth a try?

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