Make stress your strength
We often hear about the negative impact of stress—how it can raise our blood pressure, interfere with sleep, increase our anxiety levels, and even damage the brain. And it’s true: Stress can have a?negative impact? on our overall state of health.
But is?all stress bad? Could it be that the stress you’re feeling as you struggle to meet a deadline, brace for performance?feedback , or fret over your child’s math homework can actually be?good?for you?
Turns out there’s an upside to stress. In fact, the right amount of stress might be?just?what we need to increase our productivity, foster better relationships, and increase our quality of life .
Stress forces us to solve problems more effectively, which helps us build skills we may need for future experiences. It also primes us for peak performance. The hormone that’s responsible for causing stress is the same hormone that primes us to "get in the zone." Stress has been shown to sharpen our memory, strengthen our social bonds and even make us more creative.
Here are three ways to start saying “yes” to stress so it becomes a strength:
Control what you can
Stress often results from a perceived loss of control. But there are things in life that we simply can’t control, like other people’s behavior, a financial crisis, or just plain bad timing. So before you let stress take over, it’s worth asking yourself whether you have directly contributed to a stressful situation. If yes, then start making adjustments where you can. If not, then stop thinking about it — there's simply no point. If you worry about things that never end up happening, you’ve wasted your time. If you worry about things that do end up happening... you've still wasted your time!
A healthier way to manage your stress is to control what you can and accept what you can’t.
Reframe it to tame it
The condition we call “stress” goes by another name:?excitement. The same feelings we get before doing something exciting bear a striking resemblance to the physiological signs of stress: Faster heart rate. Increased energy. Deeper breathing. Racing heartbeat. It's two sides of one emotion. A simple way to manage stress is to start labeling it as excitement. That's not to say that stress vanishes with new packaging. Hardly. But not everything that feels stressful is actually harmful, and not every weighty issue is cause for worry. Reframing stressful situations as exciting moments can help you navigate challenging experiences with greater calm and self-assurance.?
Make sense out of stress
A good way to turn stress into strength is to treat difficult circumstances as learning opportunities. Stress is not an excuse to shut down. It’s an opportunity to open up. It’s our chance to absorb the teachable moments brought on by adversity and to leverage challenges to our advantage. Instead of fixating on?why?something happened, focus on?how?you can grow from the experience.
领英推荐
Maybe it forced you to become more adaptable. Perhaps it prompted you to learn a different set of skills. It's possible that stress provided the nudge you needed to stretch outside your comfort zone and try something new. Instead of grappling with how you're going to make it, focus on how you plan to make it better.
Speaking of making things better, I think you'll enjoy these two recent conversations I had with Dr. Nate Zinsser and Dr. Deborah Gilboa on my podcast, I Wish They Knew . They know a thing or two about performance psychology and resilience. (Click the images to listen to these 10-minute conversations.)
If we consciously choose to build a new relationship with stress, we just might be surprised by the benefits it offers. Saying "yes" to stress is the first step towards turning life’s challenges into opportunities.
Keep fixing,
Joe
* * *
Dr. Joe Hirsch is the managing director of Semaca Partners, a?TEDx ?and?international keynote speaker , and the author of "The Feedback Fix ." His work and research has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Inc. and other major outlets. He also hosts the popular podcast,?I Wish They Knew .