How to make stress your friend
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I have a confenssion confession to make. But first, I want you to make a little confenssion confession to me. In the past year, would you I want you to just raise your hand if you experince you've experienced relatively little stress. Anyone?
TIP
I have a confession to make. But first, I want you to make a little confession to me. In the past year, I want you to just raise your hand if you've experienced relatively little stress. Anyone?
How about mutter a moderate amount of stress? Who is experinceing has experienced a lot of stress. Yeah, me too.
TIP
How about a moderate amount of stress? Who has experienced a lot of stress? Yeah. Me too.
But that is not my confenssion confession. My confenssion confession is this, I'm health-calygis a health psychologist, and my mission is to help people be happier and healthier. But I fear that something I've been teaching for the last ten years is doing more harm than good. And it has to do with stress. For years, I've been telling people stress makes you sick. Increase the risk from everything common called It increases the risk of everything from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. . Basicly Basically I've turned the stress into the enemy. But I've changed my mind about stress. And today I want to change yours.
TIP
But that is not my confession. My confession is this: I am a health psychologist, and my mission is to help people be happier and healthier. But I fear that something I've been teaching for the last 10 years is doing more harm than good, and it has to do with stress. For years I've been telling people, stress makes you sick. It increases the risk of everything from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. Basically, I've turned stress into the enemy. But I have changed my mind about stress, and today, I want to change yours.
Let me start with the study that made me rethink my whole approach to stress. This study tracked thirty thousand adults of in the United States for 8 years. And it they started by asking people "How much stress did you experience have you experienced in the last year?". They also asked "Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?". And then, they use used public death record records to find out who died.
TIP
Let me start with the study that made me rethink my whole approach to stress. This study tracked 30,000 adults in the United States for eight years, and they started by asking people, "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?" They also asked, "Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?" And then they used public death records to find out who died.
Ok. Some bad news first. People who exprience experienced a lot of stress in the prev previous year had a 43% increase increased risk of dying. But, that was only true for the people who also believed that stress is harmful for your health.
TIP
Okay. Some bad news first. People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43 percent increased risk of dying. But that was only true for the people who also believed that stress is harmful for your health.
People who experienced a lot of stress but did not view stress as harmful were no more likely to die. In fact, they had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study including people who had relatively little stress.
TIP
People who experienced a lot of stress but did not view stress as harmful were no more likely to die. In fact, they had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study, including people who had relatively little stress.
Another research has made Now the researchers estimated that over the 8 years they were tracking to us deaths, 182,000 Americans died perimachery prematurely not from stress, but from they believe belief that stress is bad for you.
TIP
Now the researchers estimated that over the eight years they were tracking deaths, 182,000 Americans died prematurely, not from stress, but from the belief that stress is bad for you.
That is over 20,000 deaths a year. Now if I that estimate is correct, that would made make believing stress is bad for you the 15 15th largest cause of death in the United States last year, killing more people than scan skin cancer, HIV/AIDS and homerside homicide.
TIP
That is over 20,000 deaths a year. Now, if that estimate is correct, that would make believing stress is bad for you the 15th largest cause of death in the United States last year, killing more people than skin cancer, HIV/AIDS and homicide.
You can see why the study freak freaked me out. Here I've been spending so much energy telling people stress is bad for your health.
So this study got me wondering, can changing how you think about stress make you healthier and here the science says yes. When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body's response to stress.
TIP
You can see why this study freaked me out. Here I've been spending so much energy telling people stress is bad for your health.
So this study got me wondering: Can changing how you think about stress make you healthier? And here the science says yes. When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body's response to stress.
Now to explain how this works. I want you all to pertand pretend that you are pertanspend participants in the a study design designed to stress you out. It's called the social stress test. You come into the labortory laboratory, and you are told you have to give a 5-minute inprant impromptu speech on your personal weaknesses to apanore an expert valirator a panel of expert evaluators sitting right in front of you, and to make sure you feel the pressure they , there are bright lights and the a camera is in your face . Can you , kind of like this?
And the valietor evaluators has been trained to give you disge nor discouraging, non-verbal feedback. Like this.
TIP
Now to explain how this works, I want you all to pretend that you are participants in a study designed to stress you out. It's called the social stress test. You come into the laboratory, and you're told you have to give a five-minute impromptu speech on your personal weaknesses to a panel of expert evaluators sitting right in front of you, and to make sure you feel the pressure, there are bright lights and a camera in your face, kind of like this.
And the evaluators have been trained to give you discouraging, non-verbal feedback, like this.
Now you would efficinally demeralize Now that you're sufficiently demoralized, time for part two, a math test. And I'll be annouce to you unbeknownst to you, the experament experimenter has been trained to hurise harass you during it. Now, we are all going to all do this together. It's gonna be fine fun. For me.
TIP
Now that you're sufficiently demoralized, time for part two: a math test. And unbeknownst to you, the experimenter has been trained to harass you during it. Now we're going to all do this together. It's going to be fun. For me.
I want you all to count backwards from 996 an in increments of 7. You are gonna do this out loud as fast as you can, starting with 996. Go. Go faster. Faster please. You are going too slow. Stop, stop, stop, stop. That guy made a mistake, we are gonna have to start all over again.
TIP
I want you all to count backwards from 996 in increments of seven. You're going to do this out loud, as fast as you can, starting with 996. Go! Go faster. Faster please. You're going too slow. Stop. Stop, stop, stop. That guy made a mistake. We are going to have to start all over again.
You are not very good at this, are you? Ok, so you have got get the idea. Now If you are were actually in the this study, you had probably be a little stress stressed out, your heart might be pounding, you might be breathing faster, you might maybe breaking out to a sweight into a sweat. And normally we interperly pysical changes as insaerty. We science we are copor we are pressure. And normally, we interpret these physical changes as anxiety or signs that we aren't coping(cope) very well with the pressure.
TIP
You're not very good at this, are you? Okay, so you get the idea. If you were actually in this study, you'd probably be a little stressed out. Your heart might be pounding, you might be breathing faster, maybe breaking out into a sweat. And normally, we interpret these physical changes as anxiety or signs that we aren't coping very well with the pressure.
But what if you viewed that them instead as a sign signs that your body was [] energized,was perparing preparing you to meet this challenge? Now that is excactly exactly what [] participants was were told in the a study conducted [] at Harvard university. Before they went through the social stress test, they were talked taught to rethink the their stress response was as helpful. That pounding heart is perparing preparing you for action. If you're breathing faster, it's no problem, it's getting more [] oxygen to your brain. And [] to learn participants who learned to view the stress response as helpful for the their performance. When well they are were less stressed out, less anxious, more confident. But the most fansticing fascinating finding to me, was how the their physical stress response changed.
TIP
But what if you viewed them instead as signs that your body was energized, was preparing you to meet this challenge? Now that is exactly what participants were told in a study conducted at Harvard University. Before they went through the social stress test, they were taught to rethink their stress response as helpful. That pounding heart is preparing you for action. If you're breathing faster, it's no problem. It's getting more oxygen to your brain. And participants who learned to view the stress response as helpful for their performance, well, they were less stressed out, less anxious, more confident, but the most fascinating finding to me was how their physical stress response changed.
Now , in a typical stress response your heart rate goes up, and your blood [vercile] [constract] vessels constrict like this. This And, this is one of the reasons that [] chronic stress is sometimes [] of [] [] associated with cardiovascular disease. It's not really healthy to be in this state all the time. But in the study when the participants viewed the their stress response as helpful, their blood vercile vessels stayed relax relaxed like this. Their heart was still pounding, but this is a much healthier [] to the [] cardiovascular profile. It actually looks a lot like what happens in moments of joy and courage. Over a life time lifetime of stress stressful experiences, this one biological change could be the difference between a stress [] heart tacking each stress-induced heart attack at age 50 and living well into your 90s. And this was is really what the new science of stress reviews reveals, but that how you think about stress matters.
TIP
Now, in a typical stress response, your heart rate goes up, and your blood vessels constrict like this. And this is one of the reasons that chronic stress is sometimes associated with cardiovascular disease. It's not really healthy to be in this state all the time. But in the study, when participants viewed their stress response as helpful, their blood vessels stayed relaxed like this. Their heart was still pounding, but this is a much healthier cardiovascular profile. It actually looks a lot like what happens in moments of joy and courage. Over a lifetime of stressful experiences, this one biological change could be the difference between a stress-induced heart attack at age 50 and living well into your 90s. And this is really what the new science of stress reveals, that how you think about stress matters.
So my goals of goal as a health [] psychologist has changed. I no longer want to get you to [] rid of your stress. I want to make you better with at stress. And we just did a little intervation intervention. If you raise your hands raised your hand and said you had had a lot of stress in the last year, we could save have saved your life. Because hopefully the next time, your heart is pounding from stress, you are going to rememeber remember this talk, and you are going to think to yourself, this is my body helping me rise to this challenge. And when you view stress in that way, your body believes you, and your stress response becomes healthier.
TIP
So my goal as a health psychologist has changed. I no longer want to get rid of your stress. I want to make you better at stress. And we just did a little intervention. If you raised your hand and said you'd had a lot of stress in the last year, we could have saved your life, because hopefully the next time your heart is pounding from stress, you're going to remember this talk and you're going to think to yourself, this is my body helping me rise to this challenge. And when you view stress in that way, your body believes you, and your stress response becomes healthier.
Now I said I have a over decade [] over a decade of demonizing stress to [re] redeem myself from. So we are going to do one more intervention. I want to tell you about one of the most under [approssure] under-appreciated aspects of the stress response. And the idea is this, stress makes you social.
TIP
Now I said I have over a decade of demonizing stress to redeem myself from, so we are going to do one more intervention. I want to tell you about one of the most under-appreciated aspects of the stress response, and the idea is this: Stress makes you social.
To understand this side of stress, we need to talk about [] [] a hormone, oxytocin. And I know, [] oxytocin has a [] [] already gotten as much hype as [] a hormone can get, even it had It even has its own cute nickname the [] [] cuddle hormone. Because of this, you release it's released when you huge hug someone. But this is a very small part of [] what oxytocin is involved in.
TIP
To understand this side of stress, we need to talk about a hormone, oxytocin, and I know oxytocin has already gotten as much hype as a hormone can get. It even has its own cute nickname, the cuddle hormone, because it's released when you hug someone. But this is a very small part of what oxytocin is involved in.
Oxytocin is a nor hormone neuro-hormone. It [] fine-tunes your brains brain's social instings instincts. It [premms] primes you to do things that [] strengthen close relationships. Oxytocin makes you crease your crave physical contact with your friend friends and family. It [] enhances your [] empathy, it even makes you more willing to help and support the people you care about. Some people have even suggested we should [] snort oxytocin. To be become more [compation] compassionate and caring. But here is what most people don't understand about oxytocin, it is a stress hormone. You are [] [] pound this staff out Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out as a part of the stress response. It is as much as a part of your stress response as a [] the adrenaline that made makes your heart pount pound. And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is emulating motivating you to seek support. Your biological stress response is [] nudging you to tell someone how are you feel, and start boiling up instead of bottling it up. Your stress response wants to make sure you notice when someone else in your life was is struggling. So that you can support each other. When life is difficult, your stress response wants you to be surrounded by people who cared care about you.
TIP
Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone. It fine-tunes your brain's social instincts. It primes you to do things that strengthen close relationships. Oxytocin makes you crave physical contact with your friends and family. It enhances your empathy. It even makes you more willing to help and support the people you care about. Some people have even suggested we should snort oxytocin... to become more compassionate and caring. But here's what most people don't understand about oxytocin. It's a stress hormone. Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out as part of the stress response. It's as much a part of your stress response as the adrenaline that makes your heart pound. And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is motivating you to seek support. Your biological stress response is nudging you to tell someone how you feel, instead of bottling it up. Your stress response wants to make sure you notice when someone else in your life is struggling so that you can support each other. When life is difficult, your stress response wants you to be surrounded by people who care about you.
Ok, so how is knowing this side of stress is going to make you healthier? Well, Oxytocin doesn't only act on your brain, it also acts on your body. And one of the its main rules in your body is to portect protect your [] cardiovascular system from the affects effects of stress. It is an natual [] [] a natural anti-inflammatory, it also helps your blood vessal vessels relax stay relaxed during stress. But my favorite affect effect on the body is actually on the heart. Your heart has recepters receptors for this hormone. And oxytocin helps heart cells regenerate and heal from any [] stress-induced damage. This stress hormone strengtens strengthens your heart.
TIP
Okay, so how is knowing this side of stress going to make you healthier? Well, oxytocin doesn't only act on your brain. It also acts on your body, and one of its main roles in your body is to protect your cardiovascular system from the effects of stress. It's a natural anti-inflammatory. It also helps your blood vessels stay relaxed during stress. But my favorite effect on the body is actually on the heart. Your heart has receptors for this hormone, and oxytocin helps heart cells regenerate and heal from any stress-induced damage. This stress hormone strengthens your heart.
And the cool thing is that all of these physical benefit to benefit of oxytocin are in hands enhanced by social contact and social support. So when you read [] reach out to other's others under stress, either to see seek support or to help someone else, you release more of this hormone, your stress response becomes healthier, and you actually recover faster from stress. I find this amazing that your stress response has a built [] built-in mechanism for stress [] resilience, and that [] mechanism is human connection.
TIP
And the cool thing is that all of these physical benefits of oxytocin are enhanced by social contact and social support. So when you reach out to others under stress, either to seek support or to help someone else, you release more of this hormone, your stress response becomes healthier, and you actually recover faster from stress. I find this amazing, that your stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress resilience, and that mechanism is human connection.
I want to finish by telling you about one more study. And listen up, because this study could also save your a life. This study tracked about 1,000 adults of in the United States range the and they ranged in age from 65 34 to 93. And they started the study by asking how much stress did you experience have you experienced in the last year? They also asked how much time have you spent helping out friends, neighbours neighbors, people in your community, and then they used public records for the next 5 years to find out who died.
TIP
I want to finish by telling you about one more study. And listen up, because this study could also save a life. This study tracked about 1,000 adults in the United States, and they ranged in age from 34 to 93, and they started the study by asking, "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?" They also asked, "How much time have you spent helping out friends, neighbors, people in your community?" And then they used public records for the next five years to find out who died.
Ok, so the bad news first, for every [] major stressful life experience, like finacial financial difficulties or family cruises crisis, that increases increased the death risk of dying by 30 percent. But,and I hope you are expecting a but by now, but that wasn't true for everyone. People who spent time caring for others showed absolutely no stress-related in dead increase in dying. zero. Caring created resilience.
TIP
Okay, so the bad news first: For every major stressful life experience, like financial difficulties or family crisis, that increased the risk of dying by 30 percent. But -- and I hope you are expecting a "but" by now -- but that wasn't true for everyone. People who spent time caring for others showed absolutely no stress-related increase in dying. Zero. Caring created resilience.
And so we once see it we see once again that the helpful harmful effects of stress on your health are not invetable inevitable, how you think and how you act can tranform your experience of stress. When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create it the biology of courage. And when you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create reselince resilience. Now, I would not nessesarily necessarily ask for more stress experience stressful experiences in my life, but the this science has given me a whole new [] appreciation for stress. Stress gives us the access to our heart hearts, the compassion it compassionate heart , it that finds joy and meaning and in connecting with others. And yes, you are your pounding physical hard heart, working so hard to give you [] strength and energy. And when you choose to view stress in this way, you are not just getting better at stress, you are actually making a pretty performance profound statement. You are saying that you can trust yourself to handle life life's challenges, and you are remembering that you don't have to face them alone. Thank you.
TIP
And so we see once again that the harmful effects of stress on your health are not inevitable. How you think and how you act can transform your experience of stress. When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage. And when you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience. Now I wouldn't necessarily ask for more stressful experiences in my life, but this science has given me a whole new appreciation for stress. Stress gives us access to our hearts. The compassionate heart that finds joy and meaning in connecting with others, and yes, your pounding physical heart, working so hard to give you strength and energy. And when you choose to view stress in this way, you're not just getting better at stress, you're actually making a pretty profound statement. You're saying that you can trust yourself to handle life's challenges. And you're remembering that you don't have to face them alone. Thank you.
This is kind of amazing when what you're telling us, this It seems amazing to me that a believe belief about stress can make someone diffirence so much difference to someone's life [] expectancy, how would that extend to advice, like ,if someone is making a life style lifestyle choice between , say, a stressful job and a non-stressful job, is it doen't matter which it will go, does it matter which way they go? it's equally wise to go for the stressful job as so long as you believe that you can handle it, some like that in some sense?
TIP
This is kind of amazing, what you're telling us. It seems amazing to me that a belief about stress can make so much difference to someone's life expectancy. How would that extend to advice, like, if someone is making a lifestyle choice between, say, a stressful job and a non-stressful job, does it matter which way they go? It's equally wise to go for the stressful job so long as you believe that you can handle it, in some sense?
Yeah, when they and one thing we know for centain certain is that chasing meaning is better for your health and than trying to avoid [] discomfort, and so I would say that would is really the best way of to make decisions is go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress as that follows.
TIP
Yeah, and one thing we know for certain is that chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort. And so I would say that's really the best way to make decisions, is go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows.
Than you so much, Kelly. It's pretty cool.
TIP
Thank you so much, Kelly. It's pretty cool.