No one gets a free pass when it comes to stress. We all experience it, and though chronic stress can take its toll on our health, there are situations when stress can be beneficial.<\/p>\n
Ever felt clammy palms or butterflies in your stomach? In the moments before you walk into a job interview, ask someone out on a date, or step up to a podium to speak to a crowd, your stress response can kick in and create these physical sensations.<\/p>\n
Dan Harris, host of the podcast\u00a010% Happier,<\/a>\u00a0recalls a case of the jitters before a recent TV appearance. He felt his heart rate pick up. \u201cIn the seconds before I went on I was pacing around,\u201d he says, feeling nervous.<\/p>\n And the outcome? \u201cThe appearance went great.\u201d Harris says he\u2019s come to interpret some of the physiological aspects of stress as a good thing. \u201cThere\u2019s an empowering inner jujitsu move,\u201d he says, to reframe stress.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of telling yourself that you\u2019re having crippling anxiety, you can tell yourself a more empowering story, which is, I\u2019m excited!\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not passive receivers of stress,\u201d Jamieson explains. \u201cWe\u2019re active agents in actually making our own stress response.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamieson says the stress we feel during challenging situations can give us fuel to address the demands we face. For instance, as your heart rate increases, it can help deliver more oxygen to your brain and muscles.<\/p>\n \u201cOxygen is very good for helping us process information quickly,\u201d Jamieson explains. It can also help people perform.<\/p>\n Humans have long faced threats from predators, and our fight-or-flight response evolved to help us survive these dangers. But the kinds of stressors we face today have shifted. In modern times, some of our stress comes from challenges that Jamieson says can be viewed as \u201cgrowth opportunities.\u201d The job interview, the presentation, the TV appearance.<\/p>\n \u201cTo really innovate and do hard things, your stress response is there to optimize your performance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n When it comes to stress, \u201ccontext matters,\u201d says researcher\u00a0Wendy Berry Mendes<\/a>, a professor of psychology at Yale University. There are different types of stress responses and different types of stress.<\/p>\n She points to studies from Scandinavia, going back decades, that found stress hormones are linked to\u00a0better performance<\/a>\u00a0in students taking tests.<\/p>\n \u201cA greater increase\u00a0in catecholamines<\/a>, [including] epinephrine, norepinephrine, the morning of the test was associated with better performance on that test,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the challenge: Not everyone responds to stressors in the same way. Test anxiety is real for some people and it can work against their performance. Part of the equation is how well they know the material, or how well prepared they are to take the test. Another part is how they perceive stress.<\/p>\n Jamieson points to evidence that people can be taught to\u00a0\u201creappraise\u201d stress.<\/a>\u00a0He and collaborators studied community college students who were preparing for a math test. When students were given information about the \u201cfunctional benefits\u201d of stress before the test, they did better.<\/p>\n \u201cBy informing people of the benefits of stress responses in these settings, they latched on to the idea, I can lean into my stress, \u201c Jamieson says, and use it to help do important things.<\/p>\n So, when stress arises from a challenge or opportunity, it can be helpful in the moment. But, when your stress response stays activated during times you don\u2019t need it, this becomes problematic.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you have a big presentation, that\u2019s still three days away. You\u2019ve finished the preparations, but anticipatory stress sets in. Just imagining yourself giving the presentation gives you jitters. You can feel a stress response amp up.<\/p>\n Your breath is shallow, or you feel edgy or irritated. If you use a wearable, such as an Oura ring or Apple Watch, it may show a low level of heart rate variability, which is indicative of more time in stress mode.<\/p>\n \u201cYour body is going into overdrive before you need it,\u201d Mendes says. And this can exhaust your physiological system. \u201cImagine if you were sprinting across the savannah, trying to run away from a lion,\u201d Mendes says, but the lion isn\u2019t showing up for three days! That isn\u2019t sustainable.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also unhelpful to fret about a performance after it\u2019s over. \u201cYour body no longer needs to be in overdrive,\u201d Mendes says, but worrying keeps the stress response activated.<\/p>\n This can lead to fatigue, moodiness and burnout. Chronic stress can make you feel as if you\u2019re continually under attack. It\u2019s linked to everything from an\u00a0increased risk<\/a>\u00a0in heart disease to depression, headaches and sleep troubles.<\/p>\n All of this suggests that strategies to manage stress are key. We can\u2019t avoid the tough situations life throws at us, but we can learn skills that boost our ability to manage and even bounce back and thrive.<\/p>\n To learn more about ways to manage stress go to STRESS.ORG<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo by RDNE Stock project<\/a><\/p>\n To learn more about ways to manage stress, join NPR\u2019s\u00a0Stress Less: A quest to reclaim your calm.<\/a>\u00a0And get five weekly newsletters full of tips and strategies to manage stress and boost positive emotions:\u00a0Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n By Allison Aubrey<\/a>\u00a0 For NPR<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Stress Less editors are Carmel Wroth and Jane Greenhalgh<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No one gets a free pass when it comes to stress. We all experience it, and though chronic stress can take its toll on our health, there are situations when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[12,139,142,15],"tags":[136,137,138,141,143,147],"class_list":["post-105691","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adult-stress","category-daily-life-blog","category-health","category-mental-health","tag-ais","tag-american-institute-of-stress","tag-anxiety","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-stress-management","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen good stress turns bad<\/h3>\n
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