How to benefit from stress?

In everyday fast life, people find it very hard to avoid stress, which arises from his duties, Deadline, by ever-increasing load and life in general. This idea may seem a little crazy, but what if the assumption that the fear - it's bad, it's just a suggestion?

What exactly does stress so bad for us? But what if there is another way of perception of stress, if it is a good force in our lives? It is, according to a recent study Alia Crum and Peter Salovey of Yale University, and author of the book «Happines Advantage» Shen Achor.

What is stress?

In humans, as in animals have an instinctive physical reaction to stress. It involves the reaction of the sympathetic nervous system ( "fight or flight"), inhibition of the parasympathetic nervous system ( "rest") and adrenaline and cortisol. And what does all this mean? Simply put, the system acts as a pump.

We become more energized and focused, ready for the physical and mental reactions to what awaits us.

All this sounds good, does not it? But wait, it is believed that constant stress makes us sick. Whether it can significantly damage the immune system? Yes, but there are also a lot of evidence that stress may enhance immunity.

The paradoxical nature of stress

You notice that stress pushes you into depression and makes sluggish? It really is. But studies have shown the other side of the coin: the stress can also increase moral stability, enhance mental clarity, increases the productivity, contributes to a sense of confidence, based on the obstacles that you overcome (such confidence to continue with you for a long time).

Thus stress is both bad and good phenomenon. As well aware of the paradoxical nature of stress? I bet right now you tell yourself that the result affects the amount of stress that you experience.

Low levels may be good, but high levels are still bad for you. That is to say that you do not kill you makes you stronger. But too much stress will probably still kill you.

The problem with this theory, which for some time has been the dominant theory among psychologists, that by and large it was wrong. The amount of stress that you feel is very little significant indicator in terms of whether it will make you better or worse.

Stress types of thinking: the grueling and positive

As it turned out, what do you think about stress, it is one of the most important prognostic factors. As researchers found Crum, Salovey and Achor, people have different ideas about stress. Most people believe that stress - it's bad. They agreed with such statements as "The consequences of stress are negative and should be avoided." The researchers called this type of thinking "Stress debilitating thinking». Those who agreed with the statement that "stress contributes to their learning and growth" have "Stress the positive mindset».

In his research, Cram and his colleagues began by identifying the types of stressful thinking among a group of nearly 400 employees of the international financial institutions. They found that those employees who had a stress positive mindset (compared with colleagues Stress debilitating type of thinking), were healthier and more satisfied with life, and had a higher performance.

It's amazing, but your thinking can also change! If you, like most people stress debilitating type of thinking, it is not necessary to dwell on it. Participating in a study of 400 employees of large companies during the week showed the three-minute video, illustrating how bad or good the effects of stress on health, productivity and personal height. The lucky stress-positive mindset reported a significant increase in productivity and prosperity.

Another study found that people with stress-positive mindset increasingly using productive strategies in search of yield stress. Also, they observed an optimum level of cortisol.

It turns out that if in response to stress produce too little or too much cortisol, it can have negative physiological effects. But if you stress the positive mindset, the cortisol levels will be normal.

Taken together, these studies paint a very clear picture: the stress is killing people because they believe that this is so. Of course, if you, for example, juggling too many projects at once, then it's no longer thinking. Each of us has a limited time and a limit of energy reserves. People may just be hyper-congested.

But if you are able to look at the difficulties and challenges you face as an opportunity to learn and to grow, and not as a "daily grind", then you really can become happier, healthier, and more efficiently. Maybe, your salvation is not to reduce the amount of stress, and to think differently about it? Think about it.