The Upside Of Stress Pdf 18
Ivy Auteri
Namely, once you "cognitively reframe" stress as a challenge or opportunity, you are no longer speaking about stress --- you are in fact speaking about a different psychological construct: "challenge," so naturally different responses ---mental, physical, and behavioral occur.
The author is actually pointing out the upside and power of cognitive appraisal ---the process of interpreting the events around you. Interpret a situation negatively or threatening, an individual produces one set of responses. Interpret the same situation as an opportunity or challenge and the individual produces a different set of responses because he or she is responding to a different construct.
When you consider that The APA Monitor has recently reported studies indicating students are under more stress and pressure than ever before and many colleges and universities lack the resources to respond to the needs of their students, that schools such as MIT are actively trying to help students manage their stress, and studies recently published in esteemed sources such as Knowledge@Wharton that report the negative effects of stress in the workplace are rampant, it is clear, at least to me that the downside of stress is pretty down.
There is an Upside to Stress but it is not the result of calling stress a challenge or developing a pre-routine (both strategies that I too recommend in my book). The evolutionary function of stress provides its "upside" --- to arouse us to action, what Harvard professor and chairman of The Department of Physiology , Walter Cannon, called his 1932 published book, The Wisdom of the Body, the flight--fight response. Stress arouses us so we can meet the demands of our environment. The very first demand made upon man was survival. Confronted with a Saber Tooth Tiger, nature demanded he either fight or flee successfully if he were to advance, and for sure, if you were not aroused, you would not have the energy to do either.
Providing arousal for action is the upside of stress and ever since the Yerkes-Dodson law in 1908, it has been known that stress arousal can be beneficial and detrimental. Thus, parents and managers who increase stress (demands) on their "lazy kids or staff" are arousing them for the purpose of performing to their capability --- is an example of how to apply the upside of stress." Parents and manager who makes a lot of "demands" on his or her staff is putting a lot of stress on them, as do partners who demand a lot from each other. Learning how to apply the arousal of stress is how you get the Upside of Stress.
As it turns out, how you think about stress matters. A series of studies helped me rethink my own position about stress, because the findings were so revealing. In one study, researchers surveyed almost 29,000 adults and asked them two questions:
What these and other studies demonstrate is that stress can help you in many ways. Stress gives you the energy you need to rise to a challenge, stress gives you the courage to connect to others, and stress helps you learn and grow. Stress is also part of a meaningful life. The next time you feel stressed about something, try to get curious about how stress is showing up to help you.
In people with a more stress-hardy mindset, the stress response is often tempered by the challenge response, which accounts for the so-called excite-and-delight experience that some people have in stressful situations, such as skydiving. Like the typical stress response, the challenge response also affects the cardiovascular system, but instead of constricting blood vessels and ramping up inflammation in anticipation of wounds, it allows for maximum blood flow, much like exercise.
A stress response stimulates activity throughout the body. In the brain, senses are alerted through adrenaline, pupils dilate for greater perception, hearing sharpens, brain processes occur more quickly, and the mind focuses so that inferior priorities do not conflict with the situation. A chemical combination of endorphins, adrenaline, testosterone, and dopamine also increases to boost motivation. This creates an increased sense of confidence and power (pp. 50-51).
The two hormones specifically dedicated to stress are cortisol and DHEA. Cortisol allows the body and brain to maximize energy by suppressing other biological functions that are less important than stress, such as digestion and growth. DHEA strengthens the brain during a stress response to allow for wound repair and immune functioning (p. 9).
The growth index is the ratio of DHEA to cortisol. A low growth index has low levels of DHEA and can be associated with negative outcomes, such as depression. A high growth index has high levels of DHEA and has positive outcomes to stress responses, such as reduced risk of anxiety, depression, and neurodegeneration (p. 9).
Stress hormones increase brain activity after a stress response to support learning and memory. This allows the brain to reflect on stressful experiences so that past experiences can condition and prepare the brain and body for how to react to future stress (p. 54-55).
Three types of brain activity occur as part of a tend-and-befriend stress response. The social caregiving system of the brain is activated, allowing the person to feel more empathy, connection, and trust while inhibiting the fear center of the brain. The reward system of the brain is activated, increasing motivation while further dampening fear. Finally, activation of the attunement system enhances perception, intuition, and self-control. This activity in the brain allows the person to experience social, courageous, and intelligent emotions (p. 138).
The two components of a growth mindset are shifting and persisting. Shifting involves acknowledging stress and the source of that stress. Persisting relates to remaining optimistic when being faced with the adversity created through stressful situations (p. 194).
The most effective mindset interventions involve (1) learning the new point of view, (2) practicing an exercise that encourages the adoption and application of the mindset, and (3) providing an opportunity to share the experience with others (p. 30).
A 1998 research study found that high levels of stress increased the risk of dying within eight years by 43% if and only if the person considered stress to be harmful. It is not stress alone that has a negative effect, but the presence and belief that stress is harmful (p. xii).
A research experiment conducted at investment banking company UBS determined that mindset interventions transmitting the message that stress is helpful influenced employee wellbeing. Employees reported less anxiety and fewer health problems and were observed as being more engaged, collaborative, and productive (pp. 19-20).
The body undergoes an evaluation of strengths and weaknesses when presented with a challenge or threat response. The person experiences a challenge response if they feel equipped with the necessary skills to conquer the situation. A threat response is experienced if they feel they are incapable of succeeding (p. 113).
A person ought to acknowledge personal strengths and reflect on similar past situations where a lesson was learned or an obstacle was eliminated. This practice promotes a challenge response rather than a threat response (p. 113).
And yet, too much struggle and stress undeniably has negative consequences. Ask anyone who has ever put seedlings out in the garden to harden off too early. Even if a seedling manages to survive, it will be a scrawny, scraggly producer, not nearly as prolific as a plant that is put into the garden at the proper time.
This is along the lines of the butterfly struggling to get out of the crysalis. Some stress may make you stronger, but I still believe (and decades of evidence supports this) there is a tipping point at which too much stress becomes damaging and unhealthy. Our bodies did not evolve to be in a constant state of fight, flight, or freeze, and reframing the stress that causes a limbic system response is not going to eliminate the negative impact of that on our bodies.
This is certainly true sometimes. Take parenting a young child with severe food allergies and sending them on a playdate. That is is definitely stressful. And that anxiety motivated me to over prepare, to work really hard to make sure people understood her allergies, that she always had her own food with her, that she was dressed in a way to minimize skin contact with allergens, and so on.
The reverse is not necessarily true either. Your life can be extremely stressful for a variety of reasons (addiction, abuse, illness) and that does not mean you are living a life you find meaningful. In fact, sometimes stress is increased when you are living a life you do NOT find meaningful and are working up the courage to shift gears.
Studies do show that helping others can help you manage your own stress. But I am extremely skeptical of the study mentioned in the book, that helping others literally wipes out your risk of dying from stress. I hope other researchers are trying to replicate it and the results to validate it further.
That's Modupe Akinola, a professor at the Columbia Business School and an expert on stress. Modupe is on a mission to change how we think about short-term stress, the kind we feel when we're preparing for a big presentation at work or before a difficult conversation with a friend. She says we can reframe our stress as something that actually helps us.
It's often your mindset about stress that can influence the extent to which it can have harmful or helpful effects. So when we have more of a stresses enhancing mindset, that leads to better outcomes.
It is easy for us to see stress as the enemy. In a stressful situation, our heart races, our blood pressure rises, our breathing quickens, and this can all feel pretty uncomfortable. If we could wave a magic wand that would eliminate all future stress from our lives, many of us would wave that wand. But Modupe believes that if we can make a small shift in our mindset, stress can actually be a powerful asset. So Modupe, can you start off by sharing what it is that got you interested in studying stress in the first place?
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