Experts share simple ways — to convert everyday aargh into motivation, passion and joy. Retrain your brain to turn bad stress into positive energy. Form energy draining deadlines to non stop multi–tasking, we’re all to familiar with feeling stress & you may be surprised to learn to learn that distress (the chronic harmful stress) has a cousin called eustress.
This short term positive stress excites and motivates us, sharpening our focus and helps us to reach our goals. The best part: we have the power to choose which path we follow. “New science reveals: simply by changing how we think …. can also alter our physical and psychological responses to moments of stress,” says Kelly McGonigal Ph.D. author of the Upside of Stress.
Cardiovascularly stable speaking, stress produces the same physical reaction as moments of joy and courage McGonigal adds, “So by also reframing our outlook, we can teach our brain to expect a good feeling instead of a bad feeling when we experience stress.” A recent study at the University of Freiberg in Germany found that participants who were coached to view public speaking through the lens of good stress — displayed significantly by higher levels of positive social behavior, such as trust and openness then their negative – thinking counterparts.
In fact, today look at the health trends like intermittent fasting or interval training, which both stress the body in short powerful ways. “A little good stress can boost our brainpower and our activation of autophagy–our body’s own cellular cleanup and rejuvenation,” says Naomi Whittel author of Glow 15. The physical and emotional benefits include improving sleep, pain reduction and boosting immunity, as well as helping us meet challenges, increasing joy and extending life expectancy.
Here’s a few tips to help ease stressful situations: after hitting traffic, spilling your coffee and swerving in traffic for 90 seconds after a stressor presents itself, brain chemicals surge making it hard to tap into your rational left hemisphere of your brain. As soon as you feel this, Dr. Chris Peterson, an expert in neuro — psychology in mindfulness advices to take eight deep breaths to lower your heart rate. Which engages your logical parasympathetic nervous system and this interrupts your fight or flight response and halts those anxiety producing thoughts.
When you feel defeated, rejected or disappointment close your eyes and imagine yourself a year from now– happy, excited and where you really need to be in GOD’s plan. When we are stressed, we are spitting out the hyper-sensitive neuro transmitter norepinephrine which makes it difficult for us to redirect our attention off less stressful events. Walking in nature is a 360 degree stimuli that defocuses your attention on your problem.
The other benefit of looking at the beauty of nature releases feel good neurotransmitters and triggers positive emotions — even gazing at pictures of nature or having house plants can have a feel good effect. “Negativity builds the most developed neural pathways in the brain as a way to protect us from danger.” says Loretta Breuning, Ph.D., author of Tame Your Anxiety. Left unresolved, these pathways strengthen so even small setbacks cause major stress. Whenever, your mind begins weaving a tale that heightens anxiety.
- It helps boost brainpower. Low-level stressors stimulate the production of brain chemicals called neurotrophins, and strengthen the connections between neurons in the brain. In fact, this may be the primary mechanism by which exercise (a physical stressor) helps boost productivity and concentration, Dr. Shelton states. Short-term psychological stressors, he adds, can have a similar effect, as well. Plus, animal studies have suggested that the body’s response to stress can temporarily boost memory and learning scores.…
- It can increase immunity—in the short term. “When the body responds to stress, it prepares itself for the possibility of injury or infection,” says Dr. Shelton. “One way it does this is by producing extra interleukins—chemicals that help regulate the immune system—providing at least a temporary defensive boost.” Research in animals support this idea, as well: A 2012 Stanford study found that subjecting lab rats to mild stress produced a “massive mobilization” of several types of immune cells in their bloodstreams. …
- It can make you more resilient. Learning to deal with stressful situations can make future ones easier to manage, according to a large body of research on the science of resilience. It’s the idea behind Navy SEAL training, Dr. Shelton says, “although you can certainly benefit from less extreme experiences, as well as Repeated exposure to stressful events gives [SEALs] the chance to develop both a physical and psychological sense of control, so when they’re in actually combat they don’t just shut down,” he says.
- It motivates you to succeed. Good stress, also known in the scientific community as eustress, may just the thing you need to get job done at work. “Think about a deadline: It’s staring you in the face, and it will stimulate your behavior. . . . to really manage the situation effectively, rapidly, and productively,” says Dr. Shelton. The key, he says, is to view stressful situations as a challenge — rather than an overwhelming, unpassable roadblock. . . . Eustress can also help you enter a state of “flow,” a heightened sense of awareness and complete absorption into an activity, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow can be achieved in the workplace, in sports, or in any creative endeavor (such as playing a musical instrument), and Csikszentmihalyi also states it’s driven largely by pressure to succeed.
- It can enhance child development. Moms-to-be often worry that their own anxiety will negatively affect their unborn babies—and it can, when it’s unrelenting. But a 2006 Johns Hopkins study found that most children of women who reported mild to moderate stress levels. . . . during pregnancy actually showed greater motor and developmental skills by age 2 than those of unstressed mothers. The one exception: the children of women who viewed their pregnancy as more negative than positive had slightly lower attention capacity.