Do you want to live longer? Do you want to deal better with stress. Listen to this talk by Kelly McGonigal to find out how.
Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.
So what should you do to live longer and be able to deal with stress. You should do the following 3 things.
1.Rethink your view to stress from being bad to something good that is making your body energised and ready for action. Stress actually has some benefits as it releases oxytocin which:
i)Makes you more social.
ii)It is anti-inflammatory
iii)It repairs your heart
2.Care for others
3. Go after meaning in your life.
Rethink you view of Stress
Your belief changes your world and now has been shown to save your life.
An 8 year study of 30,000 people showed that people who did not view stress as harmful had the lowest risk of dying.
Another study analysing people under a stressful situation (the social stress test) would have blood vessels constricting normally but they wouldn't constrict if they viewed stress as a sign that their body was energized and preparing to meet a challenge. So you should think of the stress response as helpful, as it is preparing you for action.
Makes you social
Oxytocin is a neuro hormone. People don't realise it is a stress hormone pumped out by pituitary gland. It has been called the cuddle hormone. It makes you crave contact, seek support, increase empathy and make you help people.
Anti-inflammatory
Oxytocin is anti -inflammatory
Strengthens you heart
Oxytocin helps heart cells regenerate and heal form any stress induced damage
Caring for others
A study of 1000 adults with ages ranging form 34 to 93 showed that people who spent time caring for others showed absolutely no stress related increase in dying. Caring created resilience
Go after meaning
Go after meaning is more important than avoiding discomfort.
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