Stress is unavoidable and we’ve all felt the strain from time to time, occasionally or unfortunately, even constantly.

We’ve always been told that stress is a bad thing, and severely detrimental to our health.

I like to think that stress is actually a sign that we are passionate, alive, and human!

But what if I told you that neurologists and scientists are finding that sometimes stress can actually be good for you if you perceive it that way?

 

Stress Can Improve Health if Interpreted Correctly

According to this TED talk, how you think about stress really matters.

A Havard study showed that when people are told to think a body’s response to stress is helpful, their physical stress response changed for the better.

Heart rate increases for everyone during times of stress, but the subjects who believed stress was helpful experienced less restricted blood vessels and blood pressure than people who thought stress was unhealthy.

They also found that during stress, the body naturally secretes hormones that actually strengthen your heart.

It seems that a body’s response to stress is just natural preparation for coping with the situation.

By choosing to view stress as helpful, you’re building a biology of resilience.

The TED talk also notes that stress leads to a secretion of the famous “hugging hormone” called oxytocin.

This could be the body’s natural reaction to encourage us to connect and bond with others in times of trouble.

It makes sense.

Humans have evolved as social creatures that need each other to survive.

If we reach out to others and ask for help, or better yet, help others in times of stress, it will help us get through tough times.

Stress can actually make us closer to others, creating more profound and powerful human connections that will continue to enrich our lives into the future.

 

Stress When Learning Something New is Actually Growth

If you’re feeling discomfort from learning something new or you feel you’re in too deep and don’t know what you’re doing, you’re actually on a good path!

Neurologist Andrew Huberman says that the uncomfortable agitation we feel at the beginning of learning something new is deliberate, and the gateway for growth (45:00).

Your nervous system is seeing something foreign that it hasn’t experienced before, causing stress hormones (norepinephrine/adrenaline) to be secreted in order to aid the brain with focus.

Your brain is busy learning by creating markers for change within the neurons and brain structure that will eventually become functioning pathways of knowledge later.

Most people feel this discomfort and succumb to the tendency to give up, called the “quit response,” thinking they just aren’t cut out for it.

But the secret, according to Huberman, is to acknowledge and welcome this phase as a gateway for growth, and push through it with passion and strength.

You must also measure your progress and reward your effort process in order to unlock dopamine that will work to tamp down the stress hormones and allow you even more progress (50:00).

This is how people can get really, really, good at certain things.

Applying this principle to a stressful work project, for example, your stress IS the feeling of growth.

This IS you learning new skills and gaining valuable experience and you’ll never be the same again.

Stress when learning something new is an indication of one of the most fulfilling things in life: progress.

 

Improves Brain Function Over Time

Managing stress and deliberately focusing intensely on something for short periods of time can improve overall brain function and performance over time, again according to Huberman.

The intense focus period must be followed by intentional resting periods and deep sleep, however, to maximize the cognitive growth.

I think of it like a mental workout, almost like tabata training at the gym: short, intense intervals of effort, followed by a rest period.

Looks like mental fitness does follow physical fitness.

Training your brain like your body to endure intense periods of focus and strain will increase its functioning and capacity over time.

 

Conclusion

Stress is ubiquitous these days in our fast-paced, demanding, modern world.

I wouldn’t ask for more stress, but by welcoming it when it comes and understanding your body’s reaction to it, you can learn and grow.

Here are a few ways that stress can actually be good for you:

• Stress can improve your health, but only if you deliberately view it that way
• Stress when learning new things is actually a physical sign of growth and must be acknowledged and welcomed
• Intense periods of focus and stress can improve brain functioning over time

With these new insights, maybe we can be ready, relax a bit more, and trust ourselves to handle life’s challenges instead of letting them handle us.