There's a study with over 30,000 people people had higher risk of illness and death related to stress only if they thought stress is bad for them.
Those who didn't have negative view of stress had lowest mortality rate, even those who experienced low amount of stress.
It's not stress that kills us. It's our beliefs about stress that kills us.
Mindset matters.
Moderate amount of stress is best for you.
Low or high stress doesn't result in higher well being.
Not having adversity is not good
Statistics show the unhappiest countries are the least stressed, not the happiest.
Viktor Frankl, overcoming adversity is one of the main reasons humans live for
Our fear of stress is just the resistance piece
Suffering = Pain x Resistance
Pain is inevitable and it's something all humans go through.
Pain -> suffering when we resist pain
Stress is when something you value is at stake
Stress is pain.
weight lifting = stress on muscles and micro-tears
Pain is inevitable.
we create suffering when we try to cut out our stress levels.
stress level scales don't make sense because
terrifying and fear mongering
how you conceptuqlize and respond to stress is crucial whether ou have positive or negative outcome
it's not your actual stress level, it's how you cope with it.
Two types of stress response
- Threat response: fight, flight or freeze
- Challenge response: not as life threatening danger, but a challenge which is surmountable using skills at your disposal
The difference lies in your mindset going into it.
A lot of people with anxiety disorder overestimate/overinflate their interpretation of bodily sensation, even though they have the same level of stress hormones
Some ways turn into challenge response
Shift and persist - shift your mindset on stress from something to be avoided to something you can use to your advan tage and persist by maintaining optimisim even in the face of painful experiences
also known as (antifragility, growth mindset, resilienace, grit)
20 journalling thinking about the good from a painful experience can help you reap outcomes
find the meaning in stress and focus on your values
use stress to get you closer to your goals
Pain is inevitable, suffering is not
World-class athletes perform better under pressure because they use stress as fuel
there is a fine line between excitement and anxiety
harness stress into excitement.
Tend and befriend - focusing on helping others, helping others, giving back
seeing suffering of others reduce our own suffering.
promotes oxytocin which calms you down
stress is only harmful if you think it is
If you don't focus on meaning making, values alignment, see it's benefits, focus on how it can feel you, and how it can help you perform
Stress is only toxic if you feel inadequate to it, it isolates you, and it feels meaningless and powerless for you to deal with stress.
Isolate yourself.
If you're stressed don't be around other stressed people.