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Kelly McGonigal is a psychologist. Her work is to make people healthier and happier. She spent her time telling people that stress makes you sick and it increases the risk of dying. She also talked about a study related to stress and risk of dying which was conducted in the USA involving 30 adults. They were asked “how much stress do they experience in the last year” and “do they believe that stress is harmful”. After 8 years of the research, the researchers tracked the death on public death record and figured out that people who experience a lot of stresses is 43% increasing their risk of dying while people who believe that stress is not harmful is not likely to die ( they had the lowest risk of dying). The researcher estimated that over 8 years 182.000 people died because of the belief that stress is bad for them.
This finding means that when you changed your mind about stress can change your body respond about it and make you healthier. There is another study conducted in Harvard University called Social Stress test, a study included the impromptu speech in front of a panel of juries which has been trained to perform a nonverbal expression and a math test. Before the test is conducted, the researchers told the participant that stress is helpful for them. When they are told so, their blood vessel stays relax during the test (it looks like when they are in the moment of joy and courage), meaning that how you think about stress matters. Whenever you get stress, you think that your body is helping you up to the challenge and when you think so, your body believes in you and your stress respond becomes healthier.
Another thing people unappreciated about stress is that it makes us social. Stress released a hormone called Oxytocin or also known as the cuddle hormone. When this hormone released, it is motivating you to seek support. So when life is difficult, your stress respond wants you to be surrounded with people who care about you. This stress hormone strength you heart meaning that stress respond has built a mechanism which is human connection.
The last study related to stress respond was conducted in the USA involving 100 adults. They were asked “how much stress do they experience in the last year” and “how much time they spend on helping people”. Turns out, the finding showed that the major stress factor increases the risk of dying of 30% while people who spend time helping people show 0 risk of dying. All in all, how you think and act towards stress will change your stress respond. When you choose to view stress in this way, you’re not only better at stress, you say to yourself that your body believes in you to face the challenges and you remember that you don’t have to face them alone.