How to make stress your friend | Kelly McGonigal

In a study conducted at harvard university before they went through the social stress tests they were taught to rethink their stress responses helpful, that pounding heart is preparing you for action, if you're breathing faster it's no problem it's getting more oxygen to your brain and participants who learned to view the stress response as helpful for their performance, they were less stressed out, less anxious, more confident but the most fascinating finding was how their physical stress response changed.

Their heart was still pounding but this is a much healthier cardiovascular profile. It actually looks a lot like what happens in moments of joy and courage.

So hopefully the next time your heart is pounding from stress you're going through, remember this and you're going to think or talk out loud to yourself:

"This is my body helping me rise to this challenge" and when you view stress in that way your body believes you and your stress response becomes healthier!

When oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is motivating you to seek support, your biological stress response is nudging you to tell someone how you feel instead of bottling it up. Your stress response wants to make sure you notice when someone else in your life is struggling so that you can support each other. When life is difficult your stress response wants you to be surrounded by people who care about you!