Unhealthy stress
is a choice
Healthy stressing!
Do you ever experience stress? Do you associate stress with negativity? Stress appears in everyone. Your heart rate shoots up, you feel pressure and your body immediately shifts gears. Many people associate stress with something unhealthy, while research shows otherwise. It’s not the stress reaction itself that poses the risk, but the way you assess stress. Maybe this is the eye-opener you need.
The influence of your mindset
We have grown up with the image that stress is unhealthy, and as a result it has acquired a negative connotation. Every year an average of 10,000 people end up in the WAO because of stress, and the cost to social security is about 1.25 billion euros. Is our body’s stress reaction the cause of this or should we look for the cause elsewhere?
Studies from Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin show that your beliefs determine how stress works its way through to your body. If you see stress as something that undercuts you, your body reacts as if danger is imminent. Your blood vessels constrict, your blood pressure rises and your system stays in survival mode. We produce more adrenaline. When this occurs with some regularity, health problems such as cardiovascular disease develop. This increases the risk of death by as much as 43%.
If you see stress as a tool that makes you alert, that bodily response changes completely. The physical stress stimulus remains, but your body adds an important substance: oxytocin. This hormone protects your cardiovascular system, supports recovery and is anti-inflammatory. It relaxes the blood vessels, allowing you to remain stable despite a faster heart rate.
Stress becomes healthier with contact
Oxytocin rises further when you connect with others during stressful moments. Research shows that people who actively help others have no higher risk of stress-related symptoms. Those who do not, on the contrary, significantly increase the risk. So your body is designed to bear stress, provided you choose the right mindset and stay connected to your environment.
The choice is yours
Stress doesn’t have to break you. When you believe you can handle a stressful situation, your body responds more resiliently and you stay mentally sharper. Healthy stressing requires one conscious step: seeing stress as something that helps you perform. That choice determines how your body and brain respond.
Want to learn more about how stress works and how to use stress as a force? Then check out our Optimal Coping with Stress training course.
