Kelly McGonigal discusses the importance of viewing stress as positive, as opposed to negative, by detailing three specific studies and findings about stress. In the first study, it was discovered that people with a significant amount of stress had a higher mortality rate; however, this was only statistically significant if the subject viewed stress as harmful. If the overly-stressed subject didn’t view stress as harmful, they were actually at the lowest risk of dying, even compared to those with a minimal amount. Therefore, it is important to change a person’s perspective of stress. In particular, McGonigal emphasizes that stress is important for a person’s body: it energizes and prepares them to meet whatever challenge they are facing. Furthermore, it helps the blood vessels remain relaxed, thereby allowing the heart to remain healthy. …show more content…
One of the effects of this hormone is that it makes a person more inclined to go to a close family member or friend, as they want to be surrounded by people who care about their well-being. Additionally, it helps heal stress-induced damages to the heart. Essentially, stress makes a person social, as they crave physical contact and increase their empathy. The final study discovered that people who experience a major stressful event have an increased mortality rate; however, if they spend time helping other people, they experience no increase whatsoever. In conclusion, stress affects a person’s body in whatever manner they think it will: A person will remain healthy if they view it positively, but a person who views it negatively will be
In the TED talk, “How to make stress your friend,” Kelly McGonigal illustrates that how we think about stress matters. It is not important to get rid of it more so it is how we deal with it. She emphasizes on that a positive outlook on stress is beneficial to mind and body because when we teach our mind to view stress as helpful, we change our experience with it, and at the same time we also train our body a healthier way to process it. For instance, Kelly discusses a study conducted by researchers of the University of Wisconsin. They surveyed close to 29,000 people to find out the amount of stress they had experienced in the last year, but also what they thought how much this stress had an impact on their health. What they found out was that people with high stress levels and the belief that this stress has a negative influence on their health had a 43% more likelihood of death. In contrast, those people who had the same amount of high stress but persuade it as positive were the least feasible to die. In other words, the belief that stress is harmful has a bigger impact on someone’s health then the stress itself.
Kelly McGonigal's stress discussion caused me to view stress in a positive which I never that was possible since stress is always viewed negatively. Countless times, I have read or heard how horrible stress is for your body, but who would have thought that you can trick your body into believing that stress is a good experience. Kelly McGonigal picks apart how stress can affected the body and heart in a good way. The adrenaline that causes the heart to pound from stress is actually a way the body starts to prepare to conquer stress. Oxytocin is your body's way of protecting itself from stress; a simple stress hormone that helps strengthen the heart for the next stressful experience. However, I know some extremely social individuals that bottle
In her study, McGonigal explained how a person dealing with stress will look to others for comfort, and this instinct to support one another is instituted through oxytocin. The chemical she spoke about works inside the brain aids the heart and cardiovascular system from damaged caused by stress.
Article Title: “A look at why stress may be good for you” by Steffan Stern. Published May 15, 2015. LA Times.
The overarching claim made in this piece is that there are intrinsic health benefits to be gained from stress, some of these require a positive attitude towards stress, others are innate or simply transpire without conscious effort.
Webster defines stress as a “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.” (1). There are a variety of factors that can cause someone to be stressed and stress can affect people in many different ways. “Nearly one-third of Americans are living with extreme stress and nearly half of Americans (48 percent) believe that their stress has increased over the past five years” (APA, 1). While a certain amount of stress is healthy and can increase productivity, it also has many negative physiological effects on people including weight gain, mental health issues, and immune deficiency. Stress is also linked to the leading physical causes of death including heart disease, cancer and stroke (Lazarus, 4, 8). There are many different situations that one might perceive as stressful and an ongoing stressful situation, or chronic stress, can be exaggerated by a poor diet and lack of exercise. Going to work in an unpleasant environment, speaking in public, or the death of a loved one are all examples of different stressors. (McEwen, 171).
Have you ever had to stand up in front of a class to give a speech and felt your hands getting sweaty? What about that last Halloween trail ride that you went on, did you feel your heart pounding when that goblin jumped out right in front of you? If so you know you can feel stress on both your body and your mind. Stress is so common in America today; we are calling it “the new normal.” Just saying the word may be enough to set your nerve on edge. These expressions are familiar to us, “I’m under too much stress,” “I’m stressed out,” or “Work is one big stress.” Definitely, stress is difficult to define because it means different things to different people. According to Hans Selye a pioneer who conducted groundbreaking scientific work
In the Stress Ted talk, Kelly provided us how stress effect people’s health, and how people should deal with stress in order to make a healthy life. Everyone has stress in their daily life, and many people treat stress as an enemy. They want to get rid of their stress, but it is not easy to be controlled. However, Kelly told us that we don’t need worry about we have stress, because how we think about stress can influence how our body response to stress. Instead of treat stress as an enemy, we should think stress is helpful to our body and prepare our body to meet challenge. Scientists have proved this point that thinking stress are helpful to body can make people healthier. Oxytocin is a kind of hormone, which can protect our cardiovascular system from the effects of stress, and it can be
How stress can affect many people: Every day life events can send us on an emotional rollercoaster and we can positively or
Stress has been noted to have an impact on general health for quite some time. Perceived stress however is an entirely different matter and can be very detrimental to one’s overall health. With the increase of health problems and stressful circumstances as well, it is imperative that we study the effects of perceived stress on health. Past research has suggested that perceived stress is related to health (Burns V., Carroll, D., Drayson, M., Whitham, M., and Ring, C. (2003); Cohen, S., Tyrell, D., and Smith, A. (1993); Ebrecht, M., Hextall, J., et al. (2004); Koschwanez, H., Vurnek, M., et al. (2013); Vits, S., Dissemond, J., Schadendorf, D., Kriegler, L., Korber, A., Schedlowski M., Cesko, E. 2013).
What is stress? How does stress affect my everyday life, and how can I overcome these stressors in my life? Dictionary.com says that stress is “the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.” meaning that something is putting pressure on my life and one stress can lead to another strain. The main aspects that puts me under stress are college, and my job, which can be overcome by managing my time, finding what exactly it is that is putting me under stress, and by doing something I love.
A TED Speaker, the health psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, stated that instructing patients to reduce their physical or emotional stress is the wrong method towards their journey of self-care. Consequently, individuals who perceive stress in a positive view do not undergo the same side effects than the individuals who perceive it negatively. In fact, individuals, who believe stress as a way the body prepares itself for a challenge, tend to live healthier, gain a higher self-esteem and have a better cognitive mind. This video leads to questions such as how does stress affect the human biology? More importantly, how would this kind of information relate with stress disorders?
Stress is an inevitable part of our life. It serves a useful purpose in life by stimulating effort, inventiveness and
In psychological terms relaxation is the expressive state of a human being that is in low stimulation from inside and out side effects like fear, anger, and anxiety. Your body is able to cope with this kind of triggers and is capable of living a healthy lifestyle on the other hand, if unable to deal with this triggers the human body can start to get sick.
Stress has a major influence upon one’s health, thinking, behavior, and mood. Stress is commonly mistaken for generally evoking negative associations; however, it is actually part of the human experience that places pressure on people so that they may be able to perform at a higher level achievement. Nonetheless, when stress becomes too much to handle, or becomes chronic, it can affect an individual physically, mentally, behaviorally, and emotionally. Stress plays a prominent role in one’s daily lives. Thus, it is important to identify stress and learn to reduce and cope with stress in order to prevent stress-related illnesses that may occur.