How to Utilize Stress in a Good Way?

Re-evaluating how one perceives stress can make a big difference to a person’s mental health, general wellbeing, and success, according to University of Rochester psychologists. This finding is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. “We use a type of ‘saying is believing’ approach whereby participants learn about the adaptive benefits of stress and they are prompted to write about how it can help them achieve,” says lead author Jeremy Jamieson, a Rochester associate professor of psychology and the principal investigator at the University’s Social Stress Lab.

Conventional thinking suggests that stress is bad and should always be avoided. This may sometimes be misguided because stress is a normal and even defining feature of modern life.

Throughout the lifespan, people must acquire a wide and varied array of complicated social and intellectual skills, and then apply those skills to thrive. This process is inherently stressful, but it’s also essential to being a productive member of society.

During stressful situations, people may experience increase in sympathetic arousal, which can be sweaty palms or a faster heartbeat.

Instead of thinking of everything as “bad” stress, stress responses, including the stress arousal, can be beneficial when it comes to psychological, biological, performance, and behavioral outcomes.

Stress reappraisal is not aimed at eliminating or dampening stress. It does not encourage relaxation, but instead focuses on changing the type of stress response.

Researchers trained adolescents and young adults at a community college to treat their stress response as a tool rather than an obstacle.

The team found that resetting good stress mindset helped them score higher on tests, procrastinate less, stay enrolled in classes, and respond to academic challenges in a healthier way. It also reduced the students' anxiety.

To reframe their understanding of stress, the students completed a standardized reading and writing exercise that taught them that their stress responses had a function in performance contexts that applied directly to them, such as test taking.

Normalizing experiences of stress and pushing past obstacles can help people to understand that they can do hard things. Reducing stress by removing obstacles, such as eliminating exams, making coursework easier, etc. can even hinder their progress.



Source-Medindia