I was so fortunate to go snorkelling off a boat in Egypt on holiday last year. We saw so many beautiful fish of all shapes and sizes and were hopeful to see dolphins. Why is this relevant to stress? Well minutes after entering the water and putting my head in, my mindset started to hinder me. I began to think of all movies that involve bodies of water, not to mention even though dolphins are “friendly” I thought, they are bigger than me and swim for a living, I’ve got no chance…. And from there the threat response kicked in…. What could I do?
Some people find they thrive under high pressure situations, and others crumble. Sometimes the stress helps you be productive, more efficient and heighten your senses and other times it can leave you feeling anxious, debilitated and unable to function.
Why is that and what can we do?
Your body’s physiological response to stress, whether it’s your threat response or challenge response, prepares you for action, and your heart starts pounding faster. However, one leads to a healthier, more resilient person and the other a precursor to diseases ONLY when the mindset is negative towards stress and your response.
During a challenge response your body responds like physical exercise. Your heart beats stronger and faster pumping more blood, giving you more energy. It’s been associated with superior aging, cardiovascular health, and brain health.
In contrast, threat response is anticipating harm so reduces blood flow to prevent blood loss in a fight and increases your inflammation and immune cell readiness to prepare for healing. It’s been associated with cardiovascular disease, accelerated aging and disease.
So by changing my mindset to a challenge response I could gain the positive physiological effects of exercise from not only the exercise but the challenge stress response as well! Bonus!!!
How can I change my mindset so that it doesn’t choose the threat response? Well in any situation your brain starts weighing up your resources and deciding if you have the ability to handle it. So you need to tell yourself that you can do it, let’s get competitive, the response I’m feeling is going to help me, it’s a positive response to give me more energy, improve performance, learn from this experience and is healthier for me!
Thinking positively about stress changes your mindset and engages the positive response to a challenge not a threat. This can be used for athletic competition, exercise, a public speech or an exam.
Use your stress so that you gain! For more detailed descriptions and scientific evidence read The Upside of Stress
…. What did I do in the sea? Made it a competition to reach certain points as quickly as possible with lots of positive self talk about my ability. It helped and calmed me down having a focus, plus knowing that any stress will help me perform. My son however, had a few moments of panic, jumping on my back and pushing me under the water. I got him back to the boat and most people were back on board, but I decided to face my fears and enjoy a swim across to the coral and back. And then it happened…
A dolphin and her baby swam not even 2m from me. I calmly swam alongside them until they dived down. She came back to visit me a few times before swimming off. It was amazing, peaceful, and connected. I felt so humbled by this amazing experience.
It could have been different. I could’ve panicked, or like many others windmilling to try and swim up to the dolphin (I mean …. really! You think you can out swim a dolphin!). Instead I kept my focus, used my physiological reaction to perform and had a wonderful experience!
Consider what you may gain if you shift your focus and make stress positive for you. Have the courage to try!
Action Architects 